Techno-Economic Assessment of Waste Heat Recovery from Data Centres for District Energy Integration

Data centres are growing massively to accommodate the growing need of digital services, along with an increased amount of energy used and high intensity of waste heat. While prior studies have explored individual technologies such as absorption cooling or Organic Rankine Cycles, systematic comparisons across multiple Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) solutions remain limited, especially when aligned with district energy integration. This research addresses that gap by applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in combination with stakeholder surveys to evaluate the techno-economic and environmental feasibility of all WHR options. Cases that have been studied show that a WHR system can make significant savings as far as operational costs and the savings on greenhouse gas emissions are concerned (up to 25 and 30 percent respectively). Among the alternatives assessed, Thermal Energy Storage (TES) emerged as the most favourable, achieving a composite AHP score of 0.78 due to its strong performance in both energy efficiency (0.83) and environmental impact (0.90). The study delivers scalable technical insights and a presentation of structured decision-making framework that advances smart energy integration of data centres and urban infrastructures and links the adoption of WHR to policy and sustainability goals.