Despite a massive data centre investment boom, the adoption of liquid cooling technology in Australia is still in its infancy.
Driven by AI and cloud demand, data centre investment in Australia could top $135 billion over the next decade.
In NSW alone, data centre projects worth $51.9 billion have been fast tracked, as of March 2026.
Burkert Australia’s national engineering manager, Nelson Chymiak, said nearly 50 per cent of legacy data centres cannot meet the cooling demands of today’s high-density IT equipment.
“Switching from air to liquid cooling can reduce total power consumption for cooling systems by 15-18 per cent, and we’ve seen this implemented locally and abroad where rack capacity starts to stretch upwards from 45-50kW,” he said.
“This is due to the higher heat transfer efficiency of liquids, allowing for more effective and targeted cooling of IT equipment.
“Another advantage is that liquid cooling operates at higher temperatures, making it possible to recover and reuse waste heat for other applications, such as direct heating or industrial processes.”
Burkert Australia, established in 1980, combines local manufacturing with valve, sensor and flowmeters from its German headquarters.
Burkert has been working behind the scenes providing systematic solutions for some of the region’s most advanced data centre projects.
While take-up hasn’t been immediate locally, Chymiak said there has been a lot of interest and there are projects in the pipeline that he cannot discuss due to NDAs.
“Liquid cooling is transforming data centre design,” he said.