The construction of the heat pump plant will begin in November 2024.

Haminan Energia will utilize waste heat from Google's data center to produce district heating with a new heat pump plant. The plant, which will start operating at the end of 2025, will be supplied by Nohewa, a Finnish company specializing in industrial-scale heat pump solutions. In the future, up to 80% of Hamina's district heating will come from Google's data center.

Heat pump plants, that utilize existing heat sources, significantly reduce the climate and environmental impacts of district heating production. Haminan Energia's new ownership structure enables the heat pump investment, which amounts to approximately 5M€ in total. Utilizing waste heat from Google's data center is an important step for the city towards sustainable heat production. A large data center is an excellent heat source as it produces waste heat consistently throughout the year. District heating produced from waste heat is achieved without combustion.

"This project is a significant investment towards a more sustainable future and helps us achieve our carbon neutrality goals. We will significantly reduce the use of fossil energy and utilize energy that would otherwise go to waste. It was also important to us that biodiversity was considered already in the planning phase of the project, for example in the construction of pipelines," emphasizes Kimmo Rahkamo, CEO of Haminan Energia.

Warm cooling water from the data center will be supplied to the heat pump plant, where the water temperature will be raised to suit the district heating network. The 7.5MW heat pump plant can produce 40GWh of district heating per year, which corresponds to the heating needs of approximately 2000 households and covers up to 80% of Hamina's total district heating needs. Approximately 1.3 kilometers of new district heating pipeline will be built to connect the heat pump plant to the existing district heating network. The plant's capacity can be increased in the future if necessary.

The heat pump plant is built with Finnish expertise.

The plant will be supplied by Nohewa, which has implemented several heat pump plants utilizing waste heat from data centers for energy companies and data center operators in Finland and abroad. The design of the heat recovery solution leverages the company's extensive expertise in heat pumps within data center environments.

"Google is a significant global player in the data center sector, so it is especially exciting to be involved in their first heat recovery project. This project will also provide visibility for Finnish technological expertise beyond Finland's borders," says Nohewa's CEO Terhi Pettersson.

The primary energy source for the heat pump plant will be carbon-neutral electricity, such as wind power. Since 97% of the energy used by Google's data center is carbon-neutral, the district heating production will achieve nearly 100% carbon neutrality. The heat recovery process will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 2000 tons annually. For the data center, the heat pumps provide essential cooling capacity.

For additional info:

Haminan Energia Oy
Kimmo Rahkamo, CEO
Tel. +358 40 749 3069 or kimmo.rahkamo@haminanenergia.fi

Nohewa Finland Oy
Terhi Pettersson, CEO
Tel. +358 40 569 8100 or terhi.pettersson@nohewa.fi