Deep Green’s first data centre in the North West of England is to have a major local benefit, with it set to pipe recaptured heat into the swimming pool at Move Urmston Leisure Centre.
The company is partnering with Keysource to help it deliver the 400 kW high-density AI data centre. It’s hoping that by colocating the data centre, it’ll help win over members of the community – while also lowering the carbon emissions of its own operations.
While it’s obviously hoping to set an example by being a more sustainable data centre, the colocation equally works for the leisure centre. That’s because the data centre gets to benefit from low carbon emissions by reducing its need to use gas to heat the swimming pool, while also reducing operating costs.
The company’s strategy is backed by a 2023 report from Danfoss, which estimated that recoverable excess heat in the EU totals around 2,860 TWh per year, roughly equivalent to the bloc’s entire demand for heat and hot water. The Urmston scheme taps that opportunity at local scale by routing recaptured heat into the leisure centre’s system to displace gas.
“Data centres are huge contributors to heat excess across the world, and this is only set to continue as AI demands greater compute power and infrastructure”, commented Richard Clifford, VP of Sales and Solutions, EMEA at Salute.
“At Keysource, we genuinely believe in a more sustainable path for data centres – and Deep Green’s mission is one we fully align with. Recycling recaptured heat energy to warm communities through district heating systems for homes, public spaces, including leisure centres, and industry paves the way for future initiatives that will help unlock value from the world’s rising energy consumption.”
Keysource says it has supported Deep Green over the past two years, from early market strategy and technical validation through to site selection, investor engagement and public awareness.
This isn’t the first time Deep Green has announced plans to colocate its data centres to share its excess heat with energy users. In fact, that’s kind of the business’ whole premise. Other projects that it has in the pipeline include DG02 in York, which is to be colocated with the LNER Community Stadium, as well as a data centre colocated with the Bradford Energy Centre, which will send some of the facility’s excess heat to local homes and businesses.
By colocating with heat partners, Deep Green’s model seeks to lower clients’ total cost of compute and cut emissions from local heat users. The Urmston installation will be optimised for performance and sustainability at 400kW, with the companies positioning it as a benchmark for decentralised, heat-reusing compute infrastructure.
Deep Green CEO, Mark Lee, added, “We’re excited to be working with Keysource as we build our first data centre in the area, supplying energy to the community leisure centre. Our 400kW energy centre will provide tens of thousands of pounds of free heat energy each year to the centre and will save hundreds of tons of carbon in its lifetime.”
