Tapping into the heat of data centers is one of the key challenges facing our industry today. Right now, less than 10% of the heat generated by servers is recovered \u2013 the rest vanishes into thin air. Why? Because our facilities are often far from cities, district heating networks are few and far between, and modern buildings just don\u2019t need as much warmth as they used to. This begs the following question: instead of letting all that energy go to waste, how can we transform it into something much more valuable, or even virtuous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To answer this question, we’ve teamed up with the Paris-Saclay University foundation and the Cr\u00e9dit Agricole to launch a first-of-its-kind project on our Marcoussis campus, in the Essonne d\u00e9partement<\/em> of France: a bio-circular data center demonstrator that\u2019s breaking new ground<\/a>. But instead of heating buildings or offices, we\u2019re using that excess server heat to fuel the growth of microalgae. And this is more than a science experiment: it\u2019s a prototype for a scalable, sustainable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 26 April, a production module dedicated to growing Chlorella<\/em> algae has been operating on the roof of our DC10 data center. Designed by the Austrian start-up Blue Planet Ecosystems, this LARA system uses the 26-30\u202f\u00b0C heat radiating from servers to create an ideal growth environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The self-contained, closed-loop module is grounded in robust science: a feasibility study conducted as part of the ABIOMAS research chair (with support from the Paris-Saclay foundation) found that the carbon-capture capacity of these algae could be up to 20 times greater than that of a tree (for an equivalent surface area). This breakthrough is paving the way for a new form of heat recovery \u2013 and one fully integrated into our local ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA practical innovation in action \u2013 since May 2025<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n