Cooling Technologies for Data Center

As a result, reducing the need for air conditioning, which accounts for half of the energy consumption, is crucial. Now, electric air conditioners are giving way to more efficient technologies: use of ambient air ( free cooling ) when the climate lends itself - Facebook has just opened a center in Sweden - sometimes supplemented by a cooling of servers with water ( water cooling ).

To limit the consumption of air conditioning, Equinix has developed a system rewarded by the European Commission. The principle: two wells pump fresh water from aquifers located 180 meters deep.

For AM3, Equinix has developed a system rewarded by the Commission. The principle: two wells pump cool water from aquifers 180 meters deep. After being filtered, it allows to cool at 25 ° C on average the air of the server rooms thanks to exchangers. "The water, which has become hot, is then stored before being cooled by air as soon as the outside temperature falls below 2 ° C. Then it is returned to the aquifers", explains Michiel Eielts.

Equinix also supplies some of this hot water free of charge to the University of Amsterdam, just like what is starting to develop in Europe, namely the reuse of these excess calories to heat offices or housing.

For AM3, Equinix has developed a cooling system that pumps fresh water from aquifers to 180 meters deep.

REDUCTION OF DEMAND IN SERVERS

This technology has a cost of 100 million euros. But the result is there: the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), the indicator most used to compare the consumption of data centers, reaches 1.13 - the optimum being 1. In short, this means that for 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity used by the servers, it is necessary to spend 0,13 kilowatt-hour additional in the cooling of the building, the lighting, etc.

"There is a lot of greenwashing," warns Tristan Labaume, president of Greenvision, a company specializing in energy efficiency, " There is a difference between the performance displayed, set in optimal conditions, and the reality, which varies according to the rate. filling the data center and the climate. "

The stake, for this expert, is not only in the lowering of energy consumption but in the reduction of the demand for servers: "We must stop running them twenty-four hours a day and seven days on seven even when they are not used. " "Servers belong to our customers, and they decide when and how to use them," said Rick Pijpers, Equinix marketing director for Benelux. Awaiting this awareness, Equinix continues to increase its hosting capacity: the group is already planning to open a fourth data center in Amsterdam, which will join the hundred others built by the firm in the world.

Source: Data center consulting