A recent presentation by David Gardiner and Associates (DGA) to the North Carolina Energy Policy Task Force addressed a hot topic: the enormous amount of heat generated by large-scale computing and the resources required for cooling.
Electricity demand in North Carolina is projected to skyrocket over the next decade, with data centers accounting for an estimated 85 percent of growth. As much as 40 percent of data centers’ electricity use is devoted to cooling alone. Without new approaches, meeting this demand could require up to 36 new 500 megawatt (MW) powerplants to manage these facilities’ waste heat. DGA emphasized, however, that this thermal energy need not be wasted. Data center heat may be captured, transferred to nearby industrial and commercial users, and then returned to the center once it cools. This process could reduce data center power demand by 10 to 30 percent. 
- Supporting planning and projects that enable colocation and heat reuse
- Establishing platforms that match data centers to potential heat users
- Developing networks to provide heating and cooling from data center byproducts
- Offering financial incentives that center heat reuse
- Prioritizing permits for projects the reuse their heat
- Creating energy efficiency or other standards that require data center heat reuse
- Implementing fees tied to data center greenhouse gas emissions