Finland’s E-Heat has deployed a containerized data center and plugged it into the local heating network in Western Finland.

Finnish energy firm Vatajankoski recently announced that a new data center operated by E-Heat has been completed in the Kirkkokallio eco-industrial park area in Honkajoki.

Heat from the 1MW containerized facility will be utilized in the district heating network in the Honkajoki urban area, located in the province of Western Finland and part of the Satakunta region.

Water will be heated to almost 80°C (176°F) via waste heat and some additional heating and fed into the Vatajankoski district heating network. The Puistotie grate boiler, which previously produced heat for the area, was shut down last month and will be used as a backup plant in the future.

The majority of the district heating in the Honkajoki agglomeration will be produced using data heat without combustion in the future. I would like to thank everyone involved in the project, especially E-Heat, Priatech, Sähkö-Domino, and the Vatajankoski team for their good cooperation in this project,” said Ari Niemi, district heating manager at Vatajankoski.

Vatajankoski deployed a 2MW data center at its power plant in Kankaanpää in 2024. The 12-rack project – also utilizing servers from local firm E-Heat – provides around 20 percent of the local area’s district heating needs.

Last year saw Vatajankoski and E-Heat deploy a 1.5MW module in Merikarvia, with the waste heat again to fuel a local district heating network.

Finnish real estate firm Toivo invested €2 million ($2.27m) in E-heat last year and was in the process of acquiring the entire company. Toivo, however, sold its shares in the firm in November to its current owner for €1.9 million ($2.2m).

A report from Toivo on E-Heat last summer said the company had eight projects under negotiation totaling 20MW. At the time, the firm had seven projects completed, totaling 8.5MW, and another four totaling 10MW in construction.

E-Heat recently announced that it was set to deploy a 1.8MW module in Ivalo, in Finnish Lapland, together with local heating provider Inergia Lämpö Oy. The 80 sqm (861 sq ft) module is due to go live in the spring and cover around half of the heat network’s needs.