Data centres where waste heat is recovered represent the future

The data centre market is growing rapidly. These are large facilities housing servers and other IT equipment that must be cooled to operate efficiently. Data centres are a crucial part of the digital infrastructure, enabling services such as cloud computing, e-commerce, social media, and streaming. They consume large amounts of electricity and generate significant waste heat, which can be used for other purposes, such as heating residential buildings or industrial facilities.

Termoekonomi holds a leading position in this field and offers three types of solutions, depending on the specific conditions of each data centre:

Cooling only

This is the simplest solution, suitable for data centres where there is no possibility to connect to a district heating network or other heat sink. We use free cooling from air or water sources to reduce the temperature of the servers as much as possible. Chillers can also be installed as backup or peak capacity to ensure stable temperatures in the data centre.

Heat pump only

This solution suits existing data centres or those built using conventional methods without heat recovery. We supplement the data centre with a heat pump that converts the waste heat into high-temperature heat, which can then be delivered to a district heating network or other heat sink. One example of this is Ericsson’s data centre in Rosersberg, where we built a separate heat pump station adjacent to the facility.

Combined cooling and heat recovery

This is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution, best suited for new data centres. We integrate the cooling system directly with heat pump operation, allowing waste heat to be recovered without passing through multiple stages. This enables joint design of the entire system for optimal performance and full adaptation to the customer's needs. Free cooling is also incorporated as part of the system to reduce electricity use.

Together with the client, we contribute to a more sustainable and circular economy by recovering waste heat from data centres. We help our clients reduce operating costs, increase energy efficiency, and lower their carbon footprint.