Newly published research by BSRIA reveals that recently-built mega data centres combine a number of different cooling technologies to meet rapid demand for greater capacity.
The new hyper data centre combines free cooling, liquid cooling and water-chilled cooling.
“Hyper scale data centres such as those of Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, AWS and Yahoo! are very open to deploying new technologies, for example: modular, outdoor AHUs (air handling units) and evaporative cooling," the research said.
"This has driven a lot of change and enabled traditional air conditioning manufacturers like McQuay, Trane, Carrier, JCI, Daikin and others to participate in the data center cooling market. Data centres in general are evolving rapidly.
"The standard design that was common in the last two decades is giving way to more flexible configurations that more closely match the sophisticated needs of more discerning, better informed customers.”
When it comes to mega cooling one company that is delivering high performance cooling is Climaveneta which just won a contract to supply a 28MW capacity cooling system for the Chinese Super Computing Centre (Wuxi).
It boasts one of the most advanced high-performance computing platforms in the world. Since the new supercomputer performs at 100 petaFLOPS (Floating-point Operations Per Second) it requires massive cooling to very precise perameters.
To satisfy all these needs Climaveneta delivered 15 TECS2-W /H water-cooled chillers equipped with magnetic levitation, oil free VFD compressors, with a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (ESEER), close to 10.
Furthermore, the Climaveneta cooling system, which combines free cooling and VPF, will cut the entire energy consumption of the data centre by 45 per cent compared to a traditional design.
At the Wuxi data centre free cooling operations start when the external temperature is 15°, extending the energy saving advantages offered by this technology.
The heat rejected by the chillers is recovered by heat pumps, providing free heating to the 20,000m2 office area next to the data centre, with no CO2 emissions on site.
BSRIA WMI manager, Lone Hansen, said the cooling segment of the data centre market is undergoing some dramatic changes. She said traditional CRAC is still fit for purpose in many countries, however, it is gradually losing its share to newer technologies, especially evaporative cooling.
“Evaporative cooling capitalises on the feature of water as a natural coolant when warm and dry air is being humidified allowing for significant savings in operating costs,” Hansen said.