A hospital and other buildings in Milton Keynes, UK, will benefit from a new district heating network that is reusing waste heat from data centers.

The Milton Keynes Energy Network will be up and running by 2027 after it was granted planning permission by local officials.

Costing £95 million ($124.7m), work on building the infrastructure for the scheme will start next year. It will be operated by 1Energy, a firm that has five district heating networks in development across the UK.

The data centers providing the heat for the network have not been named, but it is hoped that they will generate 100GWh each year, enough to heat 20,000 homes. DCD has contacted the company for more details.

One of the first beneficiaries of the scheme will be Milton Keynes University Hospital, which wants to connect to the network as part of its efforts to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.

Tony Marsh, director of estates and facilities at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, told the BBC: “This partnership will allow us to cut carbon emissions significantly while ensuring our heating infrastructure is resilient and future-ready.”

Milton Keynes is a city 50 miles north of London. It was designed as a new town in the 1960s, and is famed for its plentiful roundabouts and concrete cow sculptures.

District heating networks are becoming more prevalent across the UK, with the government offering grants to support the development of projects. The Milton Keynes network received £17.6 million ($23.1m) from the Green Heat Network Fund, and several other projects in the UK are looking to partner with data center operators.

Such networks are already common in European countries such as France and Finland, often utilizing data center waste heat.