Mattias Vesterlund
Research Program Manager
Contact Mattias
Design and resource use characterization of Swedish air-cooled data center-to-greenhouse symbioses
15 October 2026, 08:58
For years we've discussed using data center waste heat for greenhouses. But a critical question remained: can the microclimate requirements of both facilities actually work together? Our latest research explores exactly that, revealing that humidity may be the hidden factor determining whether these symbioses succeed or fail.
This paper evaluates how the design and resource use of an air-cooled data center-to-greenhouse energy symbiosis, operating in Swedish conditions, is affected by the desired microclimate criteria within the facilities. The necessary data center power, electricity use, heat reuse, water use, and air changes were evaluated by using analytical solutions and constrained, nonlinear optimization modeling of the heat and mass transfers in MATLAB.
An analytical design expression is presented, which returns the minimum data center power per unit greenhouse area, as well as a fitted model to predict the energy reuse. By evaluating multiple design/operation cases for four locations in Sweden, the design data center power per unit greenhouse area was estimated as 0.40-10 kW·m−2, with an energy reuse factor index of 0.02-0.13 and a water use effectiveness of 5·10−5-0.22 L·kWh−1.
Warmer climates together with proper microclimate matches (both in terms of temperature and specific humidity between the facilities) required substantially smaller data centers and produced significantly higher energy reuse factors. Poor matches between the data center and greenhouse microclimates could increase the greenhouse heat demand by over 1000 kWh·m−2·year−1 due to excessive need for humidification.
The article is published in Case Studies in Thermal Engineering, Date: August 2026, Article: 10830, Volume: Volume 84
See the link to ScienceDirect: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X26006726
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