Swimming pools at the Paris Olympics were maintained at a comfortable 80 degrees Fahrenheit with an emerging new technology: The recycled heat from a data center.

Equinix, a digital infrastructure company, kept its servers cool and Olympians warm with water piped through a heat exchange plate. The recently constructed Equinix PA10 data center in Paris is the 10th data center to be opened by Equinix over the past 20 years. Opened in 2023, the center produces about 10,000 MWh of heat annually, enough to heat about 1,000 homes.

Three heat pumps supplement the data center heat, increasing the temperature to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, which is then distributed to the surrounding areas.

“We will transfer the surplus heat, free of charge for 15 years, to the Plaine Saulnier urban development zone and the Olympic Aquatic Centre,” said Noah Nkonge, heat export lead senior manager at Equinix.

Data centers generate an enormous amount of heat, and in recent years, operators have looked toward creative ways to reuse this heat in more sustainable ways. The data-centerheated Olympic pool is not the first to use recycled heat.

A U.K.-based start-up company called Deep Green has been heating the public pool at Exmouth Leisure Centre for a couple of years now.

Since then, it has become a popular way to improve efficiency by harnessing waste heat.

In June, the New Zealand surf park developer Aventuur won approval from regulators to provide year-round access to water heated by a nearby data center.These data centers, which store all of the information we access from our smartphones, computers, and TV’s, require a large amount of electricity to keep the servers running, as well as to keep them cool enough to prevent them from overheating. Traditionally, data centers were cooled through a kind of air conditioning. A lot of the money that it costs to run a data center has been spent on getting rid of the heat that they generate, which is substantial. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers and data transmission networks account for up to 1.5 percent of global electricity use. They are collectively responsible for around 1 percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. This is on par with aviation and shipping, which are responsible for 1.7 percent and 1.9 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. Kyle Mangini, who cares for all laboratory and mechanical systems at the Amherst College Science Center in Massachusetts, says this kind of heat recycling saves both money and lowers emissions. “Facilities can reduce the cost burden and their carbon footprint by finding ways to harness waste heat,” Mangini said.