Business opportunities in waste heat utilization in Norway : a new business research for the cloud data center pilot project at the Norwegian center for energy transition studies (NTRANS)
This master thesis is a contribution to Statkraft's data center pilot project supported by User Case
2 of the Norwegian Center for Energy Transition Studies (NTRANS). NTRANS is researching
the role of the energy system in the transition to a zero-emission society. NTRANS researches
the development of environmentally friendly energy from a social science perspective, and in the
interaction between technology and society. The research in NTRANS is building a knowledge
base for the road to and the consequences of energy and climate change in Norway. NTRANS is
working to understand how restructuring can give the business community opportunities for
innovation and value creation.
NTRANS includes various User Cases to address current issues in close dialogue with user
partners (experts and stakeholders). User Case 2 (UC2) is about green power and industry and it
is chaired by SINTEF, which is one of Europe’s largest independent research organizations. UC2
deals with the potential of new renewable power production (focus on offshore wind power) and
the attraction of new power-intensive industries, and possible interaction between them in
Norway. There are two pilot projects in UC2. Statkraft is leading one of them. Statkraft is
Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy and is proactive in the electrification of the
economy. This master thesis was developed to provide a business model innovation perspective
to the pilot data center project by Statkraft. The objective of this research is to feed the funnel of
new business opportunities to create more value out of the utilization of waste heat from cloud
data centers in Norway