This Paris Olympics pool has an unusual heat source: a data center

The only indoor facility built specifically for the Paris games is having a watershed moment.

As part of organizers’ sustainability goals, the Olympics Aquatics Center—the venue hosting the diving, artistic swimming, and water polo competitions—draws heat from sources in the neighborhood, including emissions from a nearby data center that digital infrastructure company Equinix operates.

The model is one that Noah Nkonge, Equinix’s heat export lead, said he hopes gains traction after its showcase on the world stage.

“There’s an interest in what can be done from an energy-efficiency perspective, what can be done to give back to the community,” he told Tech Brew. “At Equinix, we’re committed to doing that, to being a leader, to finding those solutions that will improve our company’s energy efficiency, because it does benefit our customers, but it also benefits those communities.”

In Paris, as across the world, data centers are a critical link providing the processing power for all manner of online experiences, from searching for an address in Google Maps and booking a hotel to supporting caregiving and record-management in hospitals. The IT infrastructure that carries out these processes inside data centers generates a lot of heat; in Paris, the output from the Equinix center is enough to heat about 1,000 homes.

Without an energy-sharing arrangement, that heat is released into the atmosphere. But with the right partners on board, the byproduct can instead be released into heat-distribution networks and redirected to places it’s needed.

The plan for heating the Olympics Aquatics Center started roughly two years before the games, Nkonge said, including discussions with a local utility provider. The heat partnership, which generally involves fans moving heat from the data center and transferring it into water, went live in July, and it’s been smooth sailing since, he said.

Paris joins other Equinix energy projects in Finland, Canada, and Switzerland, and the company is eyeing “tens of other projects” for the future across Europe, the US, and the Asia Pacific region, Nkonge said.

In the meantime, the aquatics center’s green legacy will live on beyond the Olympics’ closing ceremony. Organizers noted that by next summer, the facility will be converted into a multipurpose recreation center offering swimming as well as rock climbing and other activities.