1. Data center heated greenhouses, a matter for enhanced food self-sufficiency in sub-arctic regions
- Author
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Hampus Markeby Ljungqvist, Louise Mattsson, Mattias Vesterlund, and Mikael Risberg
- Subjects
business.industry ,020209 energy ,Mechanical Engineering ,Greenhouse ,02 engineering and technology ,Building and Construction ,Atmospheric sciences ,Pollution ,Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering ,Latitude ,Degree (temperature) ,General Energy ,020401 chemical engineering ,Waste heat ,Heat recovery ventilation ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Production (economics) ,Environmental science ,Data center ,0204 chemical engineering ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,business ,Building energy simulation ,Civil and Structural Engineering - Abstract
This paper examines the possibility of increasing Northern Sweden’s degree of self-sufficiency in food supply, at the 65th latitude, by using a data center as a heating source for greenhouse production. A dynamic building energy simulation software was used to compute both the hourly exhaust air output from a 1 MW data center for one year and the corresponding heating demand for two different greenhouse sizes, 2000 m2 and 10 000 m2, and two different production scenarios. Partial year production, 1 Mars – 15 October, without grow lights and full-year production with grow lights. The study showed that 5.5–30.5% of the electrical input to a 1 MW data center could be recovered. The 2000 m2 greenhouse could operate almost entirely, 89.7–97.9%, on excess heat while only 50.0–61.5% of the 10 000 m2 greenhouse heating demand could be met for full- and partial-year production, respectively. Furthermore, it is concluded that the 10 000 m2 greenhouse with full year production was the most prominent case and would cost-effectively yield 7.6% of northern Sweden’s vegetable self-sufficiency.
- Published
- 2021