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Data centers can warm nearby homes and buildings by transferring heat from server-cooling systems into a district-heating network. Because that heat is often too cool to use directly, a large heat pump raises its temperature; insulated pipes then carry hot water to connected customers. It is a coordinated energy system, not a way to pipe warm air straight from a server room into houses.
How data-center heat reaches buildings
- Capture heat from cooling. A cooling fluid absorbs heat from servers. A heat exchanger transfers it to a separate recovery circuit, keeping data-center cooling operations apart from the heating network.
- Raise its temperature. A heat pump uses electricity to extract energy from the relatively cool source and deliver heat at a higher temperature. The IEA says heat pumps can use waste-heat sources below 45°C in district-heating grids; in Odense, Denmark, the documented system upgrades source heat from 27°C to 70°C (IEA, 2019; European Commission Odense case study).
- Send hot water through a network. The recovered heat is transferred to a district-heating system, which distributes heat to connected buildings through insulated pipes. Existing networks can combine heat from multiple sources, helping them adapt as supply changes (IEA, 2022).
- Balance supply and demand. Storage, backup plants or other heat sources can help match relatively steady data-center output to changing building demand. Seasonal storage can shift some summer heat toward winter, but adds infrastructure and cost (IEA DHC research outline).
Why a heat pump is usually needed
Heat from a data center’s cooling loop may be too low-temperature for the connected network or for a building’s heating system. A heat pump bridges that gap: it consumes electricity to deliver heat at a higher temperature. Its performance and operating cost depend in part on the source temperature and the temperature the network requires. The Stockholm Bahnhof Thule case, for example, reports district heating at about 68°C and a heat-pump coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.0; that is a site-specific reported result, not a universal rating for data-center heat recovery (EU Smart Cities Marketplace case study).
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What operating projects show
| Project | Reported details | How to read the figures |
|---|---|---|
| Odense, Denmark: Meta data center | The European Commission case study describes a 42 MWth electric heat pump that upgrades heat from 27°C to 70°C. It reports 160,000 MWh of district heating per year, described as equivalent to supplying 11,000 households. | These are figures for the Odense project, not a benchmark for a typical data center (European Commission case study). |
| Bahnhof Thule, Stockholm, Sweden | The case study reports three heat pumps, nearly 1.2 MW of cooling output, approximately 1.6 MW of heat output, district heating at about 68°C and a COP of 3.0. | These are reported installation details for Bahnhof Thule; they should not be applied to other facilities (EU Smart Cities Marketplace case study). |
Stockholm also illustrates the difference between a specific installation and a city-wide system. The Smart Cities Marketplace says its Open District Heating marketplace launched in 2014 and has more than 30 data centers connected to the city’s district-heating and cooling networks. Separately, an IEA commentary says more than 20 data centers provide 1.5% of Stockholm’s district-heating needs. The sources describe different measures and do not establish that the counts share the same date or accounting boundary (Smart Cities Marketplace; IEA commentary).
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Heat recovery is most promising when a data center is close to a district-heating network and enough nearby customers can use the heat. The IEA estimates that in Europe about 10% of building space-heating demand is within 5 km of a data center located within a district-heating service area. That identifies potential proximity, not a guarantee that a specific site can connect economically (IEA, Energy and AI, 2025).
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Distance is only one factor. A project assessment also needs to compare:
- the cooling-loop source temperature with the network’s required supply temperature and return temperature;
- heat-pump performance, electricity supply and operating costs;
- recoverable heat output and annual operating hours;
- the distance to customers, available pipe routes and network capacity;
- the fit between steady heat production and seasonal demand, including whether storage is worthwhile; and
- which existing heat source the recovered heat would displace.
These factors explain why heat availability alone does not establish that a project will work. The IEA DHC research outline identifies heat-pump investment costs, weak summer demand and the possibility that recovered heat will not cover winter peaks as issues for system design (IEA DHC).
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What the wider potential figures mean
Several large figures describe different things and should not be conflated:
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- The IEA’s 2026 Renewables in District Energy report says district-energy networks supply heat to around 600 million people worldwide. That is a figure for district energy overall, not for people heated by data centers (IEA, 2026).
- The IEA’s 2022 district-energy report says existing networks cover around 10% of global building heat demand, while district heating supplies 65% of Denmark’s building heat demand. These figures describe district heating’s reach, not data-center heat’s share (IEA, 2022).
- The IEA’s 2025 Energy and AI report models data-center heat recovery potential of about 300 TWh by 2030, equivalent to 10% of European space-heating needs, for data-center heat demand located within a few kilometres and given possible recovery rates and heat-pump performance. This is modeled potential, not installed capacity or a prediction of actual deliveries; even strong coupling would meet only a fraction of residential demand (IEA, 2025).
- The same IEA commentary describes a planned cluster of new data centers in Espoo, Finland, as providing enough waste heat for around 100,000 homes. This is a forward-looking estimate, not a confirmed count of homes already heated (IEA commentary).
Does recovered heat reduce emissions?
It can, but not automatically. The result depends on the electricity used by the heat pump and on which source of heat it displaces. The European Commission says off-site use contributes to decarbonisation only when the heat is genuinely waste—meaning it could not reasonably be avoided or recovered for on-site use. Its guidance also says waste heat cannot be counted toward the EU’s overall 32% renewable-energy target (European Commission heating and cooling guidance).
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The IEA’s 2025 Energy and AI report attributes a reduction of 50 g CO₂ per kWh of heat supplied for Stockholm Data Parks to the Covenant of Mayors (2023). That figure is attributed through the IEA report and is specific to the claim and project context; it is not a general emissions factor for recovered heat (IEA, 2025).
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Planning starts by mapping where heat is available, at what temperature and when, then comparing that supply with building demand and existing network routes. The IEA says this information helps identify viable district-energy projects. Its broader context is that district heating is already significant in some places—65% of Denmark’s building heat demand, for example—but covers around 10% of global building heat demand overall (IEA commentary; IEA, 2022).
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