Finnish energy company Helen has begun redirecting heat generated by servers running AI models into the municipal district heating network, Bloomberg reports.

Implementation

Helen directs hot water and warm air from its server facilities into the city heating network using heat exchangers and control systems.

Benefits

• The scheme reduces residential heating bills by supplying low-cost heat recovered from computing equipment, easing household energy expenditures across the city.
• It lowers peak demand for conventional power plants by replacing part of fuel-based generation with recovered thermal energy during cold months.
• The initiative also contributes to cutting CO2 emissions by reducing reliance on fossil fuel combustion for space heating in urban districts.

Context

Data centers generate substantial waste heat, and multiple European utilities have tested integrating that thermal output with municipal district heating networks.

Helen specifically targets servers used for AI model training and inference, where computational loads produce consistent thermal output suitable for reuse.

Bloomberg reported the project; Helen supplied information to the outlet about technical arrangements, timelines, and the initiative's anticipated operational benefits.