Use case · AI data centres

Waste to power and cooling for AI data centres

A city's waste powers its servers, and cools them.

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The waste-to-power and cooling campus, containerised units standing beside the data centre

The film

Cooling the machine

Cooling the Machine · 2:39 · A Zero-X presentation by EXOS

The challenge

Power and heat, in the same city

AI is pushing data-centre power demand to new heights: data-centre electricity use is set to more than double by 2030 (IEA, Energy and AI, 2025). Every watt of compute becomes heat that must be removed, and cooling is one of the largest loads a data centre carries. At the same time, cities produce more than two billion tonnes of municipal waste a year, and much of it is dumped or burned in the open (UNEP, Global Waste Management Outlook 2024).

Rooftop chillers and cooling plant on a data-centre building — Cooling on the roof

The containerised waste-to-power plant and the solar field standing beside the data centre

The solution

One campus, three energy sources

Beside the data centre, the city's waste becomes gas in a row of X-150 units; one engine turns that gas into firm power; a solar field carries the daytime peak; and adsorption chillers turn the engine's waste heat into cold water for the racks. Five steps connect them into one energy loop.

The process

Five steps, one energy loop

A row of containerised X-150 units standing side by side at the waste plant

Waste in

The city's municipal waste is sorted, dried and fed into a row of X-150 units.

The energy campus revealed, the containerised waste-to-power plant standing beside the data centre

Clean gas, firm power

Ten X-150 units turn it into clean fuel gas without burning it; one large engine turns it into firm power, day and night. Ten X-150s give 1.5 to 1.8 MW. Need more? Add units.

Rows of solar panels at noon beside the campus

Solar for the peak

A solar field carries the daytime peak; the waste plant carries the night. The grid only fills the gaps.

A row of adsorption chillers, their heat exchangers and pipework exposed for inspection

Waste heat becomes cooling

The engine's heat, usually wasted, drives adsorption chillers developed in Germany by our partner Sorption Technologies. Water is the refrigerant, and they need only a fraction of the electricity of a conventional chiller.

Liquid-cooled server racks with their chilled-water manifolds

Cold racks

Chilled water flows straight to liquid-cooled racks. The servers are cooled by waste heat. AI monitors every unit, every second.

In one line

Every megawatt-hour taken off the grid matters.

Benefits

What the data centre gets

Firm, local power around the clock, beside a full grid.

Cooling from waste heat instead of electric chillers.

Less grid demand at the time grids are struggling to keep up.

The city's waste becomes energy instead of landfill or open burning; clean biochar remains.

Modular and movable: containerised units installed in about a week; add units as the campus grows.

Where it fits

Cities with waste, and a grid under strain

New data-centre campuses in or beside cities that already collect municipal waste, where a grid connection is slow or the local grid is already tight: Oman, the Middle East, North Africa and southern Europe.

The waste-to-power and cooling campus running at night, its units lit beside the data centre

Waste in. Power and cooling out.

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Cooling technology by Sorption Technologies, developed in Germany. Film: a Zero-X presentation by EXOS.