The analysis suggests that existing or proposed data centres could supply enough heat for at least 3.5 million homes by 2035, rising to 6.3 million depending on the efficiency and design of the computer servers.
This would require investment in ‘heat highways’ which capture waste heat from commercial and industrial customers and transport it directly to large population centres, just like the grid distributes natural gas today.
With many data centres situated close to planned new towns or existing heat poverty hotspots, the researchers from energy consultancy firm EnergiRaven warn that the UK could end up building a vast new AI infrastructure while leaving the free heat it produces to go to waste.
Around Manchester, for example, 15,000 homes are planned in the Victoria North development, and a further 14,000–20,000 in Adlington. There are over a dozen existing data centres in the area and four more in the pipeline, which could easily supply heat to all of the new homes.
“It’s madness to invest in the additional power these facilities will need, and waste so much of it as unused heat, driving up costs for taxpayers and bill payers,” said Simon Kerr, head of heat networks at EnergiRaven.
“Microsoft has said it wants its data centres to be ‘good neighbours’. Giving heat back to their communities should be an obvious first step.”
Using waste heat to warm homes and other buildings is already widespread in northern Europe, particularly in Nordic countries, where sources of waste heat – including data centres, power plants, incinerators, and sewage plants – are required to connect to heat networks.
In the UK, many cities have already been designated as heat network zones, where heat networks have been identified as the cheapest low-carbon heating solution, with the aim of accelerating their development.
Ofgem will this month take over regulation of heat networks, and new technical standards will be introduced through the Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme. However, Kerr said that these steps do not go far enough to unlock the potential of waste heat.
“Current policy in the UK is nudging us towards a patchwork of small networks that might connect heat from a single source to a single housing development,” he continued. “If we continue down this road, we will end up with cherry-picking and small, private monopolies – rather than national infrastructure that can take advantage of the full scale of waste heat sources around the country.
“We know that investment in heat networks and thermal infrastructure consistently drives bills down over time and delivers reliable carbon savings, but these projects require long-term finance.”
The research was carried out in partnership Danish energy and sustainability consultancy Viegand Maagøe, whose director Peter Maagøe Petersen described waste heat as a "national opportunity".
“In addition to heating homes, heat highways can reduce strain on the electricity grid and act as a large thermal battery, allowing renewables to keep operating even when usage is low, and reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels,” he said. “The UK has all the pieces it needs to start taking advantage of waste heat – it just needs to join them together.”
Image credit: Shutterstock
Chris Seekings is the Deputy Editor of ISEP’s Transform magazine, which is published biomonthly for ISEP members. Chris’s role involves writing sustainability-related news, features and interviews, as well as helping to plan and manage the magazine’s other day-to-day activities.
