Open Compute Project ( OCP ) maker ITRenew will team up with Dutch hosting provider Blockheating to provide heat from data centers to thousands of hectares of greenhouses. The excess heat received from the DC will be transferred to the nearest farms where tomatoes are grown. Complete singularity, yeah.
Some major cities are slowing down or suspending the construction of new data centers due to congestion of power systems and related environmental problems. At the same time, the Internet of Things and the beginning of the 5G era are driving the demand for an even more distributed and faster IT infrastructure.
ITRenew and Blockheating have focused on meeting these needs. As part of the new initiative, they are deploying an all-in-one container data center that is not only efficient and efficient, but also beneficial for agriculture.
Blockheating converts the heat generated by data centers from waste into a valuable resource for heating greenhouses. They came up witha new way of utilizing the heat generated by the servers. The servers are cooled using a liquid cooling system, and the coolant using a heat exchanger provides heating of water in greenhouses up to 65 degrees Celsius. To enter the market with a proposal, they were looking for a partner with similar interests and development priorities.
The new container data centers will be equipped with ITRenew's Sesame servers and storage systems. It is known that ITRenew also advocates reducing the negative impact of DCs on the environment without compromising the quality and performance of the IT infrastructure.
The Netherlands has more than 3.7 thousand hectares of commercial greenhouses. One container data center will be able to heat greenhouses with an area of about 2 hectares in summer and 0.5 hectares in winter. According to experts, this will be enough for an annual increase in the yield, about a ton of tomatoes per year.
Tests of a test container data center at Blockheating were carried out in 2019.
tests took place in greenhouses installed near Venlo, near Germany. Data center capacity was then 60 kW. Now it has been increased to 200 kW. Liquid cooling eliminates the need for side-by-side air conditioning systems, thus reducing costs.
