Microsoft has teamed up with Finnish energy firm Fortum to create a data centre region in Finland to deliver its heat output to homes, services and business premises in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
In what is believed to be the world's largest data centre heat recovery project of this type, Fortum will transfer clean heat from the server cooling process to homes, businesses and public buildings in the cities of Espoo and Kauniainen and the municipality of Kirkkonummi.
The data centres will use 100% emission-free electricity and provide a reduction in CO2 emissions of 400,000 tonnes per year, it says, enough to cover around 40% of the needs of roughly 250,000 district heating users.
“Developing solutions for the global climate challenge together with partners is a strategic priority for Fortum, and we are proud to embark on this exceptional journey together with Microsoft,” said Markus Rauramo, president and CEO of Fortum. “This is a significant step for a cleaner world, made possible by our joint ambition to mitigate climate change.”
Once completed, Fortum predicts that around 60% of the area’s heating will be generated by climate-friendly waste heat. Of this, 40% will come from the data centre region and the remaining 20% from other waste heat sources such as purified waste.
“We are incredibly proud of the novel way this data centre will sustainably power Finnish digital transformation, while also heating Finnish homes and businesses and helping cities achieve their emissions targets,” added Cindy Rose, president of Microsoft Western Europe. “In this unique collaboration, Microsoft and Fortum combine their world-leading expertise in cloud computing and sustainable energy solutions, transforming the design thinking of data centres of the future.”
