STACK Infrastructure and Oslo’s district heating provider Hafslund Oslo Celsio have completed a project to provide heat and hot water for up to 5,000 Oslo homes using excess heat produced by STACK’s OSL01 data centre.

According to STACK, this is the first time heat reuse technology has been retrofitted to a data centre in Norway to supply emission-free district heating.

As part of the project, initially conceived in 2018, a dedicated heat-exchange plant was constructed on STACK’s OSL01 campus, featuring insulated pipework and cooling coils retrofitted to the data centre.

The OSL01 data centre now exports around 3.5MW of heat energy into the Oslo district heating system, reducing Celsio’s alternative energy production by 25,000,000kWh (25GWh).

District heating is an important component of city infrastructure in Norway, with Celsio’s 60-mile thermal energy distribution system shifting energy from areas with excess to areas in need.

“It is a great pleasure to see the collaboration with STACK come to fruition and I’m sure this is the first of several projects to come,” said Knut Inderhaug, Managing Director, Hafslund Oslo Celsio.

“Data centres located in urban areas are stable and good sources of excess heat for district heating, and together we can contribute to the reuse of emission-free heat. Projects like this are positive for us as energy providers, for our city and its inhabitants, and for the climate.”

“STACK has pioneered heat reuse technology at our data centres in the Nordics and we are proud to be contributing to such an important project, which also aligns with our commitment to the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact,” added Halvor Bjerke, CEO, STACK EMEA – Nordics.

“Heat reuse is now standard in our new data centre designs, and we expect to continue collaborating with city authorities as well as heat and power companies to ensure that this circular economy for energy becomes widespread so that the digital economy is a sustainable one.”