Waste heat recovery in data centres in Finland: a choice between new technology adoption and process change

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis

Authors

Gerova, Elitza

Date

2014-06-09

Department

Major/Subject

Creative Sustainability in Real Estate

Mcode

IA3026

Degree programme

Master’s Degree Programme in Creative Sustainability

Language

en

Pages

110 + 12

Series

Abstract

In this Master's thesis was studied the feasibility of waste heat recovery in data centres. The aim was to address the problem with the continuously increasing electricity consumption in data centres, to explore the waste heat recovery opportunities in them and to find out which is the preferred alternative for waste heat recovery in the Finnish data centres. Also, to observe the role of management in influencing the waste heat recovery policies. The study was conducted through a mixed method research, using the concurrent embedded design type and consisting of a main part, and a complementary part. The main part was of a qualitative nature and was implemented through literature review, media review, observations, interviews and participation in social groups. The complementary part was in a supportive role and focused on revealing the choices of Finnish data centres through an online questionnaire. The latter part necessitated a mixed type of research with a prevailing qualitative aspect and some minor quantitative elements. According to the study, the waste heat recovery in data centres is a sensible thing to do, there are many ways for its implementation, it has a big potential and the number of data centres, having a waste heat recovery, is growing. Being a low temperature heat, the waste heat from data centres has its drawbacks, but with some upgrading technologies, it can be economically feasible. Based on the questionnaire, it was found that waste heat recovery in Finnish data centres is done mainly through a new technology adoption. Though, the difference between this option and the change process one was not big. Moreover, location and management of data centres were considered the most important factors for undertaking a waste heat recovery. Ownership was not found to have a great impact on waste heat recovery-related decisions. In Finland, the tendencies of reusing waste heat from data centres are following the international trends and the number of successful cases is growing. Despite of that, waste heat recovery is not yet a business in the country as it needs more motivation and change in the way of thinking. Being green is not undertaken unless it is a business case. Tax reliefs for smaller data centres and on the basis of the PUE values are recommendable for a better energy performance of Finnish data centres. Recommendable is also to research further the application of the "eight stage model" for creating major change, the reasons why waste heat recovery is not developing at the same speed with energy consumption in data centres, to analyse more the management work, the types of changes needed as well as the challenges of split incentives.

Description

Supervisor

Junnila, Seppo

Thesis advisor

Säynäjoki, Antti

Keywords

waste heat recovery, WHR, data centre, service building, technology adoption, process change, location, management, split incentives.

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Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201406252219

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[dipl] Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu / ENG