Economic growth and sustainability go hand in hand

Can economic growth and sustainability go hand in hand? The answer is yes, but it requires a new look at today's energy grid.

As a partner of the Belgian Digital Infrastructure Association(BDIA), Ingenium has been working for years to develop energy-efficient solutions for both existing buildings and new construction projects.

We played a key role in the development of the data center at the Green Energy Park in Zellik. Here it is planned to feed server heat back into a heat grid in the future, rainwater is already being used for cooling and the facility is designed as a circular building.

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Residual heat from data centers fed back into heating network

By feeding waste heat from data centers back into the heat grid, other businesses in the area can use this energy, reducing the need for additional energy production.

"The key to transporting waste heat is keeping it at temperature."

If a data center is located far from other businesses, it is not cost-effective to return waste heat to the grid. For existing buildings, think of temperatures around 70 degrees, while for new buildings it ranges from 10-30 degrees.

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Spatial planning of data centers

Significant benefits can be gained, especially in Flanders and Brussels, since most data centers are concentrated in these regions. However, a new perspective is needed. When a data center returns waste heat to the grid, the facility can essentially be seen as a heat producer. There is currently a debate about the division of roles regarding who acts as producer, supplier and operator of the grid. Therefore, customized solutions are needed, with municipalities playing a coordinating role in the spatial planning of data centers.

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A good example is the 'Warmte werkt' inspiration map for Flanders, to which Ingenium contributed. This map details which neighborhoods in a municipality or city are suitable for collective heat solutions based on their heat demand and where sustainable individual solutions are needed.

By using this inspiration map, spatial planning for new data centers can be optimized. By connecting data centers to a smart public power grid, peaks and troughs in the power grid can be balanced more efficiently.

"Data centers have the potential to be sustainable heat producers for businesses and residents, but the challenge lies in matching supply and demand."

The first step is to conduct a feasibility study to quantify the potential as early and as concretely as possible.

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Ask our advice

Ingenium is conducting the mandatory feasibility studies for extracting green heat from data centers and feeding it into a heat grid for both renovated and new data centers.

We also assist in obtaining subsidies for these initiatives. Ingenium is recognized by VLAIO to perform greening scans where we look at the feasibility for disconnecting a data center's green waste heat.

Also read this interesting article about it.

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Want to know more? Then contact Wim Boone (tel. 050/40 45 30) for more information.

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