District heating: Using data centers to heat communities

Data centers use electricity generated elsewhere and due to inefficiency convert a sizeable fraction of that electricity to heat.

Sending the electricity generated elsewhere directly to the district is a much more efficient way to heat the district.

The idea of a data center heating a community would make sense if a data center generated power instead of merely consuming it inefficiently. Building infrastructure that used heat from data centers would have diminishing returns as data centers become more efficient.