Waste Heat From Data Center to Heat 1,300 Frankfurt Apartments

Data center power and heat waste problem

Germany's data center business is booming – and especially so in Frankfurt, which is home to more than sixty managed services centers with many more planned or under construction. However, these systems have some big disadvantages - these being extremely high power consumption and waste heat generation which is normally released unused into the atmosphere.

Pilot project seeks to use waste heat

A pilot project in Frankfurt is set to turn these disadvantages into an efficient solution by supplying generated waste heat to 1,300 apartments in a new residential development. By 2023, around 60 percent of the heat demand of the Westville complex is set to be met with waste heat from the neighbouring data center. The project is the first of its size in Germany.

Hot water and heating from data centers

A similar project uses waste heat from a data center to provide hot water and heating in the Eurotheum high-rise building, also located in Frankfurt. Local energy supplier Mainova has announced plans to connect other data centers to the district heating network in the coming years.