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Queen Mary University to install heat recovery at data centre
Katie Coyne Contributing Editor
Data centre interior (Image: Dreamstime)
London’s Queen Mary University is to recycle heat energy from its data centre to help provide clean hot water up to 75 deg C.
It is part of a refurbishment of the Joseph Priestley Building, which is home to the university’s Tier 2 computing facility, a vital resource for particle physics research at CERN.
The upgrade will install a heat recovery system to capture the waste heat and plug it into its existing campus district heating system. This will reduce the university’s reliance on conventional heating using fossil fuels.
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Queen Mary president and principal Colin Bailey said: “By harnessing waste heat and minimising our carbon footprint, we are setting an example for others to follow. We believe this approach can be a cornerstone for sustainable data centre operations in the future."
Reducing emissions
Data centres generate considerable heat that is usually discharged into the atmosphere. They also require a lot of electricity for cooling.
Work is due to begin today and the data centre is expected to be offline for three months, with full operations returning by October. Some preliminary work started in April.
Professor Jonathan Hays, head of the particle physics research centre, said: “This project goes beyond simply improving our data centre’s efficiency or replacing outdated equipment.
“We’re actively reducing our environmental footprint. By capturing waste heat, we can significantly decrease our dependence on gas boilers, resulting in measurable cuts to CO2 emissions.”
The November/December 2025 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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