A UK-based tech firm called Deep Green has come up with an innovative idea to provide free heating for public swimming pools. The firm captures excess heat from data centres and repurposes it for community use. Deep Green has developed a method of sharing the heat with swimming pools that also cools down its computers. This means swimming pools receive free heating while Deep Green gets free cooling. Mark Bjornsgaard, founder and CEO of Deep Green, says that around 45% of a traditional data centre’s energy demand is used for cooling.
Deep Green has piloted the concept at Exmouth Leisure Centre in Devon, which uses a washing machine-sized data centre that heats a reservoir of oil before it’s pumped into a heat exchanger to warm the pool. The UK government is now supporting the project and has provided £65m of funding for innovative heating solutions, including a project in London that recycles heat from data centres to warm up to 10,000 homes and a hospital.
Deep Green is scaling up the idea thanks to a £200m investment into the project from green energy provider, Octopus Energy. The funding will see around 150 pools heated in this way, though Deep Green has not yet disclosed their locations. The company has a different approach from many other data centres that share excess heat with communities. Deep Green splits the data centre into smaller units, which are scattered throughout the community to share their heat for free.
Exmouth Leisure Centre has been able to heat its pool for free 60% of the time thanks to the data centre. Other pools across the UK have been forced to close due to high energy bills. Deep Green’s idea could help cash-strapped councils save money and keep their public swimming pools open. Lord Callanan, UK Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, sees the project as “a glimpse into the future”
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