In the future, operators of data centers will be required to use the heat that arises. From the middle of next year, new data centers should make at least ten percent of the amount of electricity used in the form of the heating. Two steps, this value increases to 20 percent to the middle of -2028.
But this is an unrealistic value, says Kilian Wagner, the head of the area of stable digital infrastructures in the bitcom of the digital association: “Often, customers do not need heat in the summer, then the cost of 20 percent is sometimes no longer available within a year.” Sometimes it is easier for centers for processing data processing if no one is interested in heat on the spot, because the obligation to use it is no longer necessary – which, of course, is not in the sense of energy efficiency.
As a result, the choice of location is extremely important for energy efficiency. Werner Neumann, Energy Expert in the Bund for the Environment and Nature of Save (Bund) in Hesse in the Rhine-Maine area, there is the largest Internet centers in Europe, it needs to be approved by processing processing processing processing processing processing processing processing processing Places should be fixed accordingly in terms of state development and in regional plans. In addition, urban planning must be taken into account centers of data processing as a heat source in municipal heat planning.
The use of heat on the route remains
Such a holistic planning also supports the energy efficiency of the German company (Densf): “Often these data processing centers are not integrated into municipal heat planning,” says its managing director Christian Noll.
The cunning of the digital association can also make friends with the location planning of a higher level for data processing centers: “France showed 30 seats in the country for data processing centers, this planning will also be a good approach for Germany,” says Wagner sustainable development expert. Data processing centers, as a rule, are very interested in submitting their waste.
But since the choice of location is mainly based on other factors, the use of heat sometimes falls on the sidelines. First of all, large data processing centers need high services of an electrical connection. Currently, in Germany there are more than 100 data centers, each of which has more than five megawatts – and the requirements are growing rapidly. From the development of artificial intelligence, systems with 50 megavatts are planned, and up to 100 megawatts are announced. Inevitably a lot of waste.
Another obstacle: fossil fuel is currently even cheaper than heat from data centers, according to BitKom. Waste heat is usually only about 30 degrees Celsius – usually too low to use it directly. Therefore, an additional heat pump is required. According to Wagner, with the growth of valuable prices, the operation will probably be more and more useful.
Technically update
The requirements for efficiency for electricity consumption are easier than the requirements for the use of heat – called the “efficiency of energy consumption” in the law. Since mid -2026, new data centers should reach Pue Value (Effectiveness of Electricity) 1.2. This denotes the relationship between the general consumption of the current of the data center and electricity, which he only needs.
Existing data centers should be of 1.3 to 2030. BitKom is currently evaluating the average value in existing shares, so numerous old objects will have to be technically modernized.
In the heat sector, there can be significant progress if the servers in the future switch to water cooling instead of still predominant air cooling. This would allow the use of heat at a significantly cheaper temperature level of about 50 degrees. Until now, this has only happened rarely, because it is difficult.
Thus, the energy efficiency of data processing centers still has many opportunities for improvement, and progress is hard. Deneff Board Noll can, nevertheless, get positive things from the current situation: “The discussion about this took up speed.”