> Why not use all that wasted heat energy to power all these datacenters?
Probably not profitable enough to set up the infrastructure to capture, store, transport, and sell that as a product. Profit potential is the only factor that matters to decision makers.
That makes sense for existing infrastructure, taking waste heat from data centers and piping it through existing public systems. Especially for government environments like Denmark.
I wonder what profits would need to be for a private energy company to install additional equipment at a remote fracking site to capture the burn off energy to then sell to a data center to then use.
The problem is finding a well-located user of the waste heat. Homes and offices are great in colder countries. Some industry can use it, but the examples I can think of (food/drink, heat for drying paint, making paper, some chemical/drug processes) aren't usually sited in the middle of nowhere.
Probably not profitable enough to set up the infrastructure to capture, store, transport, and sell that as a product. Profit potential is the only factor that matters to decision makers.