Data Center Energy Used To Heat Olympic Pool
According to digital infrastructure company Equinix, the heat from its Paris data center is being used to warm the Aquatic Centre, which will be used as a training pool in the 2024 Olympics. While this is not an impressive claim in and of itself, Equinix says it can use the same process to heat parts of a city. Given the resistance to high energy use by data centers, this could make that energy use more attractive.
The company said in a statement, “Heat produced by servers in a data center is normally an untapped resource. However, PA10 shows that heat can be harnessed and put to good use, from growing fruits and vegetables for the community to sustainably heating entire neighborhoods.”
Data centers, particularly those used for AI and Bitcoin mining applications, are currently considered a danger to the energy grid, energy availability, and the cost to consumers and legacy businesses. This has had bad optics for both the AI and crypto sectors.
If there is a case for reusing energy as it is transformed to replace other energy-intensive applications, companies like Equinix may find a solution to an unpleasant situation.
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