Excess Data Centre Heat Used to Warm Olympic Swimming Pools
As the Summer 2024 Olympics begin, the global focus will be on the sustainability scores, as well as the medals. Powering the Olympics takes a lot of effort, from the energy used to cook for the athletes to keeping the swimming pool at the right temperature - which is where data centre Equinix has jumped in.
At the Paris Olympic Aquatic Centre in Saint-Denis, excess heat from the Equinix data centre is being used to warm the Olympic pools.
Olympic swimming pool kept warm with waste heat from Equinix data centre
Paris 2024, this year's Olympics organiser, will purchase around €2.5bn worth of goods and services to host the games. This figure rises to €5bn when including the contracts that Solideo, public contracting authorities and private customers will award. Paris has "aimed high" in its procurement of these services, particularly in its environmental and social standards. For the 2020 Summer Olympics, organisers also aimed for maximum sustainability by collecting 4.38m tonnes of carbon credits, covering 150% of the games' emissions, which is where Equinix comes in.
Equinix data centres are designed with high operational standards and energy efficiency in mind. The company has invested more than US$129m in energy efficiency upgrades, retrofits and improvements, and is constantly seeking new ways to innovate within its data centres – having committed to science-based targets to embed decarbonisation actions across its business and supply chain. Equinix has set a goal to be climate neutral by 2030, backed by science-based targets, across its global portfolio and data centre platform, which is why we listed Equinix in our Top 10: Sustainable Data Centre Companies. Equinix's global platform, consisting of 260 data centres across the world, strengthens digital connectivity across Europe.
In Paris, the heat used to keep the swimming pool water at the optimum temperature comes from the Equinix PA10 data centre. Run on 100% renewable energy, the data facility has over 5,000 sq.m of colocation space and room for around 2,250 cabinets.
“Our newest data centre in Paris, PA10, which opened in 2023, was designed and built to recover and export the heat produced by customer equipment,” Noah Nkonge, heat export lead senior manager at Equinix. “We will transfer the surplus heat, free of charge for 15 years, to the Plaine Saulnier urban development zone and the Olympic Aquatic Centre, which will host several events during the 2024 Summer Olympics.”
"The Paris 2024 Games are an extraordinary opportunity to boost the social and solidarity economy, which stands by the same values – humanism and helping one another – as the sports world," said Olivia Grégoire, French Minister of State for the Social, Inclusive and Responsible Economy.
Equinix’s data centre is also helping the local bee population, with a rooftop garden featuring a greenhouse and beehive.
Equinix’s investment in Portugal
Elsewhere in Europe, Equinix is building its second IBX data centre in Lisbon, Portugal. The new LS2 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centre, will be next to Equinix's LS1 site. Together, LS1 and LS2 will create a dense digital ecosystem and offer much-needed digital capacity to Portugal, which will offer a boost to local businesses and attract global companies to leverage Platform Equinix® in this perfectly placed hub for international networks. Equinix's LS2 facility will serve as a gateway to Europe from Africa and as a connection point for data communications between Latin America, Europe and North America.
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