Frozen food warehouse now heats Vantaa homes

A giant frozen food warehouse in Vantaa is now supplying district heating to local homes, according to a report by Yle. The waste heat from KWH Freeze’s storage facility, previously vented into the atmosphere, is being captured and fed into Vantaa Energia’s district heating network.

The facility generates 42 gigawatt-hours of heat annually, enough to cover the average consumption of 2,300 detached houses. The waste heat currently accounts for just over 2% of Vantaa’s district heating demand, but the utility aims to raise that share to 20% by 2035.

Vantaa Energia is in negotiations with multiple industrial sites to expand waste heat recovery. Half of the 2035 target is expected to come from existing sources, said the company’s energy services director, Matti Wallin.

Waste heat utilization is cost-effective and low-emission, according to Sanna Syri, professor of energy technology and economy at Aalto University. She noted that Finland has significantly increased its use of waste heat over the past decade, driven by rising fuel and emissions permit costs, as well as falling electricity prices for heat pumps, which are needed to raise waste heat to usable temperatures.

While Vantaa has lagged in waste heat adoption—previously sourcing it only from a small data center—the city’s large waste-to-energy plant has reduced pressure to seek alternatives. Nationally, a 2020 study found that over 90% of technically recoverable waste heat was still being wasted.

Data centers offer greater heat potential but come with higher risks, requiring new land, power generation, and transmission. Vantaa Energia’s strategy prioritizes diversifying waste heat sources to mitigate dependency on any single project, Wallin said.