A2A inaugurates a data center in Brescia that recovers energy for district heating of homes

Brescia confirms itself as the first laboratory of the ecological transition. A2A has inaugurated, in the Lamarmora power plant, a new data center designed by the French company Qarnot which, thanks to an advanced liquid cooling system, allows the recovery of thermal energy at high temperatures, up to 65°C, to be directly fed into the grid to bring heat to buildings.

“Once again Brescia confirms itself as a laboratory city, experimenting with increasingly advanced technologies to improve the level of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere” commented Laura Castelletti , mayor of Brescia. “A2A accompanies us in the evolution towards increasingly sustainable prospects”.

The project represents one of the first applications in Italy of heat recovery from data centers, the first in a city network with liquid cooling technology, and responds to the global energy challenge of exploiting waste heat from digital infrastructures to produce useful thermal energy for cities. When fully operational, it will meet the heating needs of over 1,350 apartments , avoiding the emission into the atmosphere of 3,500 tons of CO2 per year, equivalent to the absorption capacity of over 22,000 trees .

This initiative therefore continues the path started by A2A to make district heating increasingly sustainable, through the various projects for the recovery and valorization of decarbonized heat sources available in the area: from that produced by the waste-to-energy plant and its fumes to that coming from other industrial sources such as the Alfa Acciai and Ori Martin steelworks, up to the use of thermal accumulators for the storage of hot water.

“The rapid spread of data centers and the growing electrification of consumption require significant investments in electricity networks to support the increased demand for energy,” explained Renato Mazzoncini , CEO of A2A. “This is not just a technological advantage, but an asset for urban decarbonization: with district heating 4.0, networks become intelligent systems, capable of integrating any thermal waste and accelerating the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. From this perspective, Brescia confirms itself as a model, not only nationally”.

Thanks to these solutions, which have contributed to reducing the use of gas , 83% of the heat distributed in Brescia in 2024 came from non-fossil sources. A share destined to grow further thanks to the contribution of computational processes in data centers. Their operation generates large quantities of heat that, instead of being dispersed, can be recovered to heat buildings without resorting to fossil sources.

For Qarnot, this initiative represents a major expansion at European level, made possible thanks to the collaboration with A2A. Qarnot provides a high-performance, intuitive platform designed to simplify numerical simulations ( CAE , Computer-Aided Engineering) in a cloud environment. Developed to support innovation in sectors such as aerospace, automotive and energy, the platform allows to manage intensive computational loads while minimizing environmental impact, thanks to a low-emission infrastructure. A distinctive element is the direct control that Qarnot exercises over the entire value chain of its HPC cloud: from the design of sustainable data centers to the provision of high-performance computing services.

“This first project in Italy represents a strategic milestone for Qarnot,” said Paul Benoit , CEO and co-founder of Qarnot. “Made possible thanks to the collaboration with A2A, it allows us to respond to the growing demand of the Italian market for high-performance cloud solutions (HPC), energy efficient and able to guarantee a high level of technological autonomy. By designing data centers capable of generating reusable heat, we combine performance, sustainability and value creation in the territory.”