Equinix, A2A to heat Milan via district heating
Author: Joe Peck
Equinix, a US global data centre and interconnection services provider, and A2A, Italy’s second-largest energy operator, have announced a partnership to recover waste heat from a data centre campus near Milan and use it to supply the city’s district heating network.
The project will recover heat generated by servers at Equinix’s campus in Settimo Milanese and transfer it to a new energy centre developed by A2A. The recovered heat will then be used to provide heating across parts of Milan.
Equinix will design and manage the system used to export heat from the campus, working with customers whose IT equipment generates the thermal energy.
A2A’s new energy centre will use four large-scale heat pumps with a combined capacity of 72MW, together with two thermal storage systems capable of storing 6,000m³ of water. The facility will connect to Milan’s district heating network via dedicated heat transport infrastructure.
Once fully operational, the project is expected to recover up to 225GWh of thermal energy each year. According to the companies, this will increase the amount of heat distributed through A2A’s district heating network by around 20%, providing enough energy to heat more than 21,000 homes.
The partners also estimate the scheme will avoid more than 345,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
Heat recovery supports district heating expansion
As part of the project, A2A will expand Milan’s district heating network, enabling recovered heat from the data centre to be supplied across a wider area of the city, including the Duomo and Palazzo Reale, which are already connected to the network.
Adaire Fox-Martin, CEO and President of Equinix, comments, “Equinix has a long and proud history of aligning the needs of our business with the needs of the communities we call home.
“Our collaboration with A2A is a clear example of how essential digital infrastructure and local sustainability goals can work in service of each other. By putting thermal energy from our operations to use for local homes and residents, we’re eliminating waste and moving Milan towards a low-carbon future.”
Emanuela Grandi, Managing Director of Equinix Italy, adds, “Excess heat is a by-product of the processing power required for digital transformation and AI, but when we redistribute it to the areas surrounding our data centres, we can create tremendous value for our communities while reducing the overall energy needed to heat the area.
“We are very proud of the efforts and achievements Equinix has done in blazing a trail for data centre heat export in Europe and we’re applying learnings from our successes to our efforts in Italy.
“By scale, this initiative in Italy is expected to become among the largest data centre heat export projects in Europe outside the Nordics.”
Renato Mazzoncini, CEO of A2A, concludes, “Data centres are strategic infrastructure for the competitiveness of the country and for supporting the digital transformation of the economy.
“Their growth requires models capable of combining technological innovation, energy efficiency, and environmental sustainability. From this perspective, heat recovery is a key lever for maximising the value of digital hubs and accelerating the decarbonisation of cities.
“The collaboration with Equinix is fully aligned with our strategy to develop an integrated ecosystem where energy, infrastructure, and innovation operate synergistically.”
The companies say the partnership forms part of wider efforts to support the decarbonisation of urban energy systems through the reuse of waste heat generated by digital infrastructure.
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