Building the Thermal Plug standard · Thermal infrastructure for the AI era
Dimitri Wolf
Dimitri Wolf is Principal, Data Center Systems at aquatherm GmbH, leading thermal-infrastructure markets across 28 countries. He is building the Thermal Plug — a standardized bidirectional thermal interface — with SCY:MO as its data and control layer, turning the AI-era thermal load and Germany's mandatory waste-heat (Abwärme) platform into bankable district-energy infrastructure. His earlier work integrated multi-MW power infrastructure into Google's Hamina datacenter (via Siemens) and built Shell Energy's market across the CIS region. Mechanical engineer (MEng); VDI member since 2013; DIN standardization committee member. Based in Frankfurt am Main.
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
Model-Predictive Dispatch
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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Thermal Plug · The Standard
Thermal Plug — The Site
The dedicated home of the standard: the two connection classes, the 19-parameter data exchange, the classified German register, and the road from Germany to a global interface — from the age that wasted heat to the age that plumbs it.
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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
Standards Work · DIN & CEN
District Heating Standardization — DIN & European CEN
DIN standardization committee member 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.
More Interesting Topics
Beyond Thermal Infrastructure
Virgin
A separate piece, already published on dotdoc.de.