Schneider Electric, Iceotope and Avnet have made a big song and dance about its chassis-level immersion liquid cooling solution since it was first announced back in December 2019. Now, the technology is going to be put to the test for the first time at an EcoDataCenter facility.
EcoDataCenter’s new colocation facility in Falun, Sweden, is billed as the world’s first climate positive data centre, and the chassis-level immersion liquid cooling solution is key to that claim. That’s because it promises to reduce rack cooling energy by up to 90% and slash overall data centre energy usage by up to 14%,.
Developed by Iceotope, the chassis-level immersion cooling solution will enable 46kW per rack, with the core technology capable of scaling to future-proof power densities of 100kW plus. Liquid cooling is supposed to improve chip and hard drive reliability by providing a lower stable operating temperature, as well as increasing the available white space by eliminating the requirement for hot aisle/cold aisle layouts. The cooling arrangement also enables high-grade heat to be captured for reuse in a local renewable energy scheme.
“EcoDataCenter has embraced this innovative new technology as an early-adopter, knowing that companies in the market will soon see the operational and environmental benefits, and follow our lead,” said Lars Schedin, CEO of EcoDataCenter.
“The integration of Iceotope, Schneider Electric and Avnet liquid cooling enables us to set ground-breaking, new industry standards for energy efficient, high-availability data centres. Together we are empowering customers to take action for a more sustainable future.”
Could TCO be lower with liquid cooling?
One of the reasons EcoDataCenter opted for the liquid cooling technology from the Schneider Electric, Iceotope and Avnet team was the promise of a reduced total cost of ownership. The firms claim that the solution provides an operating PUE of 1.03, resulting in CapEx savings of 14% and at least 10% energy savings, compared with traditional air-cooled approaches for a 2MW facility. Over a 20-year period, this provides a reduced total cost of ownership of 11%.
David Craig, CEO of Iceotope said, “Chassis-level immersion cooling offers colocation, hyperscale and edge computing environments a practical and industry-leading solution for cooling high-density, critical IT loads. We’re delighted to be working alongside EcoDataCenter where our liquid cooling technology is helping to deliver reliable IT services with little or no impact on the environment, whilst helping to reduce costs associated with energy usage even further.”
Additional benefits of liquid cooling
Announced earlier this year as the industry’s first commercially-available integrated rack with chassis-level immersive cooling, the collaborative solution from Iceotope, Schneider Electric and Avnet combines a high-powered GPU server with Iceotope’s liquid cooling technology to increase energy and cooling efficiency. Avnet’s expertise in integration is key, allowing EcoDataCenter, and other customers from the cloud to the edge, to utilise liquid-cooled servers inside Schneider Electric’s NetShelter liquid-cooled integrated rack enclosures.
Liquid cooling also claims to offer a number of other benefits to customers, including greater efficiency; lower operating costs, smaller footprint, increased reliability, and nearly silent operation despite the high-power densities of evolving GPU technologies.
“Schneider Electric is committed to reducing the energy consumption and environmental impact of today’s data centers,” said Rob Bunger, Liquid Cooling Program Director, CTO Office, Schneider Electric.
“The deployment at EcoDataCenter presents a significant milestone for our industry and demonstrates a clear business case for greater innovation and sustainability in IT deployments.”
