The University of Edinburgh has launched a £ 2.6M (USD 3.2M) feasibility study to assess whether excess heat from its supercomputer could be used to heat thousands of Scottish homes.
The University of Edinburgh’s ACF is an enormous supercomputer used for critical research at the university, as well as UK national research systems across many industries, including climate modeling and health data modeling. Composed of multiple rooms, the computing systems generate around 70 gigawatt-hours of excess heat per year. The new study aims to evaluate the potential of excess heat in generating sustainable heat for up to 5,000 homes in the Scottish capital.
By augmenting the cooling systems for the supercomputers to transfer captured heat into water held in a disused mine near the ACF, heat could be generated to warm homes with heat pump technology already installed.