BALLERUP, Denmark, Dec 1, 2025 – atNorth has finalized an agreement to deliver excess heat from its DEN01 data center campus into Vestforbrænding’s district heating network.
DEN01, located in Ballerup, is a 22.5MW data center that is scheduled to begin operations in Q1 2026. The collaboration with Vestforbrænding will allow warm water produced by the site’s direct liquid cooling technology to supply the district heating network and heat more than 8,000 homes from 2028. The heat-reuse process will reduce energy demand for local heating and lower the carbon footprint of both the data center and Vestforbrænding.
Vestforbrænding is phasing out oil and gas boilers in thousands of homes under its district heating plan for 2030. The company is also expanding its network to integrate new energy sources such as surplus heat from data centers.
“For many years, we have talked about surplus heat from data centers being part of the future. 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,” says Steen Neuchs Vedel, CEO of Vestforbrænding.
“As the demand for AI ready digital infrastructure continues to increase, it is imperative that data center companies scale in a responsible way”, says Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO, atNorth. “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”.
An agreement with Wa3rm will reuse excess heat from atNorth’s DEN02 data center to support vegetable production. Another agreement with Kesko Corporation will route waste heat from the atNorth’s FIN02 data center to warm the nearby Kesko store.
Source: atNorth
About atNorth
atNorth, based in Reykjavík, Iceland, operates data centers across the Nordic region, providing high-density colocation, build-to-suit facilities, and connectivity services for enterprises, hyperscalers, and high-performance computing (HPC) users. The company serves industries such as AI, cloud computing, infrastructure, and research. Founded in 2009, it has operated for about 16 years. atNorth runs eight data centers in Iceland, Sweden, and Finland, with additional sites under construction in Kouvola, Finland, and Ølgod, Denmark, and a planned facility in Sollefteå, Sweden. Its operations use renewable energy and emphasize energy efficiency and circular economy principles. The company designs its facilities for scalability, power efficiency, and flexible deployment to meet long-term infrastructure needs across the region.