What do the deep waters of the Northern Isles in Scotland, the town of Luleå in Sweden and the Lefdal mine in Måløy, Norway have in common? Probably many things, but these are the three places where the establishment was decided data centers due to its very low temperatures. We are talking about installations from Microsoft, Meta and other players.
The equation behind this type of reasoning is fairly simple: since data centers spend a lot of energy—and therefore money—running their cooling systems, placing them in cool places can translate into significant economic and environmental benefits. Now there are those who propose a completely different approach to this.
Data centers that operate at more than 40ºC
A group of researchers led by Shengwei Wang of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University believes it might be more efficient to redesign data centers so that withstand higher temperatures Find ways to prevent overheating. In the study, they point out that cooling systems account for a third of the energy consumption of these devices.
Today, data centers typically operate at temperatures between 20 and 25 °C. From these values, it can be easily deduced that the energy requirements to maintain these temperatures are constantly changing in individual parts of the planet. For Wang, the optimal functioning of the components in an environment of around 41ºC would mean huge benefits.
The scientists got to work and simulated the operation of the data center at the aforementioned temperature. The result was promising: savings between 13 and 16% energy compared to those operating at 22 ºC. Surely cooling systems must continue to exist, as hardware emits enormous amounts of heat.
In addition, they say, increasing the optimal operating temperature could allow data centers to use much less energy, even in places like Beijing and Hong Kong, where temperatures can reach 40°C. Wang is confident that data center designers will make significant progress in the coming years. “Now they have a specific goal to work towards,” says the researcher.
Images: Target | Shengwei Wang
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