You would be amazed at how much gets ripped up and rebuilt in cities all the time. The idea would be to start with existing stock. A lot of cities have tons of vacant office space. Got a highrise? Make multiple floors your data center, all the piping can be run in interstitial space. The heat generated can be for the rest of the building or adjacent buildings. You can even run pipes under sidewalks to keep them from freezing in the winter. Many cities are doing this in very cold regions. Abandoned shopping malls are another opportunity. By the way, data centers won't be heavily staffed. A lot of highrise parking or shopping center parking can be freed up for non-tenant use.
Next, look at new construction. Big box stores going in? Put a data center under them. If a shopping district can have shops on ground level, with apartments above, why can't a data center be below it offering heat & hot water to the above ground uses? New construction would lend itself well to that.
It's a matter of looking at building in a different way. It's totally doable, you just need to get the people who want to conserve farm land and the architects who want to save the planet to team up against the mindset of every building needs it's own plot of land. This is totally something that can be incorporated into other projects, we just need to challenge ourselves to figure it out.
It’s a great idea but I don’t see how any city has the infrastructure for that aside from ripping up all the streets and adding new piping
You would be amazed at how much gets ripped up and rebuilt in cities all the time. The idea would be to start with existing stock. A lot of cities have tons of vacant office space. Got a highrise? Make multiple floors your data center, all the piping can be run in interstitial space. The heat generated can be for the rest of the building or adjacent buildings. You can even run pipes under sidewalks to keep them from freezing in the winter. Many cities are doing this in very cold regions. Abandoned shopping malls are another opportunity. By the way, data centers won't be heavily staffed. A lot of highrise parking or shopping center parking can be freed up for non-tenant use.
Next, look at new construction. Big box stores going in? Put a data center under them. If a shopping district can have shops on ground level, with apartments above, why can't a data center be below it offering heat & hot water to the above ground uses? New construction would lend itself well to that.
It's a matter of looking at building in a different way. It's totally doable, you just need to get the people who want to conserve farm land and the architects who want to save the planet to team up against the mindset of every building needs it's own plot of land. This is totally something that can be incorporated into other projects, we just need to challenge ourselves to figure it out.