Finland plans to go beyond solar and wind power and is considering what it means to build a sustainable energy system. Although the country has always stayed true to the renewable energy agenda, Finland is now seeing that the internet can generate enough heat to warm cities of 100,000 people. In the process, the country is turning waste into a core essential.

Using the internet to provide heat

Since winter can last for more than half a year in the town of Mäntsälä, temperatures tend to be freezing. However, the community is not suffering because of the cold. More than two-thirds of the residents feel warmer due to the heat from a 75-megawatt data centre that releases heat as data gets processed. Finland has created a district heating system that is able to absorb all of the excess warmth. Heat pumps are then used to push electricity through pipes into the home.

While residents in Finland remain fully unaware of this process, the entire system proves that the internet can be beneficial to residents. Although the internet is often criticized for being energy-hungry, it is providing energy in this country. Finland surely is stepping up and taking green energy generation a step further than even Sweden and Denmark, which also generate heat from data centres.

Where does Microsoft’s data centre fit into the picture?

Finland’s Microsoft data centre cluster serves  Espoo, Kauniainen, and Kirkkonummi. The company, in partnership with Fortum, is leading the world’s largest heat-recycling data centre. Once in operation, this large data centre will provide heat to 40% of the region. With this Microsoft data centre, carbon emissions will be reduced by 400,000 tonnes. The city will benefit from the rather stable heating prices since up to 100,000 homes have been heated with waste heat from Microsoft’s facility.

Google is also following suit. The Hamina data centre has been operational since 2009 and provides waste heat to the local district system this year, due to the partnership with Haminan Energia. As such, Finland is dependent on digital economies to heat homes.

Finland is expanding the scale of how homes are heated

The numbers reflect the physical and virtual worlds since the data centre’s energy use is continuous and predictable. Since the servers run 24/7, the heat output is always rather steady. If Microsoft itself can provide enough heat to warm 100,000 households, these thermal byproducts of the internet are not marginal. So far in Mäntsälä, a 75 megawatt data centre can heat most of the town. Microsoft’s Espoo cluster has the power to take care of the majority of the region. Finland has also uncovered the largest treasure in history, and it is not stopping when it comes to going beyond the limitations set by other countries.

Despite limitations, lessons can be learnt from Finland’s digital realm

The ability to rely on heating systems is inexpensive and has caused many Finnish policymakers to question whether data centers will cause the electricity demand to rise in the long run. As is, the electricity demand is set to double by 2030, and this causes us to question whether heat reuse could merely soften the environmental burden and not eliminate it.

While that may be a matter for another day, Finland shows the possibility of integrating energy systems digitally. In the town of Mäntsälä, the waste-heat integration has stabilized energy costs. It is yet to be seen if more countries realize that the digital realm is no longer set on consuming energy. With Finland moving forward with the green energy era, the country has decided that the hydrogen era could end since a superior energy source has been uncovered, hidden under the snow.