Fortum and Microsoft's data centre project spearheads energy efficiency

Data centers provide electricity-based district heating

Since 2014 and accelerated by the Espoo Clean Heat programme, Fortum’s district heat in Finland has been increasingly based on wind and nuclear power, and since 2024, it has been produced from coal-free energy sources. In the future, a significant part of the demand will be covered by recycling waste heat from Microsoft's large-scale data centers to the district heating network.

In most data centers globally, waste heat generated by cooling of the servers is released to air or the surrounding water system. In terms of energy efficiency, it makes most sense to capture the waste heat and use it, for example, to heat household water and buildings connected to district heating. This requires a proximity of the data centre to a district heating network, a large enough plot, access to a secure supply of renewable or fossil-free electricity and a strong data network. 

The locations of Microsoft's data centers were chosen with this in mind. Microsoft's two new data centers in the cities of Espoo and Kirkkonummi will eventually provide approximately 40 percent of all the district heat needed in the area. Annually, about 75 percent of the data centers' waste heat will be used for district heating; the need for heating is very low in the summer months. Recycling waste heat will also provide a steady base load of heat and help to keep the district heating prices competitive. Fortum's data centre project has been awarded European Union NextGenerationEU funding and investment support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The project is one of a kind: there is no data centre heat recovery concept of a similar scale anywhere else in the world.

Major share of heat to be based on waste heat  

Fortum already produces district heating by utilizing the waste heat from the local waste water treatment process and from several smaller data centers. Waste heat and heat pumps currently provide almost a quarter of all the heat used in the network area. Together with waste heat recycling from Microsoft's future data centers, this share will eventually increase to about 65 percent.

Leading data centre operators aim to reduce their own carbon footprint by using energy sources that are based on, for example, renewable or nuclear power. In general, if waste heat from such data centers is available for use in district heating network, a major share heat produced by burning fossil fuels can be replaced with heat that is based on electricity. 

Supporting regional wellbeing

Microsoft's data centre region enhances further digitization of businesses and the whole society. In addition, data centre investments create local jobs and new training opportunities. A large data centre typically employs 100-300 people directly with various educational backgrounds. Indirectly, the number of new jobs is manifold – and even higher during the construction phase.

Biodiversity is extremely important for Fortum, Microsoft and the cities of Espoo and Kirkkonummi. Active stakeholder dialogue was conducted in the development phase to adjust new development with biodiversity needs as much as possible. Recreational areas have also been maintained or even improved around the data centre region.

Fortum's data centre project has been awarded European Union NextGenerationEU funding and investment support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.