In the coming years, Kristinestad could see a massive supply of heat become available to various businesses. This heat comes from the excess waste heat generated by the cooling systems of hydrogen production facilities and a data center.
Greenhouses, fish farms, and drying facilities are known to be able to utilise waste heat. However, waste heat is available to all businesses that utilise by-products from agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, as well as other companies that are technically and economically capable of utilising it.
Read here why it makes sense to invest in Kristinestad:
Heat from hydrogen plants and data centers
Every large company currently preparing to locate in Kristinestad could, on its own, consume as much electricity as all of Kristinestad’s residents and businesses combined—and even much more. In these facilities, virtually all the electricity used ultimately turns into waste heat that is discharged along with the cooling water.
Waste heat could be generated, for example, by these companies planning to build facilities in Kristinestad:
- The Norwegian-British company Scale42’s data centre for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (AI/HPC) would be located in the eastern industrial area. It would be larger than a single medium-sized data centre. Its capacity would be 100 megawatts (MW) in the initial phase, but it could later be expanded into a data centre with up to 250 MW.
- The Finnish-German company Koppö Energia’s hydrogen and synthetic methanol production plant would be located in Björnö (Karhusaari). Its electrolysis capacity would be 200 MW.
- A hydrogen and synthetic fuel production plant by the U.S. company Plug Power would be built in Björnö (Karhusaari) and the northern industrial area. Its electrolysis capacity would be up to 1 gigawatt (GW), which would be equivalent in size to the current two-reactor nuclear power plant in Loviisa and about one-tenth of Finland’s current electricity consumption.
No final decisions have yet been made regarding the construction of the plants, so the plans may change. Land has nevertheless already been reserved for all companies, on which they can plan their facilities. It would also be up to these companies to decide whether to offer their waste heat to others, under what terms, and at what price.
District heating can utilize only a portion of the waste heat
Waste heat is often utilised in district heating. The Kristinestad district heating network is currently managed by Porin Energia, but it will be transferred to the municipality of Kristinestad in 2032. The current main district heating plant, completed in 2016, currently heats homes using wood chips. The main district heating plant is located near the new industrial area on the east side at Lokvägen (Veturitie), and technically it could be fairly easily connected to, for example, the data centre on the east side.
However, Kristinestad has only 6,500 residents, so the amount of heat required by residents is not enormous. Most residents live in single-family homes and in a sparsely populated area, which the district heating network does not currently reach. Even if waste heat were utilized in the future to heat the homes of Kristinestad residents, there would still be plenty of waste heat left for industrial use by other companies.
A hydrogen plant needs more water for cooling than for hydrogen production
The electrolysers in a hydrogen plant use electricity to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. However, the plants require much more water for cooling than for the actual production of hydrogen. In practice, all the electricity used is converted into heat at the plant.
The plant requires extensive cooling: the electrolyzer cells heat up, and the equipment operates properly only at a specific temperature, which is often 60–80 degrees. In addition, the electronics used, such as transformers and rectifiers, also heat up. The gases produced—hydrogen and oxygen—are also highly flammable if they are not cooled and dried, but are allowed to remain as hot and humid as they are when they emerge from the process. Cooling water is therefore used in plants to remove heat so that equipment does not overheat, hydrogen production efficiency remains high, equipment lifespan is not shortened, and gas handling is safer.
Data centers need cooling at all times
In data centres, too, all the electricity used is converted into heat. Data centres contain rows of servers with a large number of processors (CPUs, GPUs). The electricity flowing through them is converted into heat, so that without cooling, the temperature would quickly rise above 100 degrees Celsius. Without cooling, large devices could break down in a matter of seconds.
Modern data centres like Scale42, which specialise in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing and feature a particularly high density of GPU clusters side by side, generate a significant amount of heat. They generate many times more heat per square meter than traditional server centres.
Data centres also contain electronics other than just computer servers. Various batteries, transformers, and power supplies generate heat and require cooling.
Without the right temperature—often roughly room temperature—data centre equipment wears out, and electrical failures increase. It is important to note that data centres operate continuously, around the clock, and therefore require constant cooling.