March 15, 2023 - 1680 views
Aberconwy's MS Janet Finch-Saunders MS has highlighted the opportunities presented to councils to save money through innovative new technology.
The Member of the Welsh Parliament has asked Conwy County Borough Council to explore the results of a trail in Exmouth to utilise heat from a data centre in order to save on heating costs.
Speaking earlier, Janet said: “I am very pleased to hear of such an innovative scheme being used to save money.
“The heat being generated by this washing-machine-sized data centre is being used to heat a Devon public swimming pool.
“The computers inside the white box are surrounded by oil to capture the heat enough to heat the pool to about 30C 60% of the time, saving Exmouth Leisure Centre thousands of pounds.
“The data centre is provided to the council-run centre free of charge. Start-up Deep Green charges clients to use its computing power for artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“At a time of rapidly-rising bills, and Conwy County Borough Council levying the highest council tax rise in England and Wales these are the kinds of alternative solutions that council should be exploring.
“I have written to the leader of the council urging CCBC to take note of this success, and to look for other ways to save money and reduce the burden on hard-working taxpayers”.
