Octopus Energy’s generation arm has announced a £200 million investment in tech startup Deep Green.
The investment will help “rapidly scale” Deep Green’s heat-recapture cloud technology across the UK.
Last year, Current± sat down with Mark Bjornsgaard, CEO at Deep Green to learn more about the technology following the successful installation of its ‘digital boiler’ at Exmouth Leisure Centre in Devon, which helped the leisure centre cut it’s heating bill by over 60% according to the company.
Speaking to Current±, Bjornsgaard explained that as the computers from the data centre warm up, they heat the inert oils surrounding them, Deep Green then takes this heat by flowing the oil into a heat exchanger and puts it where the heat is required, in this case swimming pool water system.
This system also gives Deep Green free cooling for it’s data centres, which are installed on-site and do not require any additional grid upgrades or planning permission, according to Octopus.
The investment was made by Octopus Energy Generation’s Octopus Energy Transition Fund (OETF) and the Sky (ORI SCSp) fund it manages.
“To tackle the energy crisis head-on, we need innovative solutions to unusual problems. By using excess heat from data centres to slash energy bills for communities across the UK, Deep Green solves two problems with one solution,” said Zosia North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation.
Bjornsgaard added that he was “thrilled” by the finding from Octopus adding that with data centres facing scrutiny for their significant energy demand, their data centres are “highly energy efficient and support local communities with free heat.”
