Renewables and Energy: Infrastructure Builds Driving Sustainable Power

Asperitas to deliver immersion cooling solution to Amsterdam data centre

Immersion cooling specialist Asperitas, in close collaboration with trusted Shell partners, like datacentre service provider T-Systems, is set to facilitate an energy efficient, scalable and future ready High Performance Computing cluster in their Amsterdam datacentre. The natural convection driven Immersed Computing solution easily integrates into datacentre facilities and requires minimal overheads while also complementing infrastructure monitoring platforms, allowing for real-time management by the service providers supporting Shell.  Asperitas will be providing an infrastructure upgrade for Shell’s HPC cluster in Amsterdam. The cluster will be delivered by Penguin Computing and their OEM partners to offer a fully integrated and optimized solution suitable for enterprise level HPC. The deployment of the AIC24 solution will meet the demands of Shell’s HPC team for efficient high-density and performance computing on both a system and server level within a sustainable datacentre environment. The system will facilitate both CPU and GPU driven applications and offers the flexibility to easily scale with future demands and next hardware generations.  Peter Uelen, Asperitas CCO says: “Given Shell is a strategic partner of Asperitas and we have developed the Immersion Cooling Fluid product together, winning this deal and working alongside trusted partners like T-Systems, Intel and Penguin Computing to support the infrastructure upgrade, exemplifies and accelerates the partnership. It is our collective mission to enable sustainable and high performance datacentres Amsterdam or anywhere and we are excited the team will be using a cluster facilitated with our Immersed Computing solutions.” Speaking on the collaboration with Asperitas, William Wu, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Penguin Computing, remarks: “Penguin Computing has been working alongside Asperitas to incorporate an optimized immersion cooling capability into our HPC Solutions. Both parties learned a lot from each other during this process and we are looking forward to being part of this new chapter for Shell HPC.“ David Baldwin, HPC Program Manager, Shell comments: “Shell's High Performance Computing team worked very closely with the Asperitas technical team to provide the best solution for our new cluster in Amsterdam. This cluster is a critical part of our R&D capacity to help us discover new energy resources, develop new products and drive our digital transition.” The Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid product, specifically developed for Immersed Computing, is a synthetic, single-phase immersion cooling fluid made from gas using Shell’s gas-to-liquids technology. It is optimised for Asperitas’ natural-convection-driven immersion cooling solutions but can also be used in pumped circulation systems of other providers. The liquid is designed to reduce energy costs and emissions through its high cooling efficiency, excellent flow behaviour as well as its thermodynamic properties. The immersion cooling fluid was introduced to the datacentre market at the Global Open Compute Project Summit earlier this year. Sundeep Kamath, Global Marketing Manager for Process Oils at Shell adds: “Data is the new oil and is being generated at an exponentially increasing pace. Today, datacentres account for about 1% of global energy use and this is only going to increase. This award-winning solution can cut the energy footprint of datacentres by half, while also increasing compute performance and lowering costs; it’s a win-win on all fronts. We are convinced of the great benefits of this innovative technology and hope more of our partners and customers benefit by adopting this solution for their compute needs and their own decarbonization journeys.” Asperitas is known for collaboration with partners to develop integrated solutions and concepts that have been optimised for immersion cooling, utilising its full potential regarding efficiency, sustainability and performance. These collaborations include system integrators, datacentre operators and original equipment manufacturers.  “T-Systems has been the service provider for Shell since 2008, including datacentre services. Our datacentre team is looking forward to supporting Shell HPC on their journey with Asperitas and is excited to see the technology going into production in Amsterdam.” says Wenche Dikstaal, Service Delivery Manager for Datacenters at T-Systems. “Liquid and immersion cooling is gaining traction in the enterprise space and T-Systems is proud to be involved in something that could be considered a lighthouse project in this space.”  Tonya Cosby, Global Enterprise Account Manager – Energy, Intel adds: “Intel is collaborating with Asperitas to deliver a sustainable solution that will help Shell work towards net zero goals. We are evolving our corporate responsibility strategy to increase the scale of our work with strategic partners to harness the power of technology to solve global challenges, as it is our shared responsibility to collectivity measure our carbon footprint. Combining Intel technologies with the Asperitas’ solution alongside Shell’s immersion cooling fluid will not only benefit Shell, but it can benefit datacentres globally.” Tonya continues: “We believe that when hardware, software and good ideas come together, technology has the power to have an authentic, human impact and enable meaningful connections. We remain committed to Shell by developing and investing in innovative technology to power the next chapter of the global energy industry.” The installation is scheduled for January 2021, with Asperitas working alongside Penguin Computing, Gigabyte and Intel to provide the integrated high performance compute solutions.

Speed pumps; key to improving energy and water usage in data centres.

The Covid-19 pandemic added 20% growth to data centres in the first three months, with lockdown meaning more adults are working from home and families are streaming more content during the day.  The implementation of 5G and streaming video is rapidly driving data growth and with users unlikely to reduce their energy usage, actions such as reducing cooling losses at data centres are important, with better pumps and more efficient controls are a key enabler in facilitating this. There is increasing pressure from the EU for data centres to be powered by renewable energy, however the first step of this is to reduce the power consumed by the data centre infrastructure. The Green Grid, innovator of the Power Usage  Effectiveness (PUE) metric, has recently proposed the introduction of a new data-centre metric - WUF, Water Usage Factor and as PUE’s drive lower, data-centres are now being judged for water consumption as well as electrical energy use. 80% of all data centres utilise chilled-water systems for cooling, 15% use direct-expansion refrigeration systems and just 5% use air based evaporative or adiabatic cooling systems. Consulting Engineer, Ian Bitterlin, who carried out the research, comments:  “Whilst chilled-water systems (the dominant technology used to date) have continued to evolve technically with better controls, heat-exchanger technology, variable speed compressors, fans and pumps and operationally, with flow water temperatures rising from the legacy 6°C to 18°C (and higher) enabling high percentages of free-cooling in suitable climates, an older technology has recently proved more popular – that of evaporative or adiabatic cooling.  “In pursuit of achieving an ever lower PUE, the advent of fresh-air cooling solutions  brought along with it adiabatic cooling solutions, where water is used to take advantage of the wet-bulb ambient temperature and crucially humidification of high volumes of fresh-air.  Perhaps for the first time in Europe, water consumption in data-centres is a growing issue.” Evaporative and Adiabatic cooling technology, known before Roman times in high-status dwellings, use water to increase the humidity of warm dry air and reduce its temperature from the dry-bulb to the wet-bulb value.  For example, in the UK when the external ambient is near the record high of 35°C dry-bulb, the addition of water vapour can get the air-stream temperature down to 23°C wet-bulb and then use that to cool the data centre.  Evaporative and Adiabatic cooling systems potentially save 20-30% data centre energy (compared to chilled water systems) and do not use pumps. However, they have not proven to be universally popular as they need a lot of space and use a lot of water.  Bitterlin comments: “Despite the potential energy saving of Evaporative and Adiabatic cooling systems, chilled-water systems are, in my opinion, the way forward as they use hardly any water compared to the 'modern' competition of evaporative cooling technology. The performance of chilled water systems is much improved by high-quality variable-speed pumps and chillers fitted with Evaporative or Adiabatic cooling offering total control of internal air temperature and humidity. “The majority of enterprise and colocation data centres have partial load, typically <50% at maturity, rarely high and never 100% - this means that for energy saving reasons the chilled water pumps must be; designed for variable speed drives, optimised for operation at 40-50% - like modern power systems (UPS) . “A pump designed for 100% flow but only having 30% load uses 100% power but the same pump running at 30% flow rate only consumes 2.7% of the energy.” David Williamson, Director of Wilo UK, comments: “Data centre cooling plants with Wilo pumps provide an opportunity to improve on past performance with partial load and variable speed pumping and offer a high level on control to meet a wide range of systems.” “Through analysis of the hydraulic system and measurement of power performance of existing and legacy cooling systems we are able to select replacement pumps that can achieve the desired system performance whilst reducing energy use. Often such upgrades further increase data centre resilience and availability.” The Wilo GIGA range of pumps is extensive, covering all applications within the Data Centre environment. The Atmos GIGA Series has recently been upgraded to provide greater efficiency and the Stratos GIGA leads the industry in high efficiency providing performance greater than IE5 through EC motor technology up to 22kW.  Far from the perception that evaporative or adiabatic are modules taking over the market, the sales of chilled-water systems have proven to be increasingly resilient, aided considerably by an offshoot of the adiabatic technology; the air-cooled chiller enabled with adiabatic sprayed free-cooling coils. With the ability to have compact cooling units in the room of 3.5m3/100kW, using water to transport heat far more effectively than air, advanced micro-channel heat exchangers, higher range chilled water temperatures, free-cooling and the opportunity in hot/dry ambient conditions to use water spray to reduce the PUE to a, location dependent, range of 1.06 in London, 1.07 in Madrid or Frankfurt and 1.18 in Dubai.  If  engineered correctly, chilled water cooling can no longer be considered as wasteful of energy achieving an overall PUE at full load, with all the other systems included, of 1.2 in northern European city centres. The final piece of the puzzle is to cater for the endemic partial load and here is where the chilled water pump, allied to variable speed pumps and electronic proportional valves, come into their own.  The product that, with the chiller, was most threatened by air-based direct and indirect adiabatic or evaporative cooling can look forward to a successful future in the data centre industry that we have all come to rely on so much.

Taoiseach welcomes joint initiative as deal supports 250 new jobs

Echelon Data Centres and green energy developer SSE Renewables have announced a deal t to develop a joint 220kV substation at the Avoca River Business Park, Arklow, Ireland. The infrastructure will facilitate the development of Ireland’s first offshore wind farm, off the coast of Co. Wicklow with an export capacity of 520MW, and Echelon’s DUB20 100MW data centre. The initiative marks the first time that an offshore wind farm and a data centre have agreed to develop grid infrastructure together. The development is expected to require an investment of €50m to deliver. Upon completion, the proposed offshore wind farm and data centre will both connect to the Irish national grid via the shared substation. The deal is a step forward for the renewable energy and data centre sectors. Sharing grid infrastructure and locating data centres close to renewable sources of generation delivers on a key decarbonisation goal set out in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan to facilitate regional data centres, minimising grid reinforcements. It would also help to deliver a Climate Action Plan target of installing 1GW of offshore wind by 2025. The deal will support the delivery of 250 new jobs for Arklow. This includes up to 80 jobs during construction. Upon completion, the data centre will support 90 full-time roles. whilst a further 80 full-time jobs will be created to support the operation of the offshore wind farm. Welcoming the initiative Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD exclaims; “This announcement is a welcome boost for Arklow; it not only provides new job opportunities, it also places Arklow at the heart of the green tech sector.  This collaboration between renewable energy and tech will ensure that key targets are met. “I would like to pay tribute to Echelon and SSE Renewables – having identified an opportunity to share infrastructure to promote sustainability, they've worked collaboratively to ensure their vision became a reality.” Niall Molloy, CEO of Echelon Data Centres says; “We’re delighted to be working with SSE Renewables – contributing greatly to the country’s targets of delivering 1GW of offshore renewable energy by 2025. “It is also a model for the future, where data centre facilities are located close to the source of renewable energy, providing a constant demand for the power and working with renewable energy providers to facilitate the development of the necessary infrastructure.” Barry Kilcline, Director of Developments at SSE Renewables comments; “This is a major innovation for the integration of renewables and data centres into Ireland’s national grid. Through this landmark agreement with Echelon Data Centres we will develop new shared grid infrastructure at Arklow that will facilitate the development of the next phase of the 520MW Arklow Bank Wind Park.” SSE Renewables is actively developing Phase 2 of Arklow Bank Wind Park which will be located in a lease area situated six to 13km off Ireland’s Co. Wicklow coastline. The wind farm has the potential to reduce Ireland’s annual carbon emissions by 1%, offsetting half a million tonnes of CO2.

Delta’s UPS and DCIM Systems power Bytesnet’s new green data centre and data lab

Delta, a global provider of power and thermal management solutions, has announced its DPH 500kVA modular uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and InfraSuite Manager data centre information management (DCIM) system are now in operation at Bytesnet’s new d’Root data centre at Zernike Campus Groningen in the Netherlands. The company says its DPH 500kVA UPS delivers fully rated power (kVA=kW) and it requires only 50% of the space needed by similar systems from competitors. With Delta’s DCIM, Bytesnet can collect energy consumption data from power meters and environmental detectors in real time to monitor data centre operations remotely. Bytesnet is a regional colocation and network services provider with two main data centre locations in Rotterdam and Groningen. In addition to a 2,500 m2 data floor, the 6,500 m2 facility also houses a data lab where research and education take place. As a tier 3+ facility, reliability was an extremely important factor in choosing the power infrastructure. Protecting the environment through power efficiency At the heart of the d’Root data centre is a 6-megawatt power system. The three-phase modular DPH 500kVA Delta UPS that Bytesnet has chosen for its new data centre was one of the keys to minimising the facility’s environmental footprint. With its high-power density, Delta’s DPH 500kVA UPS requires only 50% of the space needed by competing solutions. This Delta UPS is also said to offer industry-leading AC-AC efficiency of 96.5%, resulting in considerably lower energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and costs for Bytesnet. A unique combination of UPS and DCIM Bytesnet selected Delta to supply not only its high-density and high-efficiency DPH 500kVA UPS system, but also its comprehensive InfraSuite Manager DCIM system. The company says its DCIM system gives Bytesnet full control over all aspects of operating d’Root. It also allows for additional optimisation and efficiency gains. How InfraSuite Manager DCIM is helping Bytesnet The comprehensive InfraSuite Manager DCIM system Delta supplied for the d’Root data centre is said to provide a number of significant benefits. With the DCIM in place, Bytesnet can collect energy consumption data from power meters and environmental detectors in real time to monitor data centre operation remotely. The colocation provider can also use the capacity module to analyse different aspects of the data centre such as power, load, and rack capacity. This information forms the basis for future decisions about expanding data centre assets. The DCIM can also visualise rack operating status in 2D or 3D views, which can help Bytesnet present the benefits of the data centre’s professional data centre management system to customers. A showcase for the data centre of tomorrow Demand for data centre capacity is increasing rapidly, and so is the cost of energy. Jack Chou, Sales Manager, BNL Mission Critical Infrastructure Solutions, Delta Electronics EMEA Region, says, “Bytesnet’s choice of Delta for such a high-profile project shows that the Delta solutions are perceived as leading, state-of-the-art technology by top experts in the field. Delta’s solutions are already designed today for a future in which colocation providers will need much more efficient and environmentally friendly power equipment. The d’Root facility offers a compelling example of how other colocation providers can also meet tomorrow’s challenges by innovating today.”