Docklands datacentre to heat local homes

A computer datacentre will turn waste heat into energy for the local Docklands community in the first project of its kind, engineering consultants WSP Group and datacentre firm Telehouse Europe announced today.

The £80m nine-storey Telehouse West facility at the East India Docks, due for completion in 2010, has received approval from the Greater London Authority to export waste heat for use in nearby homes and businesses.

Kieran Rushe of planning consultants Dalton Warner Davis said, "At his Stage 2 planning assessment the mayor recognised that the Telehouse proposal has the potential to mitigate the proposed development's contribution to the urban heat island effect and provide impetus for a district heat network in the area."

The partnership said Telehouse West will save up to 1,110 tonnes of CO2 emissions by providing up to 9MW of power for the local neighbourhood.

Bob Harris, Technical Services Director of Telehouse Europe, said, "We are very proud of the new £80 million Telehouse West facility, not only will it offer an innovative way to capture and repurpose waste heat, but the facility will also ease the capacity crunch."

Datacentres house racks of computers used to run businesses and the internet, producing a huge amount of waste heat. Harnessing this heat and conveying it to the outside world has long been an aim of datacentre providers.

Neither WSP Group nor Telehouse Europe were immediately able to provide BusinessGreen.com with details of how their heat-recycling technology works.