Fortum and Ericsson have signed a collaboration agreement on utilising the waste heat of Ericsson’s data centre, located in the town of Kirkkonummi, Southern Finland, for district heating. Ericsson’s data centre currently generates 10,000 – 15,000 megawatt-hours of waste heat annually. The centre’s planned capacity growth in 2017 – 2018 will increase the amount of waste heat to be recovered with heat pumps by almost two-fold, writes the finish company Fortum in a press releasse monday.
Covers a big district
The waste heat from Ericsson’s data centre covers about 20% of the Kirkkonummi district heat network’s annual heat demand, enough to meet the annual heating needs of about 1,000 single-family homes.
«Our data centre’s IT load is constantly growing, as the equipment tested is more and more powerful, so the centre’s cooling needs are also increasing. According to the agreement, Fortum will use heat pumps to transfer our waste heat to warm homes in Kirkkonummi. This is a very smart way to recycle waste heat,» says Olli Sirkka, Country Manager and President, Ericsson Finland.
Low caarbon heating
«Using the waste heat of Ericsson’s data centre is a good example of how actively we are moving towards low-carbon district heating. Heat pumps are an energy efficient and economical solution also in a district heat system. By using heat pumps, we can put regional waste heat flows to use. Our goal is that our district heat customers in the Espoo, Kirkkonummi and Kauniainen regions heat their homes with carbon-neutral district heat by 2030 at the latest,» notes Ilkka Möttönen, Manager, DHC Business Development, Fortum.
Cool data centre
With the agreement signed with Ericsson, Fortum will invest in heat pumps to be installed at Ericsson’s premises. The pumps will cool Ericsson’s data centre, and the waste heat recovered by them will be transferred to the Espoo – Kirkkonummi district heat network. Environmental aspects were taken into consideration also when selecting the heat pumps: a new kind of refrigerant, HFO1234ze, was selected for the heat pumps. The refrigerants that are still widely used today have a 200 times bigger impact on climate warming, if released to the atmosphere, than the refrigerant selected for this project.
Finland in front
Fortum is already utilising waste heat at several sites in the capital area of Finland in Espoo, Kauniainen and Kirkkonummi. Waste heat from wastewater is being used at the Suomenoja heat pump plant. The amount of heat recovered from the wastewater covers about 15% of Espoo’s district heat demand. The waste heat from Tieto’s and Elisa’s data centres equals the annual heating needs of about 1,000 single-family homes. The waste heat from the Matinkylä metro centre and the Espoo hospital, both of which are nearing completion, will cover the heating needs of some 250 single-family homes. The Sonera data centre under construction will be the biggest in Finland, and its waste heat alone is calculated to cover close to 10% of the district heat demand in the Espoo area. Espoo is the second largest city in Finland with some 270 000 residents, saysMilla Nummenpää, Communications Director, Ericsson. Fortum is a leading clean energy company which provides its customers with electricity, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. We want to engage our customers and society to join the change for a cleaner world. We employ some 8,000 professionals in the Nordic and the Baltic countries, Russia, Poland and India, and already 64% of our electricity generation is CO2 free. In 2015, our sales were EUR 3.5 billion. (NASDAQ HELSINKI: FUM1V). www.fortum.com
