The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has spurred demand for data centers which put out massive amounts of heat, one of which is putting excess heat to use at the Paris Summer Olympics.
A data center owned by American firm Equinix is using the excess heat produced by the numerous servers in its facility to funnel heat that helps keep the swimming pool at the nearby Paris Olympics Aquatics Centre warm for competitors.
AI data centers consume significant amounts of energy to power vast arrays of servers that use data to train large language models (LLMs) that inform AI applications like ChatGPT. Cooling those servers, which can put out heat upwards of 80 degrees Fahrenheit, is done with the use of fans and liquid cooling systems.
Equinix's data center, called PA10, opened in 2023 at the company's campus in Saint-Denis, France, and is designed for high-density server setups that can train AI models and feature the use of the company's heat exporting technology.
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The company told Wired it expects that there will be 6.6 thermal megawatts of heat exported from the building when it operates at full capacity, which is equivalent to more than 1,000 homes.
To help heat the pool at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, Equinix worked with a French utility company called Engie to export the excess heat produced by the data center by piping it into Engie's energy system.
From there, the heat goes to the aquatics center where it heats the pool, as well as providing heat to about 600 homes in the neighborhood and nearby businesses.
The arrangement is also helpful to Equinix, which can use less energy in running the extensive cooling system because of the excess heat being exported. Equinix has also built a rooftop greenhouse on top of the data center where strawberries, tomatoes and other plants are grown with the help of the heat exported from the facility.
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Noah Nkonge, heat export lead for Equinix, noted in a post on the company's website that the PA10 data center in Paris "will transfer the surplus heat, free of charge for 15 years, to the Plaine Saulnier urban development zone" that encompasses the neighborhood around the facility and the Olympics pool.
Equinix has been using heat exporting technology for more than a decade and launched the world's first heat exporting project in 2010 at a facility in Helsinki, which is used to help heat nearby homes.
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It also has a heat exporting project at a facility in Toronto that supplies heat to residential buildings as well as a hotel, a hospital and a shopping center, in addition to providing hot water to multiple buildings.
Nkonge wrote that Equinix is designing all future colocation data centers to have heat exporting and recovery capabilities, and is seeking new opportunities to expand its heat exporting program to other cities and countries.
