UK throws millions at scheme to heat homes with waste energy from datacenters
- Reference: 1699265715
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/11/06/uk_waste_datacenter_heat/
- Source link:
According to the newly formed [1]Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the scheme will be located in the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham and Brent and Ealing to the west of central London, and will connect 10,000 new homes to nearby datacenters to use waste energy for heating.
The project is being developed by the [2]Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), and will also connect 250,000 m 2 of commercial space to the same heat network.
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However, this being the UK government, many details of the plans are sketchy, and it is not clear if it will involve heat being supplied by existing datacenters or new builds that may form part of the development, for example.
[4]
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Described as a "low carbon housing estate of the future," the idea is that waste energy from these datacenters will be used to provide heating and hot water for the new homes, DESNZ said.
The £36 million being coughed up for this scheme is part of a larger £65 million ($79.4 million) fund that will support another four green energy projects. £21 million ($25.6 million) of this is going to Lancaster University to "fully decarbonise" its campus with air source heat pumps and thermal storage, while the remainder will be spent on housing estates in London, Suffolk, and Watford to install heat pumps.
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In a statement announcing the new projects, Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho said: "We are investing in the technologies of the future so that families across the country will now be able to warm their homes with low-carbon, recycled heat – while creating thousands of new skilled jobs."
In respone to questions from The Reg , a spokesperson at DESNZ told us:
"The datacentres are within the OPDC area. OPDC are in advanced commercial and technical discussions with two data centres. We are working towards signing heads of terms with both parties and until then, we cannot specify who they are. Combined they will supply 98.7 GWh of heat.
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"Following the successful application to the Green Heat Network Fund, OPDC are in the commercialisation phase of the project. £1m of the £36m grant was for this phase. We are currently preparing to launch a procurement for a Partner to develop the project through design and construction. We're expecting the project could start heating homes as early as 2027, subject to relevant approvals during the commercialisation phase."
Other schemes to recycle the waste heat from datacenters for domestic purposes were announced over the past few years, yet UK government is claiming this as the first of its kind for Britain.
[8]Microsoft datacenter to heat homes in Finland
[9]Plans for Dutch datacenter to warm thousands of homes
[10]QTS refits Dutch datacenter to warm thousands of homes with waste heat
[11]Datacenter industry sees demand growing, but so are energy costs
Microsoft set up a [12]agreement with Finland's largest energy company last year to build a new datacenter near capital Helsinki that could provide heat to local homes and businesses.
Dutch datacenter firm Bytesnet [13]proposed a project last year to recycle heat from its facility in the Groningen district of the Netherlands to heat thousands of homes, while another company, QTS, [14]offered a similar scheme in the same area.
However, a [15]report published earlier this year found that many in the datacenter industry are skeptical about the economic viability of such schemes. One reason for this is because waste heat from datacenter infrastructure is often not at a high enough temperature for applications like municipal heating, so a heat pump is required to increase the heat, which itself consumes energy.
A report from Uptime Institute [16]also stated that the option to reuse datacenter waste heat is "typically limited to colder climates," meaning parts of Europe that are further north than most of the UK. ®
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[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-energy-security-and-net-zero
[2] https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/city-halls-partners/old-oak-and-park-royal-development-corporation-opdc#media-and-communications-10541-title
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZUjHUL29HKryY7sPQnNmKAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZUjHUL29HKryY7sPQnNmKAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZUjHUL29HKryY7sPQnNmKAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZUjHUL29HKryY7sPQnNmKAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZUjHUL29HKryY7sPQnNmKAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/17/microsoft_datacenter_finland/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/22/boston_bytesnet_datacenter_heat/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/21/datacenter_district_heating/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/11/datacenter_demand_growing/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/17/microsoft_datacenter_finland/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/22/boston_bytesnet_datacenter_heat/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/21/datacenter_district_heating/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/11/datacenter_demand_growing/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/20/europe_waste_datacenter_heating/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Assumptions
This has been a serious problem in Eastern Europe where district heating was provided by coal-fired power stations or by steelworks uneconomic in a global context. On the whole if people stop wanting to host computers in London we have some more serious problems, and replacing servers with electric resistance heaters is an ugly but effective solution. A one-kilowatt resistor costs about £50 compared to a £50,000 Sapphire-Rapids-plus-H100 server.
Re: Assumptions
If you're buying 1kW resistors to power municipal heating, you might as well put convection heaters directly into people's homes. You can get a 2kW convection heater for less than £30.... and it will be more efficient and cheaper than heating water at a cental location and pumping it round to people's homes.
Re: Assumptions
> what happens if data centres close down or reduce their waste heat due to energy efficiency drives?
Is that when the Pope announces that Hell has frozen over?
Datacentres run flat out 24/7 because otherwise they are not making maximum profit and suffer from asset depreciation.
The boom in AI of course means there will always be more numbers to crunch, and even at modern prices, energy is cheap compared to the thousands of humans who will be put out of work (sorry I mean "who will not have to work..")
No, compared to the other wacko greenwash ideas, this one actually does make some sense, depending perhaps on how close the houses are to the datacentre, can they feasibly transport that much lukewarm water to make a difference, and do the datacentre chips actually run hot enough to produce a useful delta T for the houses.
But even if it is marginal and not a complete solution to house heating or datacentre cooling, it should mean the datacentre doesn't need to run its chillers so much, and the houses don't need to run their boilers so much.
Re: Assumptions
The hot water provided by my local heating distribution (Potsdam DE area) comes into the house with the pipes too hot to touch - 70 or 80C at a guess - and leaves most of the time not much cooler. I'm not sure how well the heat exchanger would work with lower temperatures - at present it can deliver hot water too hot to use unmixed with cold.
Intel
Such a good news for Intel and their heating / CPU contraptions.
Now the datacentres won't be able to switch to more efficient technologies that won't act as heating systems.
Re: Intel
If the technology is more efficient, you can stick more of it in a box to use the same amount of power at the same temperature. There was a brief period where people used individual low-power servers, before realising that collecting jobs using virtual machines onto big machines hosting 256 vCPU in 2U and 1kW was a much more efficient use of the very-expensive space.
are they heating the homes...
Are the data centres heating the homes or are the residents living in monetised heatsinks?
Assumptions
Whilst this is a good idea in principle, has any consideration been given to what happens if data centres close down or reduce their waste heat due to energy efficiency drives?