New green energy for the A2A district heating network and the decarbonization of the city, in collaboration with the DBA Group and thanks to the heat coming from Retelit’s Avalon 3
Milan, 6 August 2024 – In Milan, Italy's first industrial partnership for the recovery of heat from data centres to be used in district heating: thanks to A2A, in collaboration with DBA Group and Retelit, the energy generated by Avalon 3, the most recent hyperconnected and sustainable data centre of Italy’s leading B2B telecommunications company, will fuel the city network in the Municipio 6 district.
The project will make it possible to serve 1,250 families more each year, allowing an energy saving of 1,300 tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE) and avoiding the emission of 3,300 tonnes of CO2 with environmental benefits equal to the contribution of 24,000 trees.
The buildings which house the servers handle a huge amount of data necessary for IT systems and are, by their nature, very energy greedy. Their energy requirement is destined to increase in order to support the technological developments related to generative artificial intelligence: in fact, online research using AI requires 10 times more electricity than traditional research. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), by 2026, data centres’ demand for energy could more than double. At the same time, the cooling processes of the server components release great quantities of decarbonized heat which, if not harnessed, would be dispersed.
The project foresees the creation of a plant, operational in the early months of 2026, thanks to which the heat waste of Retelit’s Avalon 3 data centre – which, with its more than 3,500 square metres and 3.2 MW of power, is the biggest Internet interconnection hub in Italy – will be fed into the district heating infrastructure managed by A2A Heat and Services, increasing the amount of green energy available to families in the western part of the city. The new plant will annually supply the network with 2.5 MWt of thermal power and an increase of 15 GWh of recoverable energy.
"Thanks to this industrial agreement, which makes possible the first project of this kind in Italy, Milan confirms its status as one of the cities at the forefront in the ecological transition,” commented Luca Rigoni, managing director of A2A Heat and Services. “We will be the first to recover heat from the cooling system of servers which would otherwise be dispersed and to deliver it to the homes of Milan through our district heating network. An example of the efficient and circular use of resources, and confirmation of our constant commitment to the decarbonization of cities by means of innovative technologies.”
“One of the mainstays of our strategy is sustainability. In particular, this involves optimising all aspects of the energy efficiency of data centres,” stated Roberta Neri, chairwoman of Retelit. "We are therefore proud to invest in this pioneering project which - the first of its kind in Italy - will transform the heat generated by our Avalon 3, already constructed 100% green, into thermal energy for families in the Milan area. With the strong and steady growth of data centres in our country, too, we believe that it is essential to ensure sustainable development, making a concrete commitment to the reduction of the environmental impact: we are striving to expand and upgrade these infrastructures which are vital for the economic growth and digitalization of Italy – and which enable technologies like IA and the Cloud – and we do so well aware of the importance of managing the environmental consequences, given the high level of energy consumption. Contributing to a project for the recycling of heat generated by Avalon 3 so as to provide heating for the local community is an important step forward in this direction: a way to ‘give back’ some of the energy that the data centre uses.”
“This project,” said Raffaele De Bettin, CEO of DBA Group, “sees us fully involved in the provision of the engineering services necessary for the correct re-use of surplus heat coming from the data centre in Via Bisceglie, Milan, and makes it possible to supply new energy to the surrounding area. It is an activity which falls within the scope of a more far-reaching plan to support the energy, digital and ecological transition of the country, mainstays of our 2026 Industrial Plan. The re-use of energy is crucial if we wish to move concretely towards a circular economy: the exploitation of the power of a data centre like Avalon 3 is an example of the right way to go. Tasks like this one, together with other projects which we are carrying out in other markets, allow us not only to play a leading role alongside others who, like us, are deeply involved in the decarbonization process, but also to make a decisive contribution in the improvement of the environment and of people’s quality of life.”
DBA Group, listed on the Euronext Growth Milan market of Borsa Italiana and one of Italy’s leading firms for technical consultancy, engineering, project management and ICT solutions for the management of the life cycle of mission-critical plant and infrastructures – through its DBA PRO subsidiary – is tasked with the planning and project management of the heat recovery plant. It will also handle definition of the plant creation work, including the engineering of the complete prefabricated container for internal equipment, and will manage all the structural and plant testing. The project is being developed using BIM methodology to ensure quality, fewer errors and greater control of times and costs.
Contacts
A2A
Giuseppe Mariano, Head of Media Relations, Social Networking and Web
Silvia Merlo – Riccardo Argentino, Press office
ufficiostampa@a2a.it
Tel. [+39] 02 77204535
RETELIT
Gabriella Marzuillo, MarCom
gabriella.marzuillo@retelit.it - Mob. +39 348 2543110
Barabino & Partners, Media Relations
Paola Cuccia - p.cuccia@barabino.it - Mob. +39 335 7552910
Francesco Ziveri - f.ziveri@barabino.it - Mob. +39 347 6287038
DBA Group
DBA Group press office – SEC Newgate Italia
Nicole Zancanella - nicole.zancanella@secnewgate.it - Tel. +39 349 7553217
Fabio Santilio – fabio.santilio@secnewgate.it - Tel. +39 339 8446521
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A2A
Stock Exchange-listed, with a workforce of over 13,000, A2A Group operates in the generation, sale and distribution of energy and the sale and distribution of gas, district heating, the waste cycle, e-mobility, smart services for towns and cities, public lighting and the integrated water cycle. Sustainability is at the heart ofA2A’s industrial strategy; to promote Italy’s sustainable growth and to make the energy transition and circular economy concrete realities, its industrial plan foresees investments totalling 22 billion euros by 2035 in projects aligned with the UN Agenda.
DBA GROUP
DBA GROUP, a holding company operating in the ICT, PMO and Architecture and Engineering sectors, was founded by the De Bettin brothers in 1991. Among the top 10 engineering companies in Italy according to Norsa’s “Report 2023 on the Italian architecture, engineering and construction industry”, the Group has 25 offices worldwide, of which 15 in Italy, four in Slovenia, one in Montenegro, one in Serbia, one in Croatia, one in Bosnia Herzegovina, one in Azerbaijan, one in Albania. The Group, which reported a value of production of 112.1 million euros in 2023, has a current workforce of over 950 people.
RETELIT
Retelit is one of Italy's leading telecommunications companies, focussing on the B2B market and offering a range of digital and infrastructure solutions nationwide. With 25 years of experience, strong vertical skills, enabled also thanks to an ecosystem of strategic partners, Retelit is the ideal partner for companies, public authorities, telco and OTT operators seeking to tackle the challenges of innovation. Retelit offers a full range of ICT services, from infrastructures to data, from networks to service management. The combination of Retelit’s property assets (an extensive optic fibre network in Italy and abroad, a network of nationwide data centres and international submarine cables) and its know-how in the spheres of innovation and digital technology has created a unique player in Italy, able to support clients in their digital transformation. Retelit is controlled by Asterion Industrial Partners. To find out more, visit retelit.it