In Finland, forest industry and energy technology provider Valmet Oyj has announced that it will supply its Valmet DNA Automation technology to a data center heat recovery concept developed by energy utility Fortum Oyj, and Microsoft. The project is one of a kind: there is no data center heat recovery concept of a similar scale anywhere else in the world.
According to a statement, Valmet DNA Automation technology will control water-to-water heat pumps, air-to-water heat pumps, and two electric boilers at two Fortum Power and Heat Oy’s heat pump plants to be built in Espoo and Kirkkonummi, Finland.
Valmet’s total scope of delivery, the value of which has not been disclosed, will include Valmet DNA Automation Systems and Valmet DNA User Interface both to the Kolabacken heat plant in Kirkkonummi and the Hepokorpi heat plant in Espoo.
In the data center heat recovery project, the heat pump plants will recycle emission-free excess heat from Microsoft’s two planned large data center areas to Fortum’s existing district heating network.
The data centers will eventually provide 40 percent of the consumed heat in the network area.
Fortum’s district heat in Finland will be produced coal-free during 2024 and carbon-neutrally before 2030.
The excess heat offtake project from Microsoft’s data center areas is our flagship project in decarbonizing our district heat production. We wanted to ensure that the automation technology partner is reliable and has the exact solutions we need. Valmet has a convincing track record in our other production sites, which made our choice quite straightforward, said Teemu Nieminen, Director of Project Execution at Fortum’s Heating and Cooling business in Finland.
Valmet’s delivery to Kirkkonummi will be taken over by the customer in September 2025, and the delivery to Espoo in December 2025.
We are excited to be involved in turning Fortum’s district heat production carbon neutral in Finland. The heat pump plants are part of Fortum’s district heating system, including the Suomenoja power plant in Espoo which has been running with Valmet’s automation for years. In the future, the new plants can be controlled and monitored remotely from the Suomenoja power plant. We have earlier supplied similar Valmet DNA Automation Systems to Fortum’s Vermo 2 and Mankkaa heat pump plants, said Tom Bäckman, Sales Manager, Automation Systems, Valmet.
