A new approach leveraging solar water heaters could help data centers reclaim up to 8% of the electricity they currently waste, according to researchers exploring ways to improve energy efficiency in AI-driven computing infrastructure. As artificial intelligence systems grow more powerful and demand for data centers expands, so too does their energy consumption—much of which is dissipated as heat. Traditional data centers generate massive amounts of waste heat during operation, often requiring extensive cooling systems that consume additional electricity. Instead of discarding this thermal energy, scientists propose capturing it using solar water heating systems. These systems can use the excess heat to warm water, which can then be used for space heating, industrial processes, or even to support district heating networks. The concept, referred to as a “solar bump,” combines waste heat recovery with solar thermal technology. By integrating solar water heaters into the cooling infrastructure of data centers, the systems can simultaneously reduce cooling loads and generate usable thermal energy—effectively turning waste into a valuable resource. Researchers estimate that this hybrid approach could recover enough energy to meet about 8% of a typical AI data center’s total electricity demand. While that may seem modest, it represents a meaningful reduction in energy use and carbon emissions, especially when scaled across thousands of facilities worldwide. The strategy is particularly promising for data centers located in regions with high solar exposure and cold climates, where both heating and cooling demands are significant. In such environments, the dual benefits of waste heat recovery and solar thermal input can maximize efficiency gains. This innovation aligns with broader industry efforts to make AI infrastructure more sustainable. As global data center energy use continues to rise—driven by AI training and inference workloads—solutions that repurpose waste energy are becoming increasingly vital. Solar water heaters offer a low-tech, scalable, and cost-effective method to improve the energy footprint of next-generation computing hubs.