While most people are trying to escape the heat this summer, Matt Craggs with Matt Bagwell continuing to plan how to use it — data centre style.

In their latest sun-drenched brainstorm, the Deep Green Matts tackled a burning question they keep getting asked, “What happens to your heat recovery in the summer?”

The short answer? 

We still use it.

The hosts we're partner with to, from greenhouses to shrimp farms to biomass dryers, and even our swimming pools partners don’t take a holiday.

"Hot water demand doesn’t stop in summer."

Similarly, To meet ongoing demand, Matt and the engineering team is exploring a range of thermal storage methods, including buffer tanks for short-term load smoothing, storage via massive pits filled with hot water and ground source arrays to recharge and store thermal energy across seasons

This isn’t science fiction; it’s already happening.

Matt cited a project in Meldorf, Germany that store up to 1,500 MWh of heat energy during the summer and in periods if there is a lower demand for heat, then reuses it in winter, achieving energy efficiency and cost savings.

They also toyed with the idea of workload shifting: sending computing tasks to where heat is useful or electricity is cheapest - basically, the Airbnb of workloads.

So stay tuned — the Matts are heating things up this summer (and in a good way).