Datacentres paving the way for Sustainable Development

Microsoft has partnered with Fortum, a Finnish energy company to heat homes, services and businesses in Finland with sustainable waste heat from a new datacentre region that Microsoft has planned to build in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland. 

What is the objective behind the project?

• It is claimed by Microsoft that execution of this idea would lead to utilisation of recycled waste heat from data centres becoming reality.
• This joint project intersects two megatrends:
  • digitalisation
  • energy transition

• A datacentre is a physical facility that organisations use to store their critical applications and data, process data and disseminate relevant data to users. 
• It’s design is based on a network of computing and storage resources that enables delivery of shared applications and data.
• Key-components: The key components of a datacentre are routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application-delivery controllers.
• Many large datacentres are located in dedicated buildings, while smaller datacentres may be situated in specially designed rooms within buildings constructed to serve multiple functions.

• The temperatures recorded in the hot aisles of a datacentre is between 80 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
• It has been estimates over 75% of a datacentre’s electricity becomes waste heat.
• Hence in winter, a datacentre can be used to provide heating of up to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, similar to a gas boiler, with better energy efficiency than a heat pump in a new house.
• Since datacentres consume large amounts of energy, it’s important to ensure the physical structures that house them are well-designed and insulated to optimise temperature controls and energy efficiency.

• On a global level, datacentres consume around 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, which is more than 1% of the world’s total electricity.
• They contribute to 3% of all global CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. 
• It is estimated that the datacentre energy usage in some countries could increase to 15% to 30% of their total domestic electricity consumption by the end of the decade.

• According to Microsoft, the recycled waste heat, along with other carbon reduction measures, can help the city of Espoo and its neighbouring communities to reach their CO2 emission reduction targets.
• It can also help decommission Fortum’s last coal-fired heat unit in the city.
• The heat recycling system can provide clean heat to homes, businesses and public buildings in Helsinki, and can reduce up to 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
• The company highlighted that once the new data centre region’s waste heat capture is in operation, a total of about 60% of the area’s heating will be generated by climate-friendly waste heat.
  • Of this, 40% would be from the datacentre region and the rest from other waste heat sources like purified waste water.

• Fortum will capture the excess heat generated by the new datacentre region and transfer the clean heat from the server to homes, services and business premises that are connected to the district heating system.
• District heating is the most popular method of heating premises in Finland.
  
  

  District Heating System: It is a system of generating heat in a centralised location by capturing heat and then distributing it to buildings for residential and commercial heating needs.

• The heat is transferred to customers as hot water which is pumped through insulated underground pipes. 
• The new generation of district heating is based on replacing fossil fuels with flexible solutions like renewable electricity, heat pumps and waste heat utilisation.
• Artificial intelligence will help optimise operations of the entire system.
  

  Artificial Intelligence: It is a wide branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence.

• District heating is popular in the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as in Russia and China, which have high heat demands during winters.
• Datacentres thrive in cold climates.
• Their location in cold climates helps to cut down on the need to cool server rooms.
• Cold weather is also an asset as technology companies who will shift to sell their heat which doesn’t have a lot of demand in hot weather.

• Facebook is putting its waste heat to use by heating nearby homes in Odense, Denmark.
• Apple is also building a datacentre in Denmark and plans to run it with renewable energy and use waste heat to warm up nearby office buildings.
• Fashion company H&M has been distributing waste heat to nearby homes in Denmark since 2013 and has plans to build a new, 1 MW datacentre that will be capable of heating up to 2,500 apartments at full load.
• An IBM datacentre in Switzerland is heating a nearby community pool.
• In Canada, communications company Quebecor donates its heat to the editorial office of a local newspaper.