Heat networks should be critical infrastructure to take heat from data centres
Heat networks with the potential to provide millions of homes across the UK with heating should be designated critical national infrastructure and use heat from data centres that would otherwise be lost, an expert says.
Simon Kerr, head of heat networks at EnergiRaven, says Britain could take advantage of the heat used in data centre operation to provide a means of affordable, low-carbon heating for families.
Data centres could be developed in industrial clusters close to renewable energy sources such as wind power. Rather than the heat they generate being dumped into the atmosphere, heat networks would distribute this energy to heat people’s homes. This would help to decarbonise space heating in the UK, a longstanding problem when it comes to hitting environmental targets.
“We are spending a fortune on data centres, where the byproduct is heat: let’s start harnessing some of that investment into heat networks and do some good for the people of the UK,” Kerr says.
He said a good first step in realising this scenario would be to designate heat networks as critical national infrastructure. “Heat networks should 100% be classed as critical national infrastructure.”
Data centres could be located with other high-energy usage manufacturing operations in industrial clusters. The heat generated by the data centres could then be stored and piped out to heat homes. “The system would take heat from the data centres and upgrade it to heat at a usable temperature that can then be distributed around towns and cities.”
Heat networks could help balance gri
Kerr noted that heat had the potential to help the UK National Energy System Operator balance the grid by taking electricity and using it in industrial processes to create heat and then storing the heat for times of peak demand. “You could take electricity and waste heat whenever it is available. If the heat demand isn’t there, you could store heat in large reservoirs for weeks or months.” EnergiRaven is looking at the potential of a quarry in East Lothian, Scotland, as a reservoir for heat.
East Lothian is also the proposed location for an innovative heat highway. “By 2030, East Lothian will be landing 6.2GW of wind electricity onto the shoreline. To put that into perspective, Denmark creates 7GW of electricity. So East Lothian, with a population of 100,000, will be generating the same amount of electricity as a country of five million people. There’s an abundance of electricity, so data centres are very interested in the potential of the area and in the possibility of a heat network.”
Funding heat networks is big challenge, however. “Laying the pipes is the critical bit and that is very expensive. In the early years, there is very little return, so you need patient capital.” Kerr said the National Wealth Fund in the UK could play a role in financing projects.
Ironically, part of the trouble in attracting investment was that developers of heat networks were not asking for more money. “Investors are not interested in £10-, £15- or £20-million-pound projects, they want £100 million or £500 million-pound projects before they can get pension funds and the green funding out there interested. So we need to look at the scale – a large regional or city-wide network.”
Providing affordable heat to local communities could help enhance the reputation of data centres, Kerr says. “People don’t mind having windfarms on their doorstep if there is a benefit. It is the same for data centres. But they don’t employ lots of people. If communities are getting heat and reducing their bills while taking the headache out of how to decarbonise heat, it’s win-win.”
Simon Kerr, head of heat networks at EnergiRaven, says Britain could take advantage of the heat used in data centre operation to provide a means of affordable, low-carbon heating for families.
Data centres could be developed in industrial clusters close to renewable energy sources such as wind power. Rather than the heat they generate being dumped into the atmosphere, heat networks would distribute this energy to heat people’s homes. This would help to decarbonise space heating in the UK, a longstanding problem when it comes to hitting environmental targets.
“We are spending a fortune on data centres, where the byproduct is heat: let’s start harnessing some of that investment into heat networks and do some good for the people of the UK,” Kerr says.
He said a good first step in realising this scenario would be to designate heat networks as critical national infrastructure. “Heat networks should 100% be classed as critical national infrastructure.”
Data centres could be located with other high-energy usage manufacturing operations in industrial clusters. The heat generated by the data centres could then be stored and piped out to heat homes. “The system would take heat from the data centres and upgrade it to heat at a usable temperature that can then be distributed around towns and cities.”
Heat networks could help balance gri
Kerr noted that heat had the potential to help the UK National Energy System Operator balance the grid by taking electricity and using it in industrial processes to create heat and then storing the heat for times of peak demand. “You could take electricity and waste heat whenever it is available. If the heat demand isn’t there, you could store heat in large reservoirs for weeks or months.” EnergiRaven is looking at the potential of a quarry in East Lothian, Scotland, as a reservoir for heat.
East Lothian is also the proposed location for an innovative heat highway. “By 2030, East Lothian will be landing 6.2GW of wind electricity onto the shoreline. To put that into perspective, Denmark creates 7GW of electricity. So East Lothian, with a population of 100,000, will be generating the same amount of electricity as a country of five million people. There’s an abundance of electricity, so data centres are very interested in the potential of the area and in the possibility of a heat network.”
Funding heat networks is big challenge, however. “Laying the pipes is the critical bit and that is very expensive. In the early years, there is very little return, so you need patient capital.” Kerr said the National Wealth Fund in the UK could play a role in financing projects.
Ironically, part of the trouble in attracting investment was that developers of heat networks were not asking for more money. “Investors are not interested in £10-, £15- or £20-million-pound projects, they want £100 million or £500 million-pound projects before they can get pension funds and the green funding out there interested. So we need to look at the scale – a large regional or city-wide network.”
Providing affordable heat to local communities could help enhance the reputation of data centres, Kerr says. “People don’t mind having windfarms on their doorstep if there is a benefit. It is the same for data centres. But they don’t employ lots of people. If communities are getting heat and reducing their bills while taking the headache out of how to decarbonise heat, it’s win-win.”
