Your heating may soon come from a data center

Data centers consume a significant and growing share of global electricity—currently about 1–1.5 percent and projected to reach 3 percent by 2030—with nearly all this energy eventually dissipated as heat. Traditionally, this waste heat has been released into the environment, but a new trend is emerging where operators capture and repurpose it for local heating needs, such as district heating, industrial processes, or greenhouse agriculture. This approach reduces cooling costs, lowers carbon emissions, and can generate additional revenue by selling heat to local utilities. European governments and cities like Stockholm, Helsinki, and regions in Finland are actively encouraging and mandating waste heat reuse, integrating data centers into urban energy ecosystems. The business case for heat valorization is strong. Capturing waste heat can reduce a data center’s electricity demand by 10–30 percent by lowering cooling requirements, while also displacing fossil fuel use in local heating systems, especially in cold climates. For instance, Microsoft’s data centers in Finland are expected to