A Deutsche Telekom data center has started supplying waste heat to a district heating system in Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany.

The waste heat is being supplied to the Pallasseum, a listed 1970s building with 500 apartments and approximately 2,000 residents. PASM Power and Solution GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, Gewobag, and the GASAG Group, installed the system.

“The energy transition won’t be decided solely in new buildings, but above all in existing ones. The Pallasseum impressively demonstrates how we can intelligently integrate unused energy sources, such as server waste heat, into existing systems,” said Matthias Trunk, sales director of GASAG.

The system works by raising low-temperature waste heat from the data center to a temperature of 70 to 75°C (168 to 167°F) through a water-to-water heat pump. It is then transported via a 140 meter (459 feet) long district heating pipeline to the Pallasseum’s heating plant, which then supplies the apartments with waste heat. A gas boiler is used during periods of peak loads; however, the company claims that the system can cover around 65 percent of the apartments’ heating demand.

“The Pallasseum project is an outstanding example of how this transformation can succeed,” said Dr. Jochen Lang, head of the Housing and Urban Renewal Department at the Senate Department for Urban Development, Construction and Housing.

“It shows that climate protection, historic preservation, and socially responsible housing are compatible. The partnership between Gewobag, GASAG, and Telekom sends a strong signal to the entire city.”

The system is part of a broader push by Germany to integrate data center waste heat into its district heating networks, as set out in the Energy Efficiency Act, passed in 2023. The law requires data centers to meet targets for PUE (power usage effectiveness) and sets a quota for the reuse of waste heat from facilities.

Since then, several district heating schemes linked to data centers have been announced. For example, last June, NTT reported that one of its data center campuses in Frankfurt would be hooked up to a local district heating network.

Following this, in June of this year, the municipal utility of the German city of Norderstedt began repurposing waste heat from its own data center into a local district heating network.