A British company heats swimming pools with data center surplus

Data centers represent an increasingly large portion of the world's energy consumption. This means an increased need for energy production, but also problems in achieving sustainable cooling. For example, many companies have chosen to set up data centers in Norrbotten in order to obtain cheap hydroelectric power and simple cooling.

In many parts of the world, companies are experimenting with using excess heat from servers in data centers for something rather than just throwing it away. For example, there are investments in connecting data centers to district heating facilities. Next web Reports on the British company Deep Green, which has developed a practical solution on a small scale.

Deep Green makes small data centers that are cooled by heating water in swimming pools. Fits into a frame of the same size as the washing machine. The box is filled with oil which circulates through a heat exchanger where excess heat is transferred to the pool water. According to Deep Green, this means that 96 percent of the energy available in the form of electricity is converted into useful heat, which in turn means that the usual pool heating boiler only needs to be turned on when the heat from the servers is insufficient. .

The swimming pool in Devon, where the Deep Green test was installed, saves the equivalent of around SEK 260,000 per year and reduces CO2 emissions by 25.8 tonnes. In countries such as Sweden, which are heated mainly by renewable electricity, the difference is of course smaller, but many countries, such as the UK, still rely on oil and gas for heating.

Deep Green will now roll out its mini data centers in a further 150 swimming pools across the UK, thanks to an investment from electricity company Octopus Energy.