After nearly six years of shelving, Apple's Danish data center's plan to generate heat for urban heating is expected to hit the ground next year.

CTOnews.com, December 31 (Xinhua) Apple announced in 2017 that it would collect heat from the operation of data centers in Denmark and transfer it to urban heating systems. The project sounds wonderful, but it was shelved for more than five years due to technical constraints and other factors. But with energy costs soaring, Apple and the local government are now becoming more interested in the plan, which could be launched in 2023.

In addition to the full use of renewable energy in building the Danish data center, Apple also hopes to collect excess heat and input it into the local heating system for use in nearby towns. But nearly six years later, the project has been shelved by Apple.

However, due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and other factors, there has been an energy shortage in Europe. There has been a huge increase in the use of power-hungry data centres, leading European officials to put pressure on the transfer of excess heat generated by computer chips to municipal heating networks.

Officials in the town of Viborg in Denmark have pushed Apple to connect its 485000-square-foot data center to its local heating system. CTOnews.com learned that Apple said it was working with local officials to study how to use the plant's heat.

"the pressure on energy supply has been increasing in recent years," said Niels Fuglsang, a Danish member of the European Parliament. "if we can ensure that we use the heat of the data center, we can save energy costs and do something good for the climate."