Turning A Problem Into Possibility
In an era of climate urgency and rising energy bills, the idea that massive computing centers could double as district heating plants sounds almost poetic. Yet this is not fantasy: it is real and happening now.
The concept is elegantly simple. Data centres consume vast amounts of energy, much of it dissipated as heat. Traditionally, that heat is discarded — vented into the air, or the water in cooling towers, seen as a nuisance rather than a resource.
But what if we could redirect that heat to places that need it — like public swimming pools, community centres, or homes? In parts of the UK, and in Paris during the 2024 Olympics, that is exactly what is happening.
In the UK, the tech startup Deep Green has pioneered this approach. At Exmouth Leisure Centre in Devon, its compact, oil-immersed “micro data centre” collects heat from the servers, transfers it via a heat exchanger, and uses it to warm the pool.
In the best months, the pool’s heating energy costs drop dramatically. According to The Guardian, the Exmouth trial reduced the facility’s heating bill by over 60%.
Supported by a £200 million investment from Octopus Energy, Deep Green now aims to expand the model to 100–150 pools across the UK. The approach developed by Deep Green offers a mutually beneficial solution.
The system transfers excess heat from computer servers to nearby swimming pools, providing them with free heating while simultaneously cooling the servers efficiently. This innovative method creates a sustainable cycle where both the facility and the technology benefit from shared energy use.
Elsewhere, in Greater Manchester, at the Move Urmston leisure centre, a Deep Green installation is projected to save up to £80,000 annually in heating costs, while cutting about 50 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
Paris 2024: Data Centre Powers Olympic Aquatic Dreams
The most high-profile example may be Paris. For the 2024 Olympics, the Equinix PA10 data centre, just across from the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, exported excess heat into the venue’s heating network. The system is expected to generate around 10,000 MWh of heat annually — enough to warm over 1,000 homes — and also to support the swimming pools during the games.
According to Equinix, heat is captured from servers operating at about 28 °C, then boosted via heat pumps to around 65 °C, and delivered into the local heat network. For 15 years, this heat is provided free to the local urban development zone and Olympic venue.
In the surrounding neighborhood, more than 1,000 homes are also expected to benefit from the same piping of waste heat. Equinix has long viewed “heat export” as a core strategy: its Helsinki site began exporting heat in 2010, and its facility in Toronto supplies hot water and heat to nearby buildings.
Not Just Pools — District Heating, Homes, Communities
The pool stories are striking, but they represent a single node in a broader movement: using waste heat from data centres to fuel entire heating networks. In the UK, plans are advancing to bring data centre heat into district heating systems.
Projects in Gatwick, Birmingham, and London are exploring how to pipe heat from server farms into clusters of homes, offices, and community buildings. One scheme will use heat from a 2.5 MW data centre to deliver 16.2 GWh annually to 21 buildings.
In Markham, Ontario, Equinix’s TR5 data centre exports excess heat into the local municipal energy (MDE) system. That heat warms hot water in condos and two community centre pools. As more properties hook into the heat grid, the aim is to reject less and less residual energy.
These initiatives reveal a shift in mindset: the data centre is no longer just a consumer of power, but a producer of usable energy. The “waste” is being reimagined as a resource.
Challenges, Caveats, And Scaling Questions
This convergence of digital infrastructure and thermal reuse is compelling — but not without obstacles.
First, there’s the technical side. The heat coming off many data centres may not always be hot enough for direct use; boosting temperature often requires additional equipment such as heat pumps, which add cost and complexity.
District Energy notes that approximately 97% of data centre energy could theoretically be recovered as heat — but capturing, transporting, and integrating that heat demand careful design.
Second, geography and proximity matter. To be efficient, the buildings needing heat must be reasonably near the data centre. Long-distance heat piping loses temperature and becomes less viable. That means not every pool or community centre is suitable.
Third, policy, regulation, and incentives still lag. Many regions lack mechanisms to valorise heat, or to encourage infrastructure coupling between digital and energy sectors. Government backing is essential for scaling.
In the UK, for instance, the government has already allocated £65 million for innovative heating solutions, including heat from data centres. Meanwhile, district heating networks being funded via UK government programs increasingly consider data centre integration.
Fourth, energy source mix and emissions accounting matter. If the electricity running the data centre comes from fossil fuels, then recycling the heat doesn’t fully erase emissions — it just shifts where they are counted. Critics caution that heat reuse cannot substitute for cleaner power generation and reducing total energy consumption.
Finally, there is the question of scale and demand. In some places, there may not be enough “heat demand” nearby to absorb all the waste energy. Equinix admits that in summer, sometimes there is more heat than the community can use, forcing them to reject excess.
Human Moments Behind The Machines
Behind this energetic web are stories of humans, charting small acts of transformation. At Exmouth, the pool manager doesn’t just see a cooling system—he sees hope: a route to rescue a facility burdened by rising energy costs.
At Move Urmston, city administrators now talk about how to reinvest the energy savings into community programs. The architects of Paris 2024 quietly celebrate a legacy: a sports venue that continues to serve citizens, warmed by the very machines that amplify our digital lives.
A swimmer emerges from the water, hair plastered to her forehead. The ambient noise hums — somewhere nearby, machines continue their pulse.
She feels a subtle gratitude she can’t quite name: gratitude not just that the pool is warm, but that this place of play and rest is preserving energy, stitching together infrastructure and humanity.
Towards Regenerative Infrastructure
This is more than clever engineering. It gestures toward a future in which our technologies don’t merely extract and consume, but contribute and replenish. In every watt recovered, a small act of reconciliation occurs — between the needs of society and the demands of our digital lives.
In cities everywhere, there are pools, community centres, homes that falter under the weight of energy bills. There are data centres humming, radiating heat. The question is no longer if we can connect the two — but how fast we can begin doing so at scale. The models exist. The stakeholders exist. What remains is will, foresight, and a vision of synergy.
So next time you slip into a warm pool in winter and feel the water embrace you, you might quietly wonder: is there a server somewhere — humming silently, repurposed — making that warmth possible? And if so, that realization carries a quiet hope: that technology, at its best, can be neighbour rather than burden.
