Renewables

First data centre in Bahrain to be fully powered by clean energy

Beyon’s Chairman, Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, has announced the completion of Phase 2 of the company’s Solar Park at a ceremony which recently took place in the presence of H.E. s Kamal Bin Ahmed Mohamed, President of Electricity and Water Authority; H.E. Mohamed bin Thamer Al Kaabi, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications; H.E. Yasser bin Ibrahim Humaidan, Minister of Electricity and Water Affairs; H.E. Mrs. Noor Bint Ali Al Khulaif, Minister of Sustainable Development; and Mr Mohamed Almoayyed Director YK Almoayyed & Sons. The event was held at the Royal Golf Club in Riffa, where members of Beyon’s board of directors, executive team and team members involved in the project were present on the occasion. Beyon’s Chairman welcomed the distinguished guests and extended his appreciation for their attendance at the inauguration of Beyon Solar Park. Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Beyon’s efforts towards sustainability and clean energy production continues, and we have made great progress since the launch of the first phase of the Solar Park in November 2021. Today we are glad to announce the completion of the second phase of the project. “We are also very proud of an unprecedented achievement in the telecommunications and technology sector, as Beyon’s Data Centre became the first in Bahrain to rely entirely on clean energy generated from the company’s Solar Park, which is located in the Beyon Data Oasis. “Our journey in the field of environmental sustainability continues in line with our commitment to Bahrain’s vision launched by His Royal Highness Prince, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and announced as part of his address during the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021, held in Glasgow, Scotland, which reiterates the Kingdom’s commitment to achieve zero carbon neutrality by 2060. Thus, we have set clear plans to start implementing the third phase of this project, which will be located in Hamala. Upon completion of this phase, the total clean energy production of Beyon will be approximately 6GWh per year. “On this occasion, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Ministries, concerned authorities and our partners for their invaluable support in helping us implement this project and contributing to its success,” Shaikh Abdulla concluded. Beyon’s Solar Park Phase 1 and 2 will generate 3.6GWh of clean energy leading to a carbon footprint saving of over 2000 tonnes and a cost saving of BD105,000 annually.

Swindon data centre goes carbon neutral in sustainability push

A data centre in Swindon, Carbon-Z, has become one of the first in the UK to be fully carbon neutral, following an overhaul of its site and work practices. This includes the submersion of all hardware components in cooling liquid and sourcing electricity from green energy providers. Plans are also in place for installing solar panels on the site’s roof. The site was previously known as SilverEdge and is rebranding itself to reflect the change of direction in how it operates and the services it provides to clients. It now hopes to inspire a wider shift towards sustainability within the data centre industry, which accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions annually than commercial flights. Jon Clark, Commercial and Operations Director at Carbon-Z, comments, “As the UK and the world move towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050, our industry is responsible for making data centres greener and more efficient. At Carbon-Z, we continually look for new ways to improve our sustainability, with the goal being to get our data centres to carbon neutral, then carbon zero and then carbon negative. We believe this is possible and hope to see a wider movement among our peers in the same direction over the coming years.” Playing it cool The growing intensity of computing power, as well as high performance demands, has resulted in rapidly rising temperatures within data centres and a negative cycle of energy usage. More computing means more power, more power means more heat, more heat demands more cooling, and traditional air-cooling systems consume massive amounts of power, which in turns contributes to the heating up of sites. To get around this, Carbon-Z operates using liquid immersion cooling, a technology which involves the submersion of hardware components in dielectric liquid (which does not conduct electricity) and conveys heat away from the heat source. This greatly reduces the need for cooling infrastructure and costs less than traditional air cooling. The smaller amount of energy that is now needed to power the Swindon site can now be sourced through Carbon-Z’s Green Energy Sourcing.  While its clear that immersion cooling is quickly catching on - it is predicted to grow from $243 million this year to $700 million by 2026 - the great majority of the UK’s more than 600 data centres are not making use of it, and continue to operate in a way which is highly energy intensive and carbon emitting. Riding the wave As part of its rebrand, Carbon-Z has also updated the kinds of services it offers to customers to make sure that they are financially, as well as environmentally, sustainable. Its new service, Ocean Cloud, has been designed with this in mind, providing customers dedicated servers and a flat-fee approach to financing. Having a dedicated server within a data centre means that spikes in demand from other tenants has no effect at all on yours, avoiding the ‘noisy neighbour’ problem associated with the multi-tenant model favoured by many large operators. This makes the performance of the server more reliable and energy efficient. Ocean Cloud also solves one of the other major problems with other cloud services - overspend - through its flat-fee approach. Customers are charged a fixed fee that covers the dedicated server and associated storage, as well as hosting and remote support of the hardware infrastructure to reduce maintenance overheads. Jon comments, “We are very proud of Ocean Cloud, as it allows us to offer clients a service that is not only better for the ocean, the planet and for our local communities than other hosted services, but also brings clear operational and cost-related benefits. Striking this balance is crucial to ensure customers are on board with the transition to more sustainable data centre operations, especially at times like these when many companies are feeling the financial pinch off the back of rising inflation.”

How smart innovation is helping data centres hit net zero

By Simon Prichard, Product Strategy Manager, Mitsubishi Electric. As data centres become an increasingly critical element of the UK’s digital infrastructure, the question continues to circle about how we can make them as energy efficient as possible. This is a vital point that needs to be addressed. After all, data centres are a huge source of carbon emissions, collectively pumping out the equivalent CO2 of a mid-sized country every year. In order to reach the UK’s carbon reduction goals, the emissions caused by the whole data centre industry must be significantly cut over the next few (vital) years. Of course, the environmental impact of data centres is already being closely considered and green construction is coming to the forefront of design. In fact, many centre operators have pledged to reach zero-carbon emissions by 2030. At an industry level, the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact has committed to the fact that data centre electricity demand will be matched by 75% renewable energy or hourly carbon-free energy by December 31, 2025, and 100% by December 31, 2030. As part of this push, one area that must be focused on is investing in sustainable and efficient cooling solutions - as cooling is a big energy user in data centres - as well as reducing the level of embodied carbon in data centres and using analytics and smart insights to optimise how power is used. Making cooling sustainable Data centres and IT cooling rooms are unique environments, where a constant temperature must be maintained year-round. The spaces are built to be resilient with back-up generators and cooling equipment designed to work reliably 24 hours a day. This equipment is crucial, as it is there to stop computers from overheating and shutting down. For example, when humidity levels vary, reliable, close control cooling must kick in and keep equipment at the right temperate to work effectively. And it isn’t just the performance of cooling equipment at the start of its lifecycle that needs to be taken into account, a chiller also needs to continue delivering that level of performance every day through to year 10 and beyond. This constant cooling requires a lot of energy, so the challenge is to cool spaces reliably while making sure it happens in the most energy efficient, sustainable way possible. Advanced controls can help here, as well as the use of planned, preventative maintenance, which can keep products working as efficiently as possible. Chiller diagnostic checks, run-performance evaluations in combination with inverter technology, all promote optimised performance and reduce wear and tear - which should in turn keep energy being used most effectively. Harnessing analytics and smart insights As technology continues to evolve, it’s becoming possible to harness real-time data visualisation and smart insights to optimise the use of cooling equipment. By giving organisations this kind of detailed information into the operations of their data centres, it’s possible to reduce energy use in certain areas, and identify systems that could be running more efficiently.  This includes mapping all of the systems that a data centre has, locating them, tagging them and then converting ‘invisible’ raw data into actionable intelligence to make things work better and more efficiently. This is particularly handy when data centres may be using multiple systems from different vendors - which often can’t talk to one another or require the use of numerous dashboards. By being able to see the data all together, it’s possible to better address many challenges - including performance management, accuracy of billing, energy costs and system capacity - and importantly, make necessary changes to keep systems operating in the most energy efficient way possible. This innovation can support everyone involved in data centres - including manufacturing companies, building owners, facility managers and even government organisations - to reduce the cost of deploying and maintaining IT cooling equipment, and bring down both the carbon footprint and the cost of running data centres. Reusing, not wasting, energy When it comes to improving data centre sustainability, there is also a big opportunity to reuse energy, rather than waste it. Heat pumps are the key here, as they have the potential to take recovered heat which is generated in data centres - which would otherwise be released out into the environment - and upgrade it to be distributed and heat local spaces, potentially via a heat network. The transfer of ‘waste’ heat into something useful will help to reduce the amount of energy needed to generate new heat across the wider network. Tackling embodied carbon As well as cutting the energy created by cooling and heating within a data centre, it’s also important to consider the whole process of building, running, maintaining - and even demolishing - a data centre, and the carbon footprint that each stage has. Fundamentally, data centres are buildings, which means that they contain a lot of ‘embodied’ carbon too. This includes the overall CO2 emissions in the metal, bricks and mortar used in the construction of the building, for example. By identifying how design, construction and management decisions affect a data centre’s carbon footprint and how to minimise it, it is possible to bring down the overall environmental impact of a data centre. Data centres ostensibly play a very important role in keeping our IT systems running, but in doing so they are inevitably energy intensive spaces. Through more sophisticated analytics and monitoring, as well as taking into consideration how energy can be reused and how embodied carbon can be reduced across every stage of building and running a data centre, it is possible to keep carbon emissions, energy use and running cost down. On the road to reaching net-zero carbon emission by 2050, and the even more ambitious goal of achieving a zero-carbon data centre by 2030, these factors will be key. www.mitsubishielectric.com

Green decentralised energy solutions could help bridge expansion gap

As recent reports show rapidly escalating data centre supply in the FLAP markets, construction site stakeholders need to identify energy solutions to keep powering this rapid expansion, says Aggreko. According to a recent CBRE report, new supply surged in 2021, with 397MW coming online across the FLAP markets. With this momentum expected to continue into 2022, Aggreko is encouraging data centre owners and operators to get ahead of the curve when it comes to energy scarcity and powering increasing amounts of space. “Though the European market’s continued boom is undoubtedly good news, certain worrying trends can be identified by delving through the data behind this continued growth,” says Billy Durie, Global Head for Data Centres at Aggreko. “Nowhere is this more apparent than in the fact that the FLAP markets have experienced its two largest quarters for take-up in the second half of the year, with 105MW in Q3 and 96MW in Q4 respectively. Taking this into account, the question must be asked- how is all of this going to be powered? “Such scale, coupled with the fact the CBRE has anticipated higher costs caused by energy price rises, will pose challenges for those building new facilities to service this growth. Namely, data centre stakeholders may find themselves unable to power expanded halls or increased take-up in existing premises due to grid constraints.” The effects of grid strain can be clearly seen in Amsterdam, where a moratorium has been in place since July 2019 on data centre construction in both the city and nearby Haarlemmermeer’s municipalities. Though not as extreme, other areas are experiencing similar issues. For example, the CBRE has identified government-imposed restrictions on build activity as a key challenge for the rapidly expanding Frankfurt market. Such limitations highlight the role decentralised energy solutions could play in meeting data centre construction demand. Specifically, by using generator technology as a bridging solution during both the project and when facilities come online, power provision can be maintained while grid capacity is increased for these new or expanded facilities. Billy says: “Looked upon from the outside, it could be argued that the European data centre sector is experiencing what might be regarded as an enviable problem. Yet this remains a pressing concern, and one that must be addressed if the FLAP markets’ upward trajectory is to continue unabated. The provision of green distributed energy equipment on a hired basis is one such way to bridge this gap between ever-growing data centre demand and increasingly unreliable and constrained grid infrastructure. “Whether through the use of alternative fuels such as HVO, alongside Stage V generators for larger sites or hybrid battery systems for smaller loads, the technology is already there to sustainably assist this transition. Considering these facilities are increasingly situated in built-up areas subject to emissions controls, this is also a vital concern.”

Decarbonising key to ensuring data centre sector sustainability

Pessimism arising from a recent survey of data centre owners and operators about the sector’s sustainability reaffirms the need for green practice at all phases of a facility’s lifetime, according to Aggreko. The Uptime Institute’s recent questioning of 400 global stakeholders over the data centre sector’s sustainability has shown that only 38% of respondents believe the industry’s environmental commitments had proven effective. Similarly, 45% of respondents replied that they had led to few or no reductions in energy use, water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Faced with these latest industry insights, Billy Durie, Global Sector Head for Data Centres at Aggreko, is suggesting that facility construction is also a vital part of reducing the sector’s environmental impact. According to Billy, paying further consideration to this aspect of a facility’s lifetime is key to further reducing carbon emissions during operation. “The latest Uptime Institute report comes at a time when the industry is under more pressure than ever to decarbonise,” says Billy. “However, despite the right actions being taken insofar as environmental commitments are concerned, the analysis shows more can be done. “As the data centre market continues to boom, greener IT infrastructure is required to help create a better future. To achieve this, the industry must go beyond day-to-day operations and consider the impact of construction, which can be responsible for a large proportion of any facility’s overall carbon footprint.” The Institute’s report goes on to say that European respondents felt more can be done to help data centres reduce their environmental impact. According to Billy, industry suppliers in this market will be crucial in helping this sentiment become a reality, especially with the provision of more efficient equipment and greener fuels. He concludes: “The fact of the matter is that the data centre sector alone cannot achieve the decarbonisation required – the supply chain must take similar action. Aggreko, for instance, has committed to investing c.£30m in more environmentally-friendly temporary solutions before the end of the year to achieve this aim, as part of our Greener Upgrades initiative. “Similarly, as far as we are aware we are the only equipment hire company to have carried out independent, verified testing across multiple generator nodes on the use of hydro treated vegetable oil (HVO) as a drop-in fuel, monitoring emissions and impact on efficiency. We are also committed to cutting diesel use for our customers and reducing local air quality emissions by 50% within 10 years. As all companies work towards carbon neutrality by 2050, actions such as these will be key to turning around industry sentiment from the negativity seen in this latest Uptime Institute report.” To download Aggreko’s new Greener Upgrades guide, click here.

DataVita joins international pledge to drive IT sustainability

DataVita has committed to a carbon-neutral future by becoming the first Scottish IT company to sign the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact. Launched earlier this year, the pan-European initiative has seen more than 40 companies and trade organisations pledge to reduce their carbon footprint and make data centre and cloud operations more sustainable. As part of the pact, DataVita has agreed to meet ambitious 2025 and 2030 targets in areas such as energy efficiency, water conservation, heat recycling, and the re-use and repair of server equipment. The Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact follows the launch of the European Green Deal, which set the goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with companies involved supporting the transition to a climate-neutral economy. The formal agreement builds on DataVita’s ongoing plans to boost sustainability, with a move already underway towards 100% renewable energy sources by generating its own electricity from wind power supported by battery-powered back-up systems. DataVita plans take its data centre off the grid next year, generating its own electricity from wind power with battery-powered back-up systems. DataVita’s data centre currently has a power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio of just 1.18 – well below the industry average of 2.0. It was one of the first UK facilities to introduce an energy efficient, refrigerant-free air-cooling system, which uses Scotland’s natural climate to maintain optimum temperatures, instead of air conditioning units that consume vast amounts of energy. Danny Quinn, managing director of DataVita, says: “We’re fast becoming a digital and data-driven society, which means data centres are becoming an even more critical element of our infrastructure. Data centres are fast becoming the fourth utility, and with that we have a real opportunity and responsibility to focus on sustainability.  “By their nature, data centres can consume large amounts of energy, but the IT industry is also one of the most forward-thinking sectors when it comes to adopting new technology and making positive changes. The Climate Neutral Data Centre pact highlights the industry-wide focus on addressing the greatest challenge of our time, and while we’re already making progress with sustainable processes and systems, we’re want to further reduce our carbon footprint. “The global focus on sustainability is not limited to the data centre and IT industry. As businesses become more aware of their and their supply chain’s environmental impact, small changes – and their associated energy savings – can make a larger collective impact.”

Techbuyer launches Interact - a tool to address the reduced carbon agenda

Techbuyer Group has announced the launch of an energy optimisation software tool which allows the data centre industry to better address the climate change risk. The tool, which goes to market under the brand name 'Interact, is the culmination of a two-year research and development partnership between Techbuyer and the University of East London. Interact delivers previously unseen energy optimisation recommendations at component and system level for data centre server hardware, allowing stakeholders to reduce their carbon footprint, limit emissions, and achieve expenditure and operational cost savings. With the data centre sector responsible for a significant percentage of worldwide energy consumption – and expected to grow 500% globally by 2030 – carbon optimisation is essential.   In simple terms, the Interact tool allows users to identify their optimal server configurations in terms of performance and energy efficiency as per individual requirements. The tool will recommend both new and refurbished options, whichever is best for client requirements. Cost savings can be enormous. A recent case study of 770 servers delivered potential savings of £200,000 in year one and £480,000 in years two and three. Carbon savings were over 460,000kg of CO2 equivalent on the running costs, and much more than that on supply chain carbon. The use of refurbished machines avoids almost a metric ton of the emissions involved in mining, manufacture and transport of the new equivalent. Most of the climate change agenda focuses on use phase, but there is a growing appreciation of the importance of reuse as well. The Interact tool began as an Innovate UK supported collaboration between Techbuyer and the University of East London. The academic supervisor, Rabih Bashroush, is a world leader in the field of energy efficiency for data centre IT hardware who recently featured on Channel 4 Dispatches. Lead developer and researcher, Nour Rteil, carried out months of component level experiments that enabled the team to create a smart tool that analyses component and rack level server solutions to optimise cost, energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Her research has led to a paper co-authored by Nour, Rabih Bashroush, Techbuyer Group IT Director Rich Kenny and Techbuyer Sustainability Lead Astrid Wynne in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Transactions on Sustainable Computing. The peer-reviewed research outlined the effect of a declining Moore’s Law on data centre IT refresh. “The IEEE paper represents peer-reviewed evidence that it makes perfect sense to refresh with properly configured refurbished servers for energy efficiency as well as reduced environmental footprint. This is the first time this has been done. The Interact tool builds on that with machine learning smart software to give the most effective energy and cost saving solution for IT refresh – be that through replacing existing infrastructure with new or refurbished server configurations or through upgrading existing configurations instead ,” says Rich Kenny, Global IT Director for Techbuyer and ­Directory of Strategy for Interact.

Arriva drives green mobility with power infrastructure at bus depot

How smart e-mobility infrastructure supports the transition to carbon neutral public transport in the Merseyside area. Arriva Merseyside is a public transport operator running bus services in and around the Liverpool City Region, providing public transport services to the nearly 1.5 million local residents. Arriva is committed to making its business carbon neutral by 2030. The company also wants to reduce its impact on air quality in the urban centres where its services operate. In 2018, Arriva Merseyside purchased 12 Enviro Buses, BYD ADL Enviro200EV single deck pure electric buses to serve some of the bus routes in Liverpool’s city centre. The e-buses joined the 51 hybrid and 9 gas buses already added to the fleet earlier that year. This was the introduction of the final part of a £21 million investment into cutting edge green technology from Arriva Merseyside.  The purchase was also supported through a successful £5 million bid for Government (OLEV) funding for new, greener buses, in partnership with Arriva. “Arriva is committed to reducing carbon emissions, both by encouraging more people to use public transport and by minimising our own environmental impact” says Marcello Giovanardi Category Manager – Fuel, Lubricants, Utilities at Arriva. “We were already working with Schneider Electric as our partner on energy bill validations and commodity risk management for the depot, so we’re aware of their expertise in this area and reputation for delivering reliable high-performance solutions.” Arriva’s environmental commitment extends to its power infrastructure, which is vital to supporting the increasing number of electric vehicles in its fleet. They were therefore seeking a partner with strong sustainability credentials to design and install the electrical infrastructure to deliver an industrial supply at the depot in Green Lane, Merseyside. The central requirement of the project was to provide reliable and secure electricity supply for 6 double bus chargers on a charging island in the middle of the depot. A key goal was to minimise disruption to normal bus services during the installation process. It was essential that the solution enabled a reliable and resilient power supply with 100% uptime to the electric bus chargers. The provider of electrical infrastructure would be required to work in close collaboration with both the charger manufacturer and the local network operator, to ensure all components of the new system met the required regulatory standards as well as Arriva’s Health & Safety policy for people on site. The solution itself was required to be highly durable and withstand all weather in its outdoor location, whilst also having a minimal footprint as space is at a premium in the urban setting of the Green Lane depot. With Arriva’s commitment to transition towards emissions-free operations, the charging infrastructure would also need to have capacity to grow the number of electric buses it services in the future.    The project began with a comprehensive consultation process with Arriva Merseyside and the other technology and utilities partners involved, Schneider Electric, led by its Power Consultancy team. The parties then designed, then installed and manufactured an 11kV packaged substation in a configuration tailored to the project requirements. Key features included the implementation of a low voltage MCCB feeder pillar, RN2c T2/21 ring main unit (RMU), and transformer to step down the supply to 415v as required by the chargers. The MCCB feeder pillar featured ComPact NS circuit breakers at 1600A to enable built-in power and energy metering functionalities through embedded MicroControl units. The direct coupling used in the substation design means that the product required minimal cabling to be installed and will require minimal maintenance over its lifetime, reducing overall cost. The 11kV packaged substation, including switchgear and transformer, is manufactured in Schneider Electric’s plant in Leeds under a direct and controlled factory assembly, making the overall product incredibly safe. The packaged substation offer is also consistent with Arriva Merseyside’s environmental commitment, having been manufactured to meet the ISO 14001 environmental standards as standard. The substation was installed on the depot’s land near the perimeter of the site, making the most effective use of space available in the urban location. This was possible due to the highly durable design of the components. The MCCB feeder pillar, designed for the UK market, is fully compliant with ISO 12924 standard to ensure that components will not rust even when constantly exposed to the elements for years.   Delivered as a single unit, the substation implementation was a time-efficient and streamlined process, successfully minimising disruption to on site operation of bus services during the project. The unit also has capacity to support a larger number of chargers, should Arriva Merseyside decide to expand the all-electric portion of its fleet in future – without further expansion of the depot’s power infrastructure.  The depot now has two separate power supplies, providing back up capability where required to ensure Arriva has even greater resiliency of supply. Arriva Merseyside now has a safe, reliable and convenient charging infrastructure in place for the 12 electric buses in its Merseyside fleet. Continuous achievement of 100% uptime and a charge time of 4-6 hours allows buses to be charged overnight, which is convenient, efficient, and cost-effective. Using this system, Arriva Merseyside can now operate its first all-electric bus route in Merseyside. The Schneider Electric solutions are contributing to cleaner, greener public transport for the Merseyside area. Arriva Merseyside now has the capacity to scale the number of chargers at the Green Lane depot going forwards, to accelerate its progress towards its carbon neutral 2030 goal. The shift towards more electrified public transport is expected to combat air pollution in the local area, as well as take Arriva one step closer to its company-wide carbon neutral goal.  EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity for our customers. EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level including Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics & Services. EcoStruxure has been deployed in 480,000+ sites, with the support of 20,000+ system integrators and developers, connecting over 1.6 million assets under management through 40+ digital services.

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.