FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Hannah Schuster, hannah@dgardiner.com
White Paper Outlines Policy Strategies to Advance Energy-Saving Heat Reuse Technology
Washington D.C. (September 18) — A new report from David Gardiner and Associates outlines nine state policy recommendations that can accelerate the adoption of data center heat reuse in the United States.
Data centers use as much as 40% of their power to cool their servers, which produces large quantities of low-temperature heat. While that heat is ordinarily wasted, it can instead be repurposed at nearby facilities in the food and beverage, pharmaceutical or commercial building sectors, among others. By establishing a closed loop piping system, the heat can then return to data centers at a lower temperature for use in server cooling. According to research, heat reuse technology can lower data centers’ power consumption by up to 30% while providing offtakers with an alternative to gas boilers for hot water production.
“As electricity demand rises, state governments should adopt policies to reduce power consumption from data centers by reusing their waste heat,” said DGA President and report author David Gardiner. “Reusing heat from data centers can cut costs for all electricity customers and reduce carbon emissions at factories and buildings. As we outline in our paper, state and local leaders can choose from a diverse policy menu to encourage widespread deployment of this energy-saving technology.”
The white paper focuses on three primary types of policy recommendations:
- Enabling policies that help demonstrate the feasibility of heat reuse projects and build new connections between data centers and potential offtakers.
- Financing incentives, including tax credits, grants, and low-interest loans.
- Standards that incorporate waste heat reuse into energy efficiency or permitting requirements for data centers.
While the paper is focused on supporting heat reuse in the United States, it draws on policy examples from Europe where a number of countries have seized on this opportunity.
“As data centers continue to proliferate and put stress on our grid, finding ways to have them make positive contributions to the surrounding community—reducing their impact and enhancing efficiency—is a priority,” said Delegate Richard “Rip” Sullivan (D-Va.). “With Virginia at the epicenter of data center growth, I am committed to advancing policies that encourage heat reuse by data centers.”
“Campuses and communities across the country are charting paths to decarbonization and district energy networks can play a vital role in reusing waste heat from data centers,” said Michael Ahern, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Ever-Green Energy and IDEA Board Executive Committee member. “By capturing and redistributing this heat through district energy systems, we can aggregate and deliver low-carbon energy to homes and businesses while cutting emissions. District energy offers a proven platform to scale waste heat reuse in ways that benefit customers, communities, and the climate.”
“All the electrical energy that data centers use gets turned into heat. More energy and water are then used to reject that heat to the outside environment,” said Otto VanGeet, Principal Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “It is highly preferable to reuse the data center heat for other purposes, offsetting other sources of heat and saving water. State and local governments should adopt policies that encourage data center heat reuse.”
