A modelling methodology for assessing use of datacenter waste heat in greenhouses

In Sweden, the number of datacenters establishments are steadily increasing thanks to green, stable and affordable electricity, free air cooling, advantageous energy taxes and well-developed Internet fiber infrastructures. Even though datacenters use a lot of energy, the waste heat that they create is seldom reused. A possible cause is that this waste heat is often low grade and airborne: it is therefore hard to directly inject it into a district heating system without upgrades, which require additional energy and equipment that generate extra costs. One option for reusing this heat without needs for upgrades is to employ it for heating up greenhouses. But assessing the feasibility of this approach by building physical prototypes can be costly, therefore using computer models to simulate real world conditions is an opportunity. However, there is a lack of computer modelling methodologies that can assess the possibility of using waste heat from datacenters in greenhouses in cold climates. The objective of this paper is therefore to propose such a methodology and discuss its benefits and drawbacks in comparison with other research studies. This methodology combines computational fluid dynamics, process modelling and control engineering principles into a computer model that constitutes a decision support system to study different waste heat and greenhouse or mushroom house scenarios. The paper validates the strategy through a case study in northern Sweden, where we assess the amount of produced waste heat by collecting temperature, relative humidity, and fan speed data for the air discharged from the datacenter. The resulting methodology, composed by conducting measurements and computer models, calculations can then be used for other datacenter operators or greenhouse developers to judge whether it is possible or not to build greenhouses using datacenter waste heat.