There have already been frequent reports of projections according to which all Frankfurt households could be heated with the waste heat from the local data centers.

They are pure theory, but new regulations from Berlin could promote the use of waste heat: According to an emergency program for more climate protection in the building sector, the federal government wants to stipulate that newly built data centers must firstly have a high level of energy efficiency;

secondly, they are no longer allowed to blow at least 30 percent of their waste heat into the sky, but must use it for heating in local heating networks, for example.

In addition, a register is to be set up that lists the energy balances of the respective data centers so that companies can weigh up who they set up their servers with.

Inga Janovic

Editor in the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and responsible editor of the business magazine Metropol.

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Although it is only a fraction of the waste heat that is produced, the scientist Peter Radgen has doubts that the operators of large data centers will find buyers for the air, which is usually around 30 degrees warm: "Often there is no one in the area who needs it.

For this reason, legislation that is too rigid could even prevent data centers if they cannot dissipate the required amount of heat,” says the holder of the Chair for Energy Efficiency at the University of Stuttgart, who has been involved with data centers for years.

He is also a board member of the Frankfurt-based German Datacenter Association.

Ten years too late

According to Radgen, the advance from Berlin is to be welcomed in principle.

But the heat alone is not enough, the use of low temperatures is only worthwhile if it is, then only in appropriately insulated houses;

moreover, there is no network of pipes to transport them.

"It is reasonable to impose the obligation on the operators to check thoroughly whether there are customers," says Radgen.

He considers it questionable to impose the obligation to use them.

Especially since there are a number of other companies that blow their sometimes hotter waste heat up the chimney.

The Germans could make good use of this energy this winter.

"The sad reality is: In order to cover the current energy demand with waste heat, the federal government should have started ten years earlier - Germany simply overslept the heat transition," criticizes Bela Waldhauser, Managing Director of the data center operator Telehouse and spokesman for the Alliance for Strengthening Digital infrastructure in Germany.

Waldhauser believes in data centers as the future source of energy.

The use of waste heat will "definitely be one of the top solutions if we want to save energy costs and CO2 as well".

For this, investments in district heating networks must be made quickly.

A federal program to promote efficient heating networks will come into force in mid-September.