The global energy consumption of data centers (DCs) has experienced exponential growth over the last decade, that is expected to continue in the near future. Reasonable utilization of DC waste heat, which is dissipated during the computational process, can potentially be an effective solution to mitigate the environmental impact. However, the practical implementation of waste heat utilization in the DC environment is a very challenging task. The possible benefits of waste heat utilization are uncertain and difficult to quantify with the methods that are common in practice. This paper introduces a feasibility study in which dynamic simulation tools were used to predict the energy performance of a university campus resulting from the integration of a proposed DC system with an existing aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES). The presented study utilizes building energy simulation (BES) to evaluate uncertainty of the waste heat potential associated to various thermal management strategies of the proposed DC. Further in the feasibility study, the carbon footprint of the integrated approach is assessed for both the current and future situation based on measured data from the existing university campus and its district ATES system.

中文翻译：

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基于模拟的大学校园含水层热能存储对废热利用的评估

在过去的十年中，全球数据中心（DC）的能源消耗呈指数增长，预计在不久的将来还将持续。在计算过程中散发的DC余热的合理利用可能是减轻环境影响的有效解决方案。但是，在直流环境中实际实施余热利用是一项非常艰巨的任务。利用余热的可能好处尚不确定，并且很难用实践中常用的方法进行量化。本文介绍了一项可行性研究，其中使用动态仿真工具预测拟议的直流系统与现有含水层热能存储（ATES）的集成所产生的大学校园的能源性能。本研究利用建筑能量模拟（BES）来评估与所提议的DC的各种热管理策略相关的余热潜力的不确定性。进一步地，在可行性研究中，将基于现有大学校园及其辖区ATES系统的测量数据，针对当前和未来情况评估综合方法的碳足迹。