Green Mountain signs agreement to heat land-based trout farm

Green Mountain, the Norwegian colocation company, has entered into an agreement with Hima Seafood to reuse waste warm water from the company’s local data center to grow trout at the farm in Rjukan, Norway.

The Recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility, located 800 meters from the DC2-Telemark data center, will reportedly produce 9,000 tonnes of trout each year once fully operational. This will make it the largest land-based trout farm in the world.

The agreement will mean that Green Mountain reduces its environmental footprint by repurposing its waste heat, transported to the RAS facility via a pipe system.

Once it arrives at the facility, heat exchanger technology will ensure it is the correct temperature for the RAS solution. Then the water, at a cooler temperature, will return to Green Mountain and be used to cool its servers. This, Green Mountain’s Tor Kristian Gyland says, is a “breakthrough example of circular economy” and a significant push towards setting the “green standard.

Hima Seafood CEO, Sten Falkum, agreed and called the project a “win-win solution for both parties.”

Of course, this agreement follows Green Mountain’s other recent aquaculture announcement regarding the development of an on-land lobster farm, to be built next to its DC1-Stavanger data center in Rennesøy. The project will see the farm use cooling water from the center, and it is another example of Green Mountain acting on its green vision.