NEWS
STACK Infrastructure connects data centre to Hafslund Oslo Celsio system for city-wide heat reuse
NEWS
TACK Infrastructure ( STACK ), the digital infrastructure partner to some of the world ’ s most innovative
S companies and a leading global developer and operator of data centres , and Hafslund Oslo Celsio ( Celsio ), the district heating provider for Norway ’ s capital city , have successfully completed a one-year ramp-up and excess heat produced by STACK ’ s OSL01 data centre is now providing heat and hot water for up to 5,000 Oslo homes .
The idea to feed heat from STACK ’ s OSL01 data centre near the heart of Oslo into the city ’ s district heating system was first conceived in 2018 . Over the following years , the concept was tested and proven and a dedicated heat-exchange plant was built on STACK ’ s campus , where new insulated pipework and cooling coils were retrofitted to the data centre .
The partnership creates a circular economy for energy and STACK ’ s OSL01 data centre now exports around 3.5MW of heat energy into the Oslo district heating system , reducing Celsio ’ s alternative energy production by 25,000,000kWh ( 25GWh ). The use of excess heat in district heating frees green electricity for alternative uses , including for example electrification of the transport sector .
District heating is an important component of city infrastructure in Norway . The 60-mile thermal energy distribution system , operated by Celsio , efficiently shifts energy from areas with excess to areas in need .
The cooperation represents an invaluable new model as these systems are faced with growing demand but restricted energy resources . Retrofitting or designing facilities to reutilise excess heat enables data centres to optimise consumption and support local communities .
“ It is a great pleasure to see the collaboration with STACK come to fruition and I ’ m sure this is the first of several projects to come ,” said Knut Inderhaug , Managing Director , Hafslund Oslo Celsio .
Virginia still has more hyperscale data centre capacity than either Europe or China
s the number of large data centres operated by hyperscale providers increased to over 800
A at the end of the second quarter , data from Synergy Research Group shows that the US accounts for 53 % of the capacity of those data centres , measured by critical IT load .
Meanwhile , in Europe the leading country markets for hyperscale infrastructure are Ireland and the Netherlands , two countries that have relatively small economies but have been heavily favoured for locating hyperscale data centres .
While the US accounts for over half of the total capacity , the rest is relatively evenly split between China , Europe and the rest of the world . Notably , well over a third of the US capacity resides in just one state – Virginia .
Virginia and more specifically Northern Virginia , is known as the Internet capital of the world . There is a huge concentration of infrastructure around the so-called Data Centre Alley , centred around Loudoun , Prince William and Fairfax counties , with data centres clustered primarily around the towns of Ashburn , Sterling , Manassas and Chantilly .
Amazon in particular locates a large amount of its data centre infrastructure in Northern Virginia , with Microsoft , Facebook , Google , ByteDance and others also having a major presence . The Chinese market remains relatively isolated but houses the great majority of the data centre infrastructure of Chinese companies like Alibaba , Tencent and Baidu . �
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