Abstract
Data center industry is growing rapidly due to the expanding internet traffic and the upcoming IoT revolution. Data centers consume vast amounts of energy globally and are also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. There is a need to improve energy efficiency and sustainability of data center operations. The energy consumed by data centers is mostly converted to heat and this study focuses on utilizing that waste heat according to the principles of circular economy in the context of Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. The overall regional business potential of data center waste heat utilization is evaluated and the best options of utilizing waste heat in case data center are sought. The study found that the most viable option would be utilizing waste heat locally to heat facilities or in industrial processes. Another potential option is to connect data center into a district heating system where waste heat can be fed.
Highlights
As the data center industry is growing rapidly due to the expanding internet traffic and the upcoming IoT (Internet of Things) revolution, data center technology must be prepared to become more dynamic and scalable
RQ3: How to best utilize waste heat produced by data centers in Northern Ostrobothnia?
The study on waste heat utilization from data centers located in Northern Ostrobothnia began by reviewing articles related to data center solutions and technologies and benchmarking potential waste heat utilization practices as well as studying different relevant factors that need to be taken into account in the data center industry, for example, the effects of location on data center energy efficiency referred in this article as location specific factors
Summary
As the data center industry is growing rapidly due to the expanding internet traffic and the upcoming IoT (Internet of Things) revolution, data center technology must be prepared to become more dynamic and scalable. These changes in the industry are forcing data center energy efficiency to become increasingly more important. The energy used to run a data center mostly converts to heat. Recently this heat is becoming utilized by mostly large commercial data center companies.
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