On November 11, 2024, Saxony's municipal energy provider SachsenEnergie, TUD Dresden University of Technology and the state-owned company Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement (SIB) received the Energy Efficient Award from the German Energy Agency dena for their successful collaboration. In the category "Achieve more together! - Energy services as a catalyst for the energy transition", the award recognizes the joint project to supply parts of Dresden's district heating network with the waste heat generated by TUD's high-performance computers. By using waste heat from the supercomputing systems, up to 24,000 megawatt hours of green heating can be produced and theoretically supply an average of 3,700 homes in Dresden with heating.

Energy efficiency, as well as security, power density and high availability, is a key objective of the TUD data center. The building concept for air cooling, which has been optimized for maximum efficiency, received the 2014 German Data Center Award. It is an impressive feat that the joint project with SachsenEnergie has now also created the necessary heating network infrastructure to utilize the waste heat. "Our commitment to sustainability and energy-efficiency in our operations achieves very pleasing synergies through the cooperation with SachsenEnergie for the re-use of waste heat from our water-cooled high-performance computers. It is particularly noteworthy that the waste heat is used all year round – we expect over 50 percent of the heat generated in the data center to be reused in the future," explains Dr. Daniel Hackenberg, Deputy Director of the Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing at TUD.

CFO of SachsenEnergie Dr. Axel Cunow: "We are both proud and grateful that dena has recognized our joint project. “This project marks an exceptionally groundbreaking step towards the decarbonization of the City of Dresden and is an essential building block in catalyzing the heat transition in the state capital. This award motivates and encourages us to continue taking innovative and pragmatic steps towards our common goal. And this can only be achieved with the right partners by our side — who have internalized the mission of being shapers and enablers of decarbonization as a matter of course."

Oliver Gaber, Commercial Director of SIB added: "As a real estate and building owner representative of the Free State of Saxony, we are aware of our ecological and economic responsibility as well as our duties as a role model. “The development and joint achievement of this future-oriented goal is an important step towards improving energy efficiency and a clear signal for even more sustainability. The findings of the award-winning pilot project will be incorporated into the planning and implementation of other state-owned data centers."

The German Energy Agency’s award is sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The agency has been recognizing energy and CO₂-saving projects and concepts in various categories since 2007, especially those that demonstrate how the path to climate neutrality and the transformation of industry can succeed.

Information on the award-winning waste heat project in Dresden

Three heat pumps convert the waste heat from the supercomputing systems into district heating. The technical building for the heat pumps and the civil engineering work for the media line were constructed under the administration of the SIB Dresden II branch. In future, the heat level of the data center's waste heat will be raised from up to 55 degrees to 90 degrees Celsius, matching the district heating level. This means that the cooling of surplus heat can be avoided – especially in the summer months – and the waste heat can be put to good use in the network. In the winter months, some of the generated warmth is already used to heat surrounding university buildings and it will be used increasingly in the future. By avoiding re-cooling, CO₂ emissions are reduced by more than 65 tons per year. SachsenEnergie is responsible for providing the technical equipment in the building. This includes the introduction of both medium voltage and district heating. SachsenEnergie is investing a total of around EUR 4.4 million in the plant – with financial support from the BMWK as part of the National Climate Protection Initiative. The plant is due to begin operations at the end of 2024.

Contacts

Jacqueline Papperitz
TU Dresden, Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing (ZIH)

Nora Weinhold
Press Officer SachsenEnergie
Phone: 0351 5630 23671, mobile: 0174 1502935
E-mail:

Alwin-Rainer Zipfl
Press Officer SIB
Phone: 0351 8135 1260
E-mail:

Press release from dena

https://www.dena.de/infocenter/energy-efficiency-award-2024-dena-zeichnet-fuenf-energiewendeprojekte-aus