The digital world is warmer than you think.
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Every click online generates heat across thousands of internet servers. Data centers use enormous energy to cool off. Why not put some of that heat to use?
Enter Johannes Oltmanns and team at Technical University Darmstadt . They captured it with… WATER.
The water previously used to cool the servers was heated to about forty five degrees Celsius. This was then piped into nearby buildings’ heating systems, turning digital waste heat into winter warmth!
And? Up to FIFTY percent of the wasted heat was reused, cutting costs by up to sixty-four thousand euros EACH YEAR.
Even digital waste heat deserves a second life!
Reference: Oltmanns J, Sauerwein D, Dammel F, Stephan P, Kuhn C. Potential for waste heat utilization of hot-water-cooled data centers: A case study. Energy Sci Eng. 2020; 8: 1793–1810. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.633