Google plans to reuse heat after expanding data center for AI

Google’s data centers are expanding to support its AI ambitions, and a new project in Finland shows one way the company is trying to address the environmental impact of that growth.

Google will spend one billion euros (about $1.1 billion) to expand its data center in Finland to “further unlock the potential of AI,” the company said in a press release sent today by and -mail. It includes plans to reuse heat from the data center to heat nearby homes, schools and public buildings.

Data centers that already consume a lot of energy consume even more energy when used for AI. Reusing server heat is one way to mitigate the effects AI has on the power grid and the environment. After all, if Google isn’t careful, its attempt to inject AI into Search and other products could derail the company’s climate goals and put additional pressure on the energy systems where it operates.

To literally take some of the pressure off expanding its data center in Finland, Google has entered into a partnership with the municipality of Hamina and municipal energy provider Haminan Energia. By 2025, they plan to recover heat from the data center’s servers and send it to homes and public buildings in the region.

This is the first project of its kind for Google, which claims it is providing heat for free. Google has been using this heat in its own offices for nearly a decade. As the data center expands and uses more energy, Google plans to share this heat to meet 80% of the local district’s annual heating demand. And because Google purchases carbon-free energy to account for 97% of the data center’s energy consumption, the heat it supplies to Haminan Energia will also be considered a mostly clean energy source.

In fact, this is just one local step towards tackling a huge global challenge. Google has not released an updated sustainability report since July 2023, before reaching up to the neck in the Gemini era. But some of your AI competitors are already seeing your greenhouse gas emissions increase as they expand their data centers. Microsoft, for example, has seen its emissions increase by 30% since making a major climate commitment in 2020.

Google has committed to achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, which involves capturing or offsetting as much planet-warming CO2 as it releases, by 2030. That becomes much harder to do if your energy consumption is skyrocketing thanks to AI.