Nordic data center developer atNorth has signed a deal to supply waste heat to a district heating network in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The company finalized an agreement with Vestforbrænding, Denmark’s largest waste-to-energy company, to supply excess heat from its DEN01 data center campus to Vestforbrænding’s district heating network.

“For many years, we have talked about surplus heat from data centers being part of the future,” said Steen Neuchs Vedel, CEO of Vestforbrænding. “Now the future is here. With today’s contract signing, we are showing the way forward for how surplus heat from data centers can reach people’s homes. There has also been talk about sector coupling in the district heating sector – today we demonstrate how this can happen in practice, to the benefit of consumers.”

DEN01 is a 22.5MW metro data center located in Ballerup, Greater Copenhagen. The data center was announced back in 2023 and is expected to reach operational status in Q1 of 2026, and will support direct liquid cooling technology.

According to the companies, the excess heat from the data center will be able to heat more than 8,000 homes in the local area, starting from 2028.

“As the demand for AI ready digital infrastructure continues to increase, it is imperative that data center companies scale in a responsible way”, said Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, atNorth CEO. “By actively seeking heat reuse partnerships for our data centers, we can mitigate our environmental impact, benefit the communities in which we operate and help clients decarbonize their IT workloads”.

The agreement is part of Vestforbrænding’s move to decarbonize its district heating system under its District Heating Plan for 2030. The plan aims to phase out oil and gas-fired boilers in thousands of households and expand the network to integrate future energy sources, including waste heat from data centers.

The agreement is atNorth’s second in the district heating space this year. In April, it signed a heat-reuse agreement with Kesko Corporation, a Finnish retail conglomerate. The agreement will see waste heat generated from atNorth’s FIN02 data center in Sinimäki, Espoo, provided to a neighboring Kesko store. The recycled heat is expected to cover almost all of the Kesko store’s heating requirements.

In addition, last November, it also partnered with AgTech startup Hringvarmi to recycle excess heat from its ICE03 data center in Iceland for use in food production.