Do Data Centers Cause Heat Islands? A New Study Says No

Data centers continue to be a hot button topic and was a key issue in the recent midterm elections. One emerging topic centers around the role of data centers in producing localized heat islands. There are limited studies on the topic, but a new study suggests they may not be heat island sources. However, this discussion is likely far from being settled.

What Do We Know So Far?

Not much frankly. In May, I discussed research by David Sailor and colleagues at Arizona State University. The 2026 study published in the Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities was entitled “Data Center Waste Heat as an Emerging Urban Thermal Hazard: First Field Measurements of Neighborhood-Scale Air Temperature Impacts.” Prior to this study, scholars in England used satellite-derived land surface temperature data to establish that data centers had increased temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius. They referred to the phenomenon as the Data Center Heat Island Effect. That study gained immediate media attention but was met with skepticism by some researchers due to the use of satellite data, assumptions made, and methodology.

The ASU study, unlike the aforementioned study, used local transects around data centers to measure air temperature rather than the surface temperature. David Sailor, whom I have collaborated with on urban heat island research told me, "Data centers consume massive amounts of energy, and hence emit massive amounts of waste heat, but their direct thermal impact on nearby neighborhoods has remained largely unmeasured—until now.” I first became aware of this new work through a post on Sailor’s LinkedIn page. A single 169 MW data center campus rejects waste heat equivalent to that emitted by nearly 200,000 households, concentrated in an area equivalent to less than a few hundred residential parcels,” He went on to say.