Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 25, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
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A2A and Qarnot's Brescia data centre uses waste heat for district heating, reducing CO2 emissions and heating 1,350 apartments.
BRESCIA, Italy -Italian utility A2A and French tech firm Qarnot on Wednesday inaugurated a data centre in Italy that aims to capture waste heat from computer servers and channel it directly into a local heating grid.
Located in the city of Brescia, in northern Italy, the facility uses liquid-cooling technology.
"The rapid spread of data centers and the growing electrification of consumption require major investments in power grids. But data centers also offer a remarkable opportunity for cities with district heating networks," A2A CEO Renato Mazzoncini said at the inauguration.
The Brescia project is expected to meet the heating needs of more than 1,350 apartments and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3,500 tons annually – equivalent to the absorption capacity of over 22,000 trees.
"In (the Italian region of) Lombardy alone, with projects already in the pipeline, we estimate that 150,000 apartments could be heated this way," Mazzoncini added.
The project addresses the growing global challenge of managing the environmental impact of digital infrastructure, which is increasingly energy-intensive.
Qarnot aims to expand its presence in Italy as a provider of high-performance computing services.
(Reporting by Giancarlo Navach. Editing by Mark Potter)
The data centre aims to capture waste heat from computer servers and channel it into a local district heating system.
The project is expected to meet the heating needs of more than 1,350 apartments.
It aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3,500 tons annually, equivalent to the absorption capacity of over 22,000 trees.
The facility utilizes liquid-cooling technology to efficiently manage heat.
In Lombardy alone, there are estimates that 150,000 apartments could be heated using similar projects already in the pipeline.
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