It has been four years since Apple's data center in Tjele near Viborg was put into operation. The plan was to utilize the surplus heat from the servers and send it out to district heating users in Viborg. But that has not happened yet.
And this has now put the heating company Viborg Varme on the spot. It has become an open letter to the Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard (M). He is urged to abolish a special price cap that has been placed on the use of surplus heat.
- We are writing to you in order to point out the importance of the "price cap for surplus heat" being repealed as soon as possible, as it costs district heating users in Viborg a lot of money every day, the letter says.
Apple has offered Viborg's district heating customers to deliver the surplus heat from the company's data center for free. But Viborg Varme has so far had to refuse and instead buy and heat with natural gas. It costs the district heating company three million DKK per month, estimates Viborg Varme.
Blocks green and cheap heat
Director Morten Abildgaard believes that the price cap blocks green and cheaper heat for district heating customers in Viborg.
- In Viborg, the price cap serves no other purpose than to slow down the green transition and increase the cost of heating. It is bureaucracy of the worst kind that we have to say no to free green surplus heat and buy black natural gas instead, says Morten Abildgaard in a press release from the organization Synergi, which works to reduce energy waste.
The district heating companies' trade organization, Dansk Fjernvarme, has also advocated for the price cap to be removed. There are several examples across the country where surplus heat could be utilized, but is not, says the organization.
- The price cap must go. This is what we and the entire green sector are still waiting for, so that we can move forward with the green transition and otherwise fulfill the political ambitions for increased use of surplus heat, says Director of Danish District Heating Kim Mortensen in the press release.
/ritzau/
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