Brescia’s Data Center Revolution: Turning Waste Heat into Urban Value
When A2A set out to launch a new data center at its Lamarmora plant in Brescia, Italy, the challenge was clear: how could a city of 200,000 people turn the growing energy demands of digital infrastructure into local benefit? The answer came through a pioneering partnership with Qarnot and RackRenew — transforming the data center from a traditional energy consumer into a vital source of sustainable urban heat.
Harnessing Waste Heat for Citywide Benefit
Data centers are notorious for their energy consumption and the vast amounts of heat they generate — heat that typically goes to waste. A2A, one of Italy’s largest utility companies, wanted to flip that narrative. The goal: capture server-generated heat and use it to warm homes and buildings across Brescia.
The challenge was to design a system that could efficiently recover high-temperature thermal energy and integrate it into the city’s existing district heating grid — all while supporting high-performance computing needs for Italian industries.
Liquid-Cooled HPC Servers Powering a Circular Economy
Qarnot, a French innovator in sustainable IT, deployed advanced liquid-cooled pods housing RackRenew’s remanufactured OCP servers at the Lamarmora plant. This setup captures thermal energy at up to 65°C, which is then fed directly into Brescia’s district heating network.
The data center serves as a national HPC cloud provider, supporting Italian industries with high-performance computing while ensuring energy efficiency. The collaboration showcases how second-life servers can power demanding applications while contributing to urban heating. A first for Italy, and a milestone for Europe.
Sustainable Heat, Scalable Impact
“This first deployment in Italy is a strategic milestone for Qarnot. Made possible through our collaboration with A2A and RackRenew, it gives us the opportunity to address the Italian market’s growing needs for sovereign, energy-efficient cloud computing tailored to High-Performance Computing.”
Paul Benoit — CEO & Co-founder, Qarnot
Compute and sustainability as reinforcing priorities
This project demonstrates what happens when circular IT infrastructure meets smart urban planning. Instead of treating compute and sustainability as competing priorities, A2A, Qarnot, and RackRenew built a system where they reinforce each other.
