Thursday, February 5th at noon ET via Zoom
Thursday, February 5th at noon ET via Zoom – ReImagine Appalachia released a new report that discusses the opportunities, challenges, and potential policy options around implementing new technology to capture and re-use the waste heat created by data centers.
Appalachia is seeing rising interest in AI data centers, particularly in rural areas, creating a timely question: can the region capture what data centers already produce in abundance, low-temperature waste heat, and turn it into a visible community and economic benefit?
Data centers create a tremendous amount of heat, and yet their equipment can only function if temperatures are kept stable. Many data centers use water-based systems to address excess heat, but this results in high water usage and wasted potential. The challenge of the heat created by data centers can create new opportunities, with appropriate planning and new technology.
Resources shared on the call:
- The full report, Catching Heat: The Opportunities and Challenges of Using Waste Heat from Appalachian AI Data Centers, including technical analysis, case studies, and policy recommendations, is available here.
- Recording of the webinar on Facebook and on our website.
- Copy of the presentation
- Our blog on data centers.
Help us shape what’s next:
As noted on the call, this is the first in a series of webinars on data centers that we are still shaping for the coming year. Please let us know if there are topics, reports, or speakers you’d like to see highlighted in this series.
ReImagine Appalachia has been tracking the conversation around data centers and monitoring the news on development in the region. We frequently highlight past and upcoming webinars on this topic, policy changes, and the latest studies and articles.
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Summary of the event:
As the first in what hopefully will become a series of materials and events promoting responsible data center development, ReImagine Appalachia today released Catching Heat: The Opportunities and Challenges of Using Waste Heat from Appalachian AI Data Centers, a groundbreaking report examining how the region can turn a byproduct of the AI boom into a resource for heating industry, homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses.
As AI‑driven data centers rapidly expand across Appalachia, they bring both costs and benefits. The question is whether we can find a way to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs with more responsible data center development. Large, around‑the‑clock electricity loads from data centers are likely to drive higher greenhouse gas emissions, local air pollution, and higher energy bills for residents, businesses, and other industries unless we engage in energy planning and support new clean energy development to help meet those needs.
This report hones in on the waste heat generated by AI data centers. Capturing and reusing this heat through district heating systems, thermal energy networks, or nearby industrial processes can improve overall energy efficiency, lower heating costs, and reduce associated water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and local air pollution. AI data center waste heat reuse benefits local communities by lowering heating bills for homes, public buildings, and businesses when recovered heat is used in district or neighborhood heating systems. Local industries that use the waste heat can cut energy costs and on‑site fuel use, gain a steady source of process or space heat, and reduce their environmental footprint.