Swedish telco and data center developer Telia has increased the capacity of its district heating solution tied to its Pitäjänmäki data center in Helsinki, Finland.

The company reported that the waste heat recovery and utilization levels from its data center have now reached 90 percent, increasing from 60 percent.

The waste heat generated is being used to heat local apartments across Helsinki, with the company ultimately planning to heat more than 28,000 apartments across the Finnish capital.

The increase in heating capacity was the result of an increase in the overall capacity of the data center. Telia announced last May that it would increase the capacity of the data center by 4MW, bringing its total installed capacity to 28MW.

“Data centers are a kind of heat accumulator, which consume energy evenly and produce waste heat for heat production all year round. This is a great advantage when calculating the payback periods of investments,” said Kalle Hasu, production manager at Telia.

The initiative is part of Telia’s broader goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, with the district heating system one of the design starting points when it was developing the data center.

“Utilizing waste heat from data centers is an excellent example of an emission-free and consistent heat production solution that contributes to our goal of non-burning energy production. We are very pleased to be working with Telia in this area,” said Miika Lindholm, group manager at Helen.

The district heating initiative was initially announced in April 2021 and launched in 2022, following a partnership agreement with Helen to install heat pumps at the site.

The data center was officially launched in 2018 and currently spans around 34,000 sqm (365,972 sq ft). The company has previously told DCD that it has the potential to grow to more than 100MW. The data center is also tied to a virtual battery scheme, where its UPS system is used to help balance fluctuations in energy supply and demand.

Telia has also undertaken several other sustainability initiatives to support its net-zero goal. For example, in February, the company sent 70 tons of decommissioned hardware to be reused or recycled after completing its 5G modernization across Norway.

The company has also signed several Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) to power its operations. In June 2022, it inked a long-term PPA with Better Energy in Denmark.