Interest in Open District Heating and the market for surplus energy that Fortum Värme has opened up for is great, both nationally and internationally. The economic and environmental benefits of selling and delivering surplus energy to the district heating network get more and more attention.
The interest and demand for recovery of the surplus energy from data centers is strong. Banhof planned data center and project Elementica in Hjorthagen is a good example of that. The willingness to invest is great, the first funding round was directly oversubscribed. This shows not least that more companies than Fortum believes that a large-scale heat recovery from data centers will be an important part of the future of urban energy systems.
Open District Heating has also in the past weeks been represented in the international computer fair Datacenter Dynamics in London, and at the fair National Heat Days in Holland. As guest speakers, Erik Rylander and Per Gullbrand highlighted many of the benefits of Stockholm and its unique district heating system that makes it a perfect site for large, international data centers. Simultaneously, at Gävle Energi Open District Heating was presented to delegates from Austria in connection with the work on the European project Stratego.
As part of a positive trend, this year Open District Heating are nominated for ”Best Sustainable Project 2015” by CIO Sweden. The prize is awarded at Berns, Stockholm December 14 and it is thanks to the great attention that the concept created on the Swedish IT market that makes Open District Heating one of the nominated along with two other prominent companies.
