26.11.2019
The University of Hamburg, as the owner of the DKRZ building, installed a waste heat recovery system for this purpose, which started its operation in November 2019. It transports the cooling water from the high-performance computer to a heat exchanger to warm up the supply air of the chemical laboratories in the neighborhood. About 25% of the heat generated by the high-performance computer can be reused to conserve resources. The annual thermal energy saved that way corresponds to the energy consumption of about 500 households, or just under 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
Heat pipe on top of the roof of the DKRZ building to the neighboring laboratories (photo: Tödt/DKRZ).