According to current forecasts, data center energy consumption will double from 2015 to 2020 and data centers will consume seven percents (7%) of the total electric energy in the world in 2020.
Granlund is planning a number of megawatt-scale heat recovery projects in data centers and a substantial amount of research and optimization work on new heat recovery applications have been made within the company. A master’s thesis for Granlund written on the subject will be published by the end of the year.
Data centers offer a year-round and steady heat source as all electrical energy consumed by the servers is converted into heat. The possibilities for data center waste heat utilization are great thus always when new projects are planned, the options for heat recovery and utilization should be examined. Data center waste heat can be used to heat its own property or it can be utilized to heat entire neighborhoods through the district heating network.
Calculations and analyzes indicate that the data center heat recovery projects are by definition always profitable and payback times in the best applications is just a few years. Investments in data center heat recovery systems can result in up to millions of savings in life cycle costs for both the data center operator and the energy company.
Data center heat recovery is a very green and energy efficient operation which will contribute to Finland’s goal of reducing the use of fossil fuels in energy production. A global standard in which waste heat recovery is defined as a key performance indicator (KPI) for data centers is in preparation.
Granlund’s comprehensive services and strong engineering and design expertise will highly support the customer needs in data center projects and in investigations related to starting new projects.
For more information contact:
Design director Jari Innanen, Granlund Oy
jari.innanen@granlund.fi
050 563 8233
Web site: http://www.granlund.fi/en/services/granlund-plus/data-center/
