Allan Kaye, co-founder and managing director at Vesper Technologies (Vespertec), believes advanced cooling and heat reuse could be at the heart of this transformation.
“We’re already seeing growing interest from clients in advanced cooling technologies such as immersion and direct-to-chip liquid cooling,” said Kaye.
“They not only allow for very high-power densities in AI and high-performance computing applications but also lend themselves naturally to heat reuse purposes. With heat already captured in liquid coolant, it can be straightforward to connect to external heating networks.”
His comments come as the EU’s energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, confirmed plans for a data centre energy efficiency package during a conference in Brussels on Thursday. While details remain scarce, the move signals a growing urgency to curb the environmental impact of Europe’s digital infrastructure.
Data centres currently account for around 3% of the EU’s electricity use—a figure expected to rise sharply due to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. As governments look for solutions, industry-led innovation may offer a vital head start.
“If government initiatives in this area can strike the right balance, reusing data centre heat could be a real sustainability success story,” Kaye added.
“Regardless of whether heat reuse mandates are enforced through legislation in the short term, we see the industry already rapidly moving in this direction as operators realise the sustainability benefits and potential for new revenue streams.”
Companies like Midas Immersion Cooling and Deep Green—both mentioned by Kaye—are helping lead the way, offering systems that not only cool the powerful hardware used in AI workloads, but also repurpose the captured heat for homes, offices or industrial use.
RELATED STORIES
Inside Brussels’ blueprint to triple AI infrastructure across the EU
EUDCA launches its inaugural State of European Data Centres Report
