FEATURE FEATURE
FEATURE FEATURE
Jim Weynand , EVP , Business Development at GRC , discusses how data centres are using innovative techniques to capitalise on excess thermal energy – creating more opportunities for sustainable development .
Exploring the benefits of data centre heat reuse
Data centres are notorious for exuding mass amounts of energy and heat . Maintaining the operation of servers demands a massive amount of power , which generates a lot of heat energy . While this can inherently damage the environment if left unchecked , the excess presents a powerful opportunity in the form of data centre heat reuse .
This article is a guide to the possibilities of heat reuse , exploring how data centre operators can capitalise on excess thermal energy , leading a revolutionary charge towards renewable energy through data centre infrastructure .
Heat reuse – The basics
Let ’ s turn that waste heat into something useful . Instead of expelling heat from a data centre into the environment , which is unsustainable for most settings , heat reuse repurposes that energy . Rather , the technology uses that energy for more practical uses , ranging from reutilising the heat within the data centre to heating a local swimming pool .
No new data centres
Greater emphasis on heat reuse applications is pressing – compute demands on data centres continue to surge despite increased regulation blocking the construction of new facilities . Europe is cracking down on the data centre market with sustainability-charged restrictions .
Reducing emissions is the priority laid out by the 2020 Paris Agreement and the EU has laid out trackable targets for nations under the NDC Registry . www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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