A coalition of groups and individuals based in and focused on Appalachia is sharing some ideas about ways AI data centers popping up in Ohio and elsewhere can use the excess heat they generate to benefit nearby communities and industries.
The report from Reimagine Appalachia finds that the heat can be reused in surrounding communities and industries.
According to the report, doing so could cut greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality and reduce overall water use.
"The less energy you use, the less fossil fuels that we burn," report author Debbie Stine said. "Given that most of Appalachia we're still relying on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, this is a good thing."
Waste heat is generated as a byproduct of AI data centers cooling process and is typically released into the atmosphere, Stine said. Depending on the cooling process used and the time of year, waste heat can range between 77 and 194 degrees, according to the report.
Waste heat recycling can be used in agriculture, manufacturing and chemical processing industries and others, Stine said, and is already being explored in Ohio. She cited SAIHEAT, which bills itself as "a global distributed computing power operator" that helps "energy owners address issues of local energy consumption and efficient resource utilization." It's U.S. office is in Marietta.
"This is a company that also captures waste heat and they use it for greenhouse heating. And also they are looking at expanding it to residential commercial heating applications, fishery and poultry."
In Mansfield, EnergiAcres is exploring a circular system that uses waste heat and captured carbon dioxide produced on-site to support crop growth, refrigeration and heating.
But waste heat recycling could also directly benefit municipalities if effectively implemented, Stine said.
"So think police stations, fire stations, libraries, where people might come to, like if their power goes out in their house, they don't had have any heat in their houses," she said. "These are places where it would be great to have an option where there's always a backup source of heat."
This process could be one way data centers can provide long-term benefits to surrounding communities, Stine said.
"For communities, the challenge with the benefit side of data centers is that the long-term job creation is very low, it's usually like less than 100 people," she said. "As a result, AI data centers, particularly the operators of those centers, may need to sort of think about what can we do to kind of show some benefit to the community? And waste heat is one opportunity to do that."
As communities throughout Ohio are considered for data center development, Stine said developers and community members should ask how waste heat recycling, or other sustainable measures, can reduce harm in the surrounding areas.
