European data center developer Green Mountain has launched a heat reuse project with Norwegian seafood company Hima Seafood in Rjukan, Norway.

The project will see Hima use excess heat from Green Mountain’s RJU1-Rjukan facility to warm the water in its aquaculture systems at its land-based trout farm, located approximately 800 meters (2,625 feet) from the data center. After use, the cooled water will be returned to Green Mountain and integrated into its cooling processes.

According to the partners, the closed-loop system will reduce energy consumption for both companies and the environmental impact of their operations.

The project’s first phase, which reached operational status last autumn, has a capacity of 1.75MW. The companies intend to conduct a joint feasibility study to inform the project’s second phase, which aims to scale the system to 8MW.

“Waste heat is only waste heat if it goes to waste,” said Annar Bøhn, CEO of Hima Seafood. “By utilizing excess heat from Green Mountain, we reduce our energy consumption, minimize our environmental footprint, and strengthen the robustness of our operations. This is a clear win‑win solution.”

The project was first announced in 2021. Reporting at the time revealed that the facilities would be connected via a pipe system, with a series of heat exchangers to ferry the warm water from the data center to the trout farm.

“The collaboration between Green Mountain and Hima Seafood demonstrates how data center and aquaculture industries can create tangible circular‑economy benefits, reduce their climate footprint, and drive new value creation in rural regions — with Rjukan as an international showcase,” said Torkild Follaug, sustainability director at Green Mountain.

Construction of the campus, also known as DC-2 Telemark, commenced in 2018 and was expanded in 2019. In 2022, the company again expanded the data center, constructing a new two-story, 20MW building at the site.

Green Mountain has placed heat reuse as a central tenet in several of its data center builds. For example, its recently topped-out data center in Mainz, Germany, is expected to provide up to 60MW of heat to 20,000 households.