Octopus Energy’s generation arm has invested £200 million in London-based Deep Green, which reuses the heat generated by data centres.
The investment will speed up the rollout of its ground-breaking technology across the UK, including public swimming pools and district heat networks.
The company claims that its tech enabled a public swimming pool in Devon (pictured) to slash its pool-heating bill by over 60%. Provided for free, Deep Green gets free cooling in return which allows it to offer more affordable, energy-efficient computing to businesses across the UK.
Current customers include York University while the company has signed partnerships with industry suppliers Civo and Alces Flight who offer the servers to their customers.
Installed on-site, Deep Green data centres in – for example – swimming pools don’t require additional grid upgrades or planning permission so can be up and running in a matter of weeks.
The investment is made via Octopus’ dedicated Octopus Energy Transition Fund (OETF) and the Sky (ORI SCSp) fund it manages.
“To tackle the energy crisis head-on, we need innovative solutions to unusual problems,” said Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation.
“By using excess heat from data centres to slash energy bills for communities across the UK, Deep Green solves two problems with one solution.
“We’re looking forward to rapidly rolling this out and positively impacting even more people as we drive towards a cleaner, cheaper energy future.”
Mark Bjornsgaard, founder and CEO of Deep Green, commented: “We are thrilled with Octopus’s commitment to support our next phase of growth. Placing data centres within the fabric of society transforms the waste heat they produce into a valuable resource that benefits communities.
“The data centre sector is rightly facing scrutiny about its growing energy demand and associated carbon emissions. Our data centres are highly energy efficient and support local communities with free heat.”
OETF launched in 2023 to scale companies in fast-growing sectors decarbonising society, from heating, to storage, low carbon transport and more.
Octopus has backed ground-source heat pump company Kensa Group through this fund.