Data centre waste energy can be gamechanger for Irish homes, says lobby group

District heating plan envisages data centres heating homes and buildings via underground pipes

The EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive  will see data centres with total rated energy inputs exceeding 1 megawatt  - which includes the bulk of data centres in Ireland - asked to put their waste heat to positive use.

New EU laws requiring data centres to re-use waste heat can be a "gamechanger" for Ireland, with a positive knock-on effect for homes and businesses, according to a lobby group promoting the rollout of district heating systems in Ireland.

The Irish District Energy Association is a lobby group with membership from public, private, and academic sectors. promoting the rollout of district heating and cooling from renewable energy sources. The group will hold its annual conference in Dublin on Wednesday. 

The EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive is currently being transposed into Irish law and will see data centres with total rated energy inputs exceeding 1 megawatt  - which includes the bulk of data centres in Ireland - asked to put their waste heat to positive use. According to the Irish District Energy Association, an obvious use is to provide the waste heat to district heating systems, which will in turn provide heat to homes or buildings via a network of underground pipes.  District heating systems are established in Europe providing heat to almost 80 million people.

On Wednesday, association chief executive Pauline O’Reilly will tell Wednesday’s conference in Dublin that harnessing the heat produced by data centres would be a significant improvement in terms of their environmental performance.

“With data centres already consuming almost a quarter of electricity generated in Ireland, the Irish public are understandably concerned about the impact they are having. This new law will help ensure that the public is getting something back in return,” Ms O'Reilly said.

“Given that the large amount of heat data centres generate is currently being wasted, we believe it makes absolute sense that data centres should be connected to district heating systems so that this waste heat can be harnessed for the benefit of the communities they are located in.” 

Government urged to standardise design

Amazon used a bespoke design for its data centre which is providing heat to local university campus and council buildings. The conference on Wednesday will hear calls for the Government to design a standardised system to ensure that harnessing waste heat is a streamlined and cost-effective process.

“The challenge now will be to design a standardised system so that the next projects don’t have to be negotiated from scratch. We need to make this as seamless as possible so that everyone benefits,” she said.

The new EU directive will require waste heat to be harnessed by all data centres - encompassing both new data centres and existing ones that are being refurbished - unless they can prove that waste heat recovery is technically or economically infeasible.

The conference will hear how the biggest obstacle to harnessing heat from existing data centres is likely to be their proximity to buildings requiring heating, given that heat isn't able to travel large distances economically.

The Irish District Energy Association conference this week will also discuss the Heat (Networks and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which is going through the houses of the Oireachtas this autumn and which would introduce a licensing process for district heating projects and extend regulatory oversight powers to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities. If it successfully passes through the Oireachtas it would provide increased certainty to the district heating market and allow more district heating projects to begin construction. 

In May, climate, energy, and environment minister Darragh O'Brien approved the allocation of €5m to support pre-construction costs for district heating projects in Ireland. The funding will come from the Climate Action Fund (CAF).