The energy system balancing data center of MinersLoop utilizes waste heat with a COP value of up to 5. The globally first-of-its-kind solution was launched in March 2024, setting a new industry standard.

District Heating Production Started Just Two Weeks After Plant Delivery

MinersLoop’s vision is to integrate energy-intensive computing techniques with the energy industry. Practically, this means combining heat production with waste heat generated from cryptocurrency mining.

The heat pump facility, completed in March in Western Finland, utilizes waste heat from the data center to produce district heating. Heat is recovered by a patented heat pump technology by Calefa and MinersLoop sells the produced heat to the local district heating network. The solution is the first of its kind globally.

“Calefa had a good understanding of what we were doing from the start, and they provided valuable ideas to realize our vision”, says the chairman of MinersLoop’s board, Robert Schulman.

The project progressed quickly to implementation. The heat pump facility was manufactured and tested at Calefa’s factory, in controlled conditions. The ready-made, single module 2MW heat pump facility was transported to the site and installed on MinersLoop’s premises in March 2024. The facility was operational just two weeks after delivery.

“The facility has now been in production for a while and is functioning as it should. The project itself is complete, but we continue to collaborate on optimizing the facility”, comments Calefa’s project manager Joonas Palmi.

Solution Comparable to Electric Boiler Implementations

Currently, electric boilers are increasingly used for heat energy production in Finland. Electric boilers can efficiently produce district heating from electricity, especially when there is an abundance of electricity available. This makes it possible to use electric boilers to balance the energy system.

According to MinersLoop’s Robert Schulman, the project with Calefa is comparable to electric boiler implementations in terms of heat production and energy system balancing. At the same time, the data center project enables cryptocurrency mining as a byproduct of heat production.

“If the same amount of electricity is directed to our data center as to an electric boiler, we can recover the same amount of heat by cooling the data servers as we would get from an electric boiler”, he summarizes.

Cooling Data Servers in Oil Baths Allows Waste Heat Recovery with a COP Value of Up to 5

While waste heat from data centers has been utilized before, the solution in question is unique due to its high efficiency, unique cooling technology, and the integration of heat pumps into the overall solution.

MinersLoop’s data center was built from the beginning to ensure that the heat energy released during cryptocurrency mining is utilized as efficiently as possible.

The data center in Seinäjoki, Finland, uses an unconventional cooling technology that ensures better efficiency in heat production. Instead of conventional air-cooled data centers, MinersLoop cools the data servers in oil baths.

“Typically, data center temperatures average between 40 to 50 degrees Celsius. Our machines operate at 60 to 70 degrees Celsius, resulting in significantly higher heat efficiency”, Schulman explains.

High cooling temperatures also allow higher efficiency. While waste heat from conventional data centers can be utilized with a COP value of 3, the waste heat from MinersLoop’s data center can be utilized with a COP value of up to 5.

Data Center Enables Demand Response for Power Grid and Balances the Energy System

Calefa’s energy expert Antti Porkka emphasizes the project’s significance both nationally and internationally. The amount of electricity produced in Finland varies, increasing the need for demand response.

The ASIC devices used in MinersLoop’s data center allow part or even all the computers to be temporarily shut down. This means that the data center can help balance the Finnish power grid.

“As the need for demand response increases, heat has been increasingly produced with electric boilers in Finland. The new trend is that electricity is not directly converted into heat, but heat is generated as a byproduct of an energy-intensive process”, Porkka describes.

The most common new solutions for integrating power and heat networks are high-performance computing and hydrogen production. Unlike hydrogen, data centers do not require extensive infrastructure such as pipelines. Instead, the generated data can be transferred with a light infrastructure.

“Implementations like this show the world how the same amount of energy can be used to produce more goods”, Porkka concludes.