Architect of the Thermal Plug Standard · Thermal Infrastructure for the AI Era

Dimitri Wolf

I am building the standardized bidirectional thermal interface that turns data centers from pure energy consumers into active nodes in district-scale thermal networks. The German government's mandatory Abwärme platform has created the market signal. The Thermal Plug + SCY:MO intelligence layer is the hardware and control architecture that makes that signal actionable at national scale. This is no longer a concept. It is the foundation for the next generation of thermal infrastructure companies that will win district-planning mandates and scale profitably.

M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering Principal, Data Center Systems · aquatherm GmbH Former Siemens AG · Shell Frankfurt am Main, Germany

On this site: Interview Series I–VII · Executive Profile · SCY:MO · Publications

Published work & ongoing research

Interview I · Thermal Infrastructure

The Thermal Plug

Why the next data center race is not about power — and what a standardized thermal export interface changes about the entire asset class.

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Interview II · Bidirectional Thermal Utility

The Reverse Thermal Plug

Hot when compute loads are high. Cold when loads are low. One interface, two directions, continuous value — the data center as a thermal trading node.

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Interview II · Extension · Three-Port Thermal Plug

The Three-Port Thermal Plug

Port 3 adds a LiBr absorption chiller that turns waste heat back into chilled water — the data center cools itself. Plus a global validation of operating heat-reuse projects and a deep-geothermal (EGS) extension of the interface.

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Interview III · 2026 · Read

Built for Heat

The enclosure that produces the heat and the Thermal Plug that exports it are one design problem. What the data center looks like when thermal output is engineered, not managed — and where it leaves for the grid.

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Interview IV · 2026 · Heat as Infrastructure

Heat as a Seed

Greenhouses, algae, aquaculture — three businesses already run on waste heat that would otherwise be thrown away. What grows when a stable thermal source is treated as infrastructure: from the campus site plan out to the long logic of terraforming.

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Interview V · 2026 · The PfA Register

Use What You Own

Germany made its industrial waste heat visible by law — a public register of 24,000+ sources, named and located. I classified the whole register by Thermal Plug compatibility. Much of the heat companies call "not retrofittable" is already theirs to export: the interface goes on the outside of a pipe they already own.

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Interview VI · Coming · AAS & ML Dispatch

The Intelligence Layer

AAS-ready submodel profiles, ML-based dispatch, and thermal energy storage as a managed buffer asset — the control architecture that makes the Thermal Plug model-predictive rather than reactive.

Coming soon

Interview VII · Coming · Passive Cooling

The Exhaust

Heat that cannot be used goes somewhere. At the limit of what is possible, it goes to deep space — without moving parts, without power, through an atmospheric window eight microns wide.

Coming soon

Executive Profile · 2026

Dimitri Wolf — Executive Profile

One-page profile covering positioning, credentials, career, and core assets. Formatted for print and for direct distribution to investors, partners, and search committees.

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SCY:MO · Simulation-Native Infrastructure

The Intelligence Layer

AAS-Ready submodel profiles and ML-based dispatch intelligence for thermal infrastructure. The control architecture that makes the Thermal Plug model-predictive — not reactive.

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Expert Contributions & Publications

Featured Expert Interview · District Heating · 2026

Magazyn Ciepła Systemowego — Issue 60-4

Featured expert on the transformation of district heating toward 5th generation networks, the integration of waste heat from data centers as active thermal nodes, and the systemic case for standardized thermal interfaces in European energy infrastructure. Topics: bidirectional thermal exchange, low-temperature networks, and the data center as a thermal prosumer.

Głos Energetyki / Magazyn Ciepła Systemowego — Polish District Heating Association

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Standards Work · DIN & CEN

District Heating Standardization — DIN & European CEN

Active member of the DIN committee for plastic welding in district heating networks and participant in European CEN working groups on district heating and cooling systems. Focus: technical standards for reliable, future-proof thermal infrastructure at the network-to-source interface.

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