"We have previously researched this with, among other things, Vattenfall and Bodens municipality. The difference this time is that we this time are going into more detail about how new types of greenhouse can be designed to utilize waste heat from data centers including lighting and humidity.
By involving stakeholders in food production, we can both develop and evaluate greenhouse solutions", says Marcus Sandberg, researcher in Construction Management and Building Technology at Luleå University of Technology In the Nordic countries, there are major challenges for the agricultural industry in terms of significant climate constraints, but there are also potentials for energy sources that can make agriculture more sustainable and help achieve the food supply objective in the government's strategy.
"The purpose of this project is to find technical, economic and social synergies between greenhouse gases and data centers that can help make agriculture competitive and sustainable in the Nordic region", says Agatino Rizzo, Associate Professor in Urban Planning at Luleå University of Technology. Many farms in Sweden have high production costs due to the need for added energy and tend to grow a single crop to optimize profit. However, this is a vulnerable business model, as it reduces the adaptability of farmers to market changes.
The project is funded by Vinnova (4.6 mSEK) and involves researchers from RISE - Research Institutes of Sweden (Mattias Westerlund), The department of Civil Engineering (Agatino Rizzo, Marcus Sandberg), The Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering (Andreas Johansson), and the Foodprint Lab company (Cristina Ramos, and Suzanna Törnroth).
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