Embracing the Future of Data Centers: The Epilogue of Our Journey Towards Sustainable Liquid Cooling Solutions
Rolf Brink
Driving the global growth and adoption of liquid cooling technologies for data centers
Over the past 2 months, we've taken an insightful journey through the world of sustainable liquid cooling solutions in data centers through a five-part article series. All the articles can be found here:
The discussions have been enlightening, rich with expert insights and constructive feedback. This dynamic exchange across the community has significantly enriched our understanding of this transformative field. Today, we take a step back to reflect on the insights gathered and respond to your valuable inputs.
Epilogue: A Look Back on the Enlightening Journey Towards Sustainable Liquid Cooling Solutions
Addressing Liquid Cooling Challenges
The series elicited an insightful discourse on the challenges surrounding liquid cooling.
Michael Tang
aptly pointed out that these efforts necessitate cross-industry collaborations
Rich Lappenbusch rightly highlighted the importance of meeting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives and the relevance of the fluid specifications in liquid cooling. Michael Jones 's remarks on the significant growth of the OCP Immersion Cooling Project, reiterated the collective commitment to overcoming these challenges.
Key Takeaways for the Immersion Community
The mention of the use of in two-phase immersion cooling by Nicolas Antoine raised an important concern about the potential environmental impact. The search for non-PFAS fluids for 2-phase immersion cooling is definitely an important topic. This topic requires open and collaborative discussions and I am committed to taking this conversation forward and addressing it transparently with the broader Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) community to help advance sustainable liquid cooling solutions and address the hurdles that inhibit the broader adoption of liquid cooling technologies.
Bijan Nowroozi
highlighted the need for further education on health and sustainability related to coolants
In light of this, we have now started the discussions on health in the Materials and Fluids community, led by Punith Veeralinga Shivaprasad and Peter Cooper . I am also enthusiastic to share that I will be addressing the diversity values in an upcoming whitepaper, as well as in a series of articles which will come out soon!
Opportunities for Sustainability and Efficiency
Many commenters underscored the role of liquid cooling in enabling more sustainable and efficient data center operations. For instance,
美南 金
emphasized the potential of this technology to drive energy efficiency
We should also not forget that sustainability extends beyond the facility's operation.
Bijan Nowroozi
astutely notes the importance of lifecycle management and best practices
We are thrilled to engage with the OCP community to accelerate these sustainability initiatives in data centers worldwide. Together, let's leverage the advantages of liquid cooling to diminish our industry's environmental footprint.
The Future of Data Centers
This series also sparked intriguing discussions on the future of data centers. Rob Coyle and Rich Lappenbusch ’s thought-provoking perspectives on the potential of emerging technologies, like heat reuse, large-scale energy storage systems and the shift from traditional racks to "cubic meter of tanked coolant", indicate how liquid cooling is on the brink of reshaping our industry.
These insights will inform our collaboration with the OCP community as we actively shape the future of data center technology.
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Heat Reuse as a Key Component of the Future
As we look to the future, the role of Heat reuse emerges as a compelling topic. Rob Coyle correctly points at the value of identifying best use cases for Heat reuse, which are often in front of us, yet overlooked. Examples like swimming pools, challenged by heating costs, while data centers grapple with cooling costs, present promising opportunities for cross-industry collaboration. The idea of transforming a byproduct into a beneficial resource aligns perfectly with our vision for the sustainable data center of the future and this is embraced by the OCP Heat Reuse project, which is led by Cosimo Pecchioli and Jaime Comella Gómez-Aller .
Acknowledgements
This journey wouldn't have been possible without your active participation and valuable inputs. A big thank you to Allison Boen , Michael Tang , Michael Jones , Bijan Nowroozi , Rick M. , Nicolas Antoine , Mark Laurence , Rob Coyle , Rich Lappenbusch , 美南 金 , and all others for their contributions to the discussion.
The Next Step
I'm about to gather all the insights and contributions from this article series into a comprehensive piece for the OCP Blog. If you've been following our journey and have insights that you'd like to see included, I encourage you to share your thoughts soon. This is your chance to contribute to this enlightening discourse!
At the same time, I'm thrilled to announce the next initiative - a new article series called "Cooling Unchained: Embracing IT Diversity with Customized Data Center Cooling Strategies". This series will be published alongside the creation of a whitepaper that debunks the "one size fits all" myth in data center liquid cooling solutions. This upcoming venture will dig deeper into the complexities of cooling solutions and emphasize the need for bespoke, strategic approaches.
As I set out on this new journey, I invite you to join me in exploring the finer details of the data center revolution, pushing the boundaries of innovation, and setting new standards in sustainability and efficiency. I encourage each one of you to actively participate, share your insights, and engage in discussions as we embark on this new series!
Stay tuned for this exciting new chapter!
About?Promersion: Leading the way in immersion cooling, Promersion provides strategic business support to companies engaging with liquid cooling technologies. Dedicated to collaboration, Promersion works with industry stakeholders to promote best practices and innovation in the liquid cooling community.
Rolf Brink?(Promersion),?John Bean?(Green Revolution Cooling),?David G.?(independent),?Raúl álvarez Tenor?(independent),?Punith Veeralinga Shivaprasad?(Shell),?Peter Cooper?(Submer),?Rick Margerison?(Rosseau Immersion),?Harry Soin?(Artesyn Embedded Power),?Oriol Chavanel Bonet?(Submer),?Eduard Roytman?(Intel Corporation),?Allison Boen DCEP?(Alcatex, Inc. - Data Center Services),?Rich Lappenbusch?(Supermicro),?Michael Cordle?(Seagate Technology),?Wang A?(Intel Corporation),?Andy Young?(Asperitas),?Michael Jones?(Vertiv),?Cheng Chen?(Meta),?Jessica Gullbrand?(Intel Corporation),?Steve Mills?(Meta).
Senior Principal @ Supermicro
1 年Rolf loving your posts, keep going! Since I know you have a new found love for data taxonomy and regulatory ready definitions here's one more for all the #liquidiots to chew on... #cosubmersion is the fractional leasing of a cubic meter of tanked coolant providing #liquidcooling to a set of #cpus #gpus #dpus #npus #asics #integratedcircuits in a professionally managed and secured environment, typically offered with financial incentives and penalties for resource conservation and integrated data feeds empowering #esgreporting to industry standards and practices within the intention to comply with #regulations
Immersion Cooling Advisor & Influencer ?? 30 Years Infrastructure Power & Cooling@ Alcatex ?? Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid Brand Ambassador?? SVP @ DatanovaX - ????OCP Immersion Community Outreach Lead
1 年Thank you for your leadership as always Rolf Brink! The #immersioncooling future's so bright.. I gotta wear shades! https://youtu.be/8qrriKcwvlY
Seeking Planet Friendly Solutions
1 年Love it! Great post Rolf Brink
Technical Group Operations Supervisor at Climatec BTG
1 年Fantastic series Rolf, and Rob Coyle is absolutely correct we need to figure out heat reuse. Unlike the European market we don’t always have the density to make it feasible, and the tax incentives driving site locations rarely push us into the urban environment. Unless we can start masking DCs as residential houses the way pumping stations have been swimming pools may be more of a “when possible” scenario. I do believe that verticals farming is possible on every DC campus though. Using the waste heat from the DC would allow us to optimize the growing conditions with little cost to the grow environment and reduce the water consumption of farming by 95%. Giving back to the local community in the process. If we go a step further and start using Hydrogen, and installing hydrogen generation stations using electrolysis, and providing clean fuel to the local community…now we’ve really got something that changes the way DCs are viewed around the world.
Principal Architect at Vertiv Co
1 年Let's not forget to thank Rolf Brink for putting this all together and pushing LC and sustainable DCs forward. Thanks Rolf for putting together a great series (and epilogue).