Norway will oblige data centers to use the generated heat in public needs

The Norwegian authorities intend to appeal to large consumers of electrical energy, which include data centers, with a proposal to study the possibility of recycling the heat generated by the equipment.

Norwegian Energy Minister Tina Bru came up with the initiative. The idea is to direct the thermal energy of enterprises to public needs, if possible. This can be, say, heating water in fish farms or swimming pools.

The requirement to explore the appropriate opportunity will affect all companies and organizations that modernize or build from scratch a particular infrastructure with high electricity consumption. In accordance with the EU directive, industrial enterprises with a capacity of more than 20 MW, using various types of fuel to generate electricity, should discuss with the regional authorities the possibility of supplying heat for other needs.

Ms. Bru suggests expanding this practice and bringing in data processing centers with a power consumption of more than 2 MW. It is assumed that heat for industrial needs will be supplied by data centers located outside the cities.

There are already similar private initiatives in Europe. Thus, data centers of Yandex and LUMI in Finland, Asetek and Facebook in Denmark, atNorth in Sweden, as well as Nikef and Caransa Group in the Netherlands are already giving or planning to give away unnecessary heat for heating the houses of local residents and other needs.