MicroLink Data Centers · Boston 50 kW Pilot Hosts
Prepared 18 May 2026 / Sites Under Review / Working Document

Three small footprint sitesunder technical review

A working summary of the three 50 kW host site categories MicroLink is reviewing for the Boston pilot programme. All three sit outside the megawatt scale host categories. All three carry the year round thermal demand and the tight footprint that the 50 kW form factor is designed for.

Site one
Hospital Laundry
Boston metro
Site two
Aquaculture
Massachusetts coastal
Site three
Affordable Housing
Boston · BERDO retrofit
Form factor
50 kW
Cabinet, liquid cooled
Status
Under review
Technical assessment phase
00 Frame
MicroLink's 50 kW cabinet is purpose built for sites that a containerised megawatt deployment cannot serve. Each of the three sites under review has a continuous thermal load between 30 and 120 kW, a tight footprint, and a regulatory or operational pressure that makes verified low carbon heat the right answer. Hospital laundry runs at the highest continuous thermal duty of any commercial process in Boston. Land based aquaculture's entire business model is precision water temperature. Affordable housing under BERDO retrofit faces a 2030 emissions cap with no clean alternative to gas boilers at scale. This document summarises what each site offers and how a 50 kW unit fits.
Section 01 · The three sites

The three sites at a glancesame form factor, three host types

Same 50 kW cabinet at each site. Three host categories with different thermal load profiles, different counterparty shapes, and different regulatory pathways. All three offer the characteristics that the small form factor is designed for.

Site 01 · Under review
Hospital Laundryhealthcare linen processing
Industrial laundry · Boston metro

Industrial laundry serving Boston hospital systems including Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Lahey, Boston Children's, and Dana-Farber. Linen processing runs at high temperature continuously. Hot water is the entire operation, with healthcare linen requiring 71 °C [160 °F] minimum wash temperature per CDC and Massachusetts DPH guidance.

Continuous duty
80 to 120kW thermal
Highest of the three sites
Process water
71 °C[160 °F] min
CDC and MA DPH minimum
Operating regime
16 to 24hr/day
6 to 7 days per week
BERDO use type
Healthcare15.4 to 10.0
2025 to 2030 cap, kg CO2e/SF/yr

Healthcare linen processing has the most stringent hot water temperature requirements of any commercial process in the city. Sanitation cycles, rinse cycles, and the wash floor itself all consume heat continuously.

Our 65 °C [149 °F] warm water output enters the hot water makeup loop as boiler preheat, displacing the gas fired load that the boiler currently carries from cold makeup up to 65 °C. The boiler is responsible only for the final lift to 71 °C and above. The economics are straightforward: the highest gas displacement per kW of heat delivered of any of the three sites, and the host facility carries BERDO exposure under the Healthcare use type cap.

What we are reviewing
  • Process water integration with the boiler preheat loop
  • Eversource or National Grid interconnection for incremental compute load
  • Hospital system alignment with the systems whose linen the laundry processes
  • BERDO compliance value transfer on Scope 1 gas displacement
  • Pad and access within the laundry facility footprint
Site 02 · Under review
Land Based Aquaculturerecirculating systems
Recirculating aquaculture · MA coastal region

Land based recirculating aquaculture system growing finfish, shellfish, or seaweed at scale in Massachusetts. Water temperature control across the entire production volume is the operational core of the facility. Heating costs scale directly with biomass and growing cycle, and species selection is constrained by what the heating budget can support.

Continuous duty
30 to 80kW thermal
Species and volume dependent
Process water
12 to 28 °C[54 to 82 °F]
Species dependent
Operating regime
24 / 365continuous
Year round growing
Sector context
MassCECDMF · Sea Grant
State investment in domestic seafood

A 50 kW unit on a recirculating aquaculture system enters the warm side of the recirculation loop through a tempering heat exchanger. Our 65 °C output is too warm for direct injection — fish and shellfish growing temperatures sit between 12 and 28 °C. The exchanger drops our output into the loop's working temperature.

The architecture lets the operator extend growing seasons, run higher value warm water species at northern latitudes, and decouple production planning from heating fuel cost. Aquaculture in Massachusetts has state investment from MassCEC, the Division of Marine Fisheries, and the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance. Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and WHOI Sea Grant are credible research partners.

What we are reviewing
  • Tempering heat exchanger sizing for species and recirculation volume
  • Year round heat profile alongside species growing temperature
  • Sector engagement through MassCEC, DMF, and Sea Grant
  • Pad and access within a working aquaculture facility
  • Research publication path with Tufts Cummings or WHOI
Site 03 · Under review
Affordable HousingBERDO 2030 retrofit
Multi-family · Boston · 50 to 200 units

A mid-rise affordable housing development with a central hot water plant and hydronic heat distribution, planning the BERDO 2030 compliance retrofit. The development serves 50 to 200 units. Existing gas boilers face the BERDO emissions cap tightening every five years from 2025, with the 2030 step likely binding for portfolios above 20,000 sq ft [1,860 m²].

Continuous duty
40 to 80kW thermal
50 to 100 unit building scale
Process water
49 to 70 °CDHW and space
Domestic hot water and space heat supply
Operating regime
24 hrseasonal lift
Year round DHW, winter space heat
BERDO use type
Multifamily4.1 to 2.4
2025 to 2030 cap, kg CO2e/SF/yr

Affordable housing is the BERDO compliance case where the operator has the strongest social mandate to decarbonise and the weakest capital pathway to do it. Heat pump retrofits in pre-war and mid century affordable housing are expensive and operationally complex.

A 50 kW MicroLink unit sized to a single building enters the hot water plant as the primary heat source, displacing gas boilers for 60 to 80 percent of the year round load with the boiler held as winter peaking and backup. The architecture pairs a verified low carbon heat source with stable residential energy bills and BERDO compliance value held on the operator's books. The political coalition is strong: the Wu administration, the BERDO Review Board, the Boston Environment Department, and the affordable housing operators all want this category to work.

What we are reviewing
  • Hot water plant integration with hydronic distribution and boiler peaking
  • Eversource interconnection for incremental compute load in residential zoning
  • BERDO compliance value transfer on Scope 1 gas displacement
  • Resident communication and acoustic posture for a 50 kW unit in residential zoning
  • Building selection across BHA, MassHousing, Beacon, POAH, Madison Park, TCB portfolios
Section 02 · The thermal fit

Where 65 °C drops inat each site

Our 50 kW unit exports waste heat continuously at 65 °C [149 °F]. Each host loop receives at a different working temperature. The architectural point is that 65 °C is meaningfully warmer than every receiving loop, which means useful work at every site.

Figure 01 · Temperature integration
65 °C output, three host loopsdifferent receiving temperatures, same architecture
Each host's working temperature shown alongside our 65 °C export. The boiler or heat exchanger at each site completes the lift to operating temperature where needed.
TEMPERATURE LADDER · °C [°F] 100 °C [212 °F] 71 °C [160 °F] 65 °C [149 °F] · MICROLINK 49 °C [120 °F] 28 °C [82 °F] 12 °C [54 °F] 5 °C [41 °F] TEMPERATURE HOSPITAL LAUNDRY WASH MINIMUM 71 °C COLD MAKEUP 10 to 40 °C preheat in AQUACULTURE TEMPERED LOOP 12 to 28 °C via tempering exchanger AFFORDABLE HOUSING SPACE HEAT 60 to 70 °C DOMESTIC HW 49 °C direct injection both streams
Source · CDC and MA DPH healthcare linen guidance, MA aquaculture sector profile, BERDO Phase 1 Regulations Method · Design supply temperatures, host loop entry temperature
Section 03 · The integration

One architecture, three integrationssame loops, same rejection path

Our three loop architecture in 50 kW cabinet form. Loop 1 to silicon at the cold plate, Loop 2 facility, Loop 3 to host thermal offtake at 65 °C [149 °F]. The dry cooler rejection path is always live, regardless of host loop status.

Figure 02 · Integration schematic
Where the heat goesat each of the three sites
Schematic, not to scale. Loop 3 termination is the only host side difference between the three sites.
HOSPITAL LAUNDRY Loop 3 into hot water makeup, boiler completes lift to 71 °C MICROLINK 50 kW CABINET LOOP 3 · 65 °C HW MAKEUP TANK preheat 10 → 65 °C CONTINUOUS DUTY GAS BOILER FINAL LIFT TO 71 °C healthcare linen minimum CDC and MA DPH DRY COOLER · 100% rejection always AQUACULTURE Loop 3 into recirculation through tempering plate heat exchanger MICROLINK 50 kW CABINET LOOP 3 · 65 °C TEMPERING PHX drops 65 → 28 °C PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER RAS LOOP RECIRCULATING TANK species at 12 to 28 °C FINFISH / SHELLFISH DRY COOLER · 100% rejection always AFFORDABLE HOUSING Loop 3 into building hot water plant, DHW and space heat via mixing valve MICROLINK 50 kW CABINET LOOP 3 · 65 °C HW PLANT + MIXING direct injection BOILER AS PEAKING DHW · 49 °C SPACE · 60 to 70 °C RESIDENTIAL UNITS 50 to 200 unit building BERDO 2030 RETROFIT DRY COOLER · 100% rejection always
Architecture · Three loop, Loop 3 host termination, dry cooler rejection path always live Hosts are partners
Section 04 · The review

Three sites under active reviewon the same technical criteria

MicroLink is reviewing all three sites in parallel. The criteria are the same at each site, and the 50 kW architecture is the same at each site. The deliverable is three pilot deployments across three host categories, validating the small form factor across the range of applications it is built for.

Sites under review
Three 50 kW pilots in parallelacross three host categories
MicroLink is reviewing all three sites on the same technical criteria: thermal fit, electrical interconnection capacity, pad and access, host loop integration design, and regulatory pathway. All three sites offer the characteristics that make the 50 kW form factor work: continuous year round thermal demand at the right scale, a tight footprint that the small form factor is designed for, and a host counterparty with a clear reason to want verified low carbon heat. The current phase is direct engagement with each candidate host alongside our internal site engineering work. All three sites carry distinct strengths and a credible path to deployment.
Technical scope
  • Continuous thermal load and seasonal profile
  • Loop 3 termination and host heat exchanger sizing
  • Electrical interconnection for 50 kW IT load
  • Pad, fibre, and acoustic posture
Host partnership
  • Operations and engineering team alignment at each candidate
  • Permit and regulatory pre engagement
  • Capital plan and BERDO compliance alignment
  • Long term scaling alongside the host's growth or retrofit programme
Working group
  • Hospital systems and the Healthcare District Energy Working Group
  • MassCEC, DMF, Sea Grant, Tufts Cummings, WHOI for aquaculture
  • BHA, MassHousing, Beacon, POAH, Madison Park, TCB
  • BERDO Review Board cross cutting for sites one and three