Green Mountain agrees to let land-based trout farm make use of its datacentre's waste heated water

Norwegian colocation provider Green Mountain has signed a heat reuse agreement that looks set to pave the way for the creation of the world’s largest land-based trout farm.

The agreement will see the waste heated water generated by the firm’s DC2-Telemark facility in Rjukan, Norway, piped into Hima Seafood’s land-based trout production facility, which is due to start construction later this year.

The farm will be sited just 800 metres away from the DC2-Telemark datacentre, with the pair making use of heat exchanger technology to ensure the resulting water is at the optimum temperature needed to support the growth of the trout.

Once this water has served its purpose, the temperature of it will be lowered, meaning it can be returned to the Green Mountain datacentre and reused to aid the cooling of the server farm. 

The companies expect the trout farm to be fully operational by 2023, and from that point on the surplus heat generated by the datacentre will be used to support the production of 9,000 tons of trout each year, which they claim is sufficient to make 22 million dinners annually.

“This will, by far, be the world’s largest land-based trout farm,” the two companies said, in a joint statement.

Hima Farm director Joe McElwee said: “Ensuring a consistent and stable water temperature for our fish is key to producing a world-class product. Superior product quality and environmental sustainability are not just slogans for us, they are part of Hima’s DNA.”

The seafood firm’s CEO, Sten Falkum, said the heat reuse setup will also bring about considerable production costs savings for the company.

“Green Mountain’s waste heat represents a significant cost savings in our production, and we are thrilled that our heating requirements can help to reduce the environmental footprint of Green Mountain and help to cool the datacentre in return. This truly is a win-win solution for both parties,” said Falkum.

News of the partnership comes hot on the heels of the announcement last week about Green Mountain signing a similar heat reuse agreement with the Norwegian Lobster Farm, which will see the latter party build a production facility next-door to the datacentre operator’s DC1-Stavanger server farm.

Green Mountain CEO Tor Kristian Gyland said the project is part of the firm’s commitment to ensuring its facilities are as energy efficient as possible.

“Datacentres are undoubtably very energy consuming. Although our datacentres run on 100% renewable hydropower, we do not like to waste the energy,” he said.

“This project is a breakthrough example of circular economy – where the output of one company can benefit another with an environmental benefit on top. Our vision is ‘setting the green standard’ and this project truly supports this.”