Helsinki is turning the heat from a data centre into warmth for 28,000 apartments; up to 90% of its waste heat is recovered | World News
Helsinki is finding a practical use for the enormous amounts of heat produced by the equipment running inside data centres. Through a collaboration between Finnish energy company Helen and telecommunications company Telia, waste heat from Telia’s Pitäjänmäki data centre is being fed into the city’s district heating network. The system is expanding as the data centre grows, with plans for the recovered heat to eventually meet the heating needs of up to 28,000 apartments. At the same time, Telia has increased its waste heat recovery capacity to as much as 90%, turning a larger share of the facility’s previously unused heat into a resource for the city.
Helsinki turning data centre waste heat into warmth for 28,000 apartments
Data centres contain thousands of devices that work continuously to process and store digital information. All that equipment generates heat, which must be removed to keep the systems operating safely.At Telia’s Pitäjänmäki data centre, north of Helsinki, that excess heat is no longer treated simply as something that needs to be discarded. Instead, it is recovered and transferred into Helsinki’s district heating network, where it can help warm homes, offices and domestic water.According to Helen, the partnership with Telia has been supplying recovered data centre heat to Helsinki’s properties since early 2023. As the Pitäjänmäki facility expands, it produces more recoverable heat, allowing more energy to enter the district heating system.
Image Credit: AI Generated
The recovery capacity has risen dramatically
The latest development is the increase in the amount of waste heat that can be recovered from the facility. According to Datacenter Forum, Telia’s recovery capacity was previously about 60%, but the company planned to raise it to as much as 90% in 2025.That means a much larger share of the heat generated by the data centre’s equipment can potentially be put to use rather than being lost. The increased recovery capacity has been supported by the expansion of the data centre and the growing number of devices operating inside it.For a city looking for alternatives to combustion-based heating, that makes the Pitäjänmäki facility more than just a place where digital services operate. It also becomes a source of useful heat that is produced alongside those services.
Why does the data centre’s location matter
The location of the Pitäjänmäki data centre is an important part of the arrangement. Helen says its central position makes it well suited to delivering recovered heat into Helsinki’s district heating network.The system is being developed in phases rather than reaching its full potential immediately. Helen reports that the expanding data centre could initially provide an amount of heat equivalent to the consumption of 14,000 two-room apartments. The longer-term plan is to increase that figure to 28,000 apartments.This gradual approach reflects the connection between the digital facility and the heating network. As the data centre expands and produces more excess heat, a larger quantity can potentially be captured and distributed to homes and buildings.
Heat recovery was built into the data centre’s design
The idea of using the facility’s excess heat was not simply added after the data centre had been completed. According to engineering firm Haskoning, full heat recovery was incorporated into the project from the outset.Haskoning was involved in designing and overseeing Telia’s flagship data centre, which it describes as Finland’s largest shared data centre. The project was intended to support Telia’s ambition to create a highly sustainable and energy-efficient facility while also meeting the security requirements of a shared operation.The design included the equipment needed to move the residual heat into Helsinki’s district heating system, including heat pumps and supporting infrastructure. Haskoning said the project also had to address technical, financial and contractual questions so that the arrangement could work for the different organisations involved.
Haskoning is an international consulting engineering company. Image Credit: Haskoning
What role does Finland’s climate play
Finland’s relatively cool climate also offers an advantage when it comes to operating a data centre. Datacenter Forum reported that Telia can use cool outdoor air for much of the year to help cool the Pitäjänmäki facility.However, cooling the equipment does not remove the need to deal with the heat it produces. That is where the recovery system becomes particularly useful. Instead of allowing a large amount of that energy to disappear after it has been removed from the equipment, the system captures it for use elsewhere.The approach gives the heat a second purpose. Digital equipment continues doing its primary job, while the warmth generated during that process can contribute to Helsinki’s heating supply.
A model for reducing combustion-based heating
According to Helen, data centre waste heat is an emission-free and stable source of heat that can support its move towards non-combustion-based energy production. The company and Telia have also linked the project to their wider climate goals.The Pitäjänmäki project is also part of Helsinki’s broader experience with using excess heat. Datacenter Forum reported that Helen has been integrating waste heat from data centres into the city’s district heating system since 2010.The wider potential is substantial. Helen has separately agreed to connect waste heat from a planned OnZero data centre to Helsinki’s district heating network. According to the Datacenter Forum, that future facility could eventually generate more than 500,000 megawatt hours of heat annually, enough to meet the heating needs of around 70,000 flats, with recovery scheduled to begin in 2027.For now, the Telia project shows how a data centre can serve two different needs at once. While its computers and telecommunications equipment handle the growing demands of the digital world, the heat they produce is increasingly being redirected to the people living and working around them.
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