Hot Chips

Data centres could soon help heat homes by feeding their waste heat into district heating networks. This project addresses a looming problem: as more homes and businesses switch from gas boilers to electric heating, the strain on the electricity grid will grow. At the same time, data centres—which run around the clock—generate vast amounts of surplus heat that is simply vented into the air. Hot Chips aims to capture that heat and pipe it into district heating networks, which supply hot water and warmth to multiple buildings from a central source. The project will use water-sourced heat pumps arranged in an ambient loop array to move heat efficiently from data centres into the network. Adding thermal storage will let the system shift when it draws electricity, giving grid operators flexibility to balance supply and demand. If successful, this approach could cut the electrical demand of district heating while helping data centres decarbonise. It tackles a piece of energy infrastructure most people never think about—the pipes and pumps that keep buildings warm—and turns a waste product into a resource.