Power Inefficiencies Cause Environmental Issues
Reduced Building Costs
Speed to Market
Reduced Operating Costs
90% Smaller Scalable Footprint
Reduced Environmentally Impact
Power Inefficiencies Cause Environmental Issues
According to NREL, studies show a wide range of PUE values for data centers, but the overall average tends to be around 1.8. Data centers focusing on efficiency typically achieve PUE (power usage effectiveness) values of 1.2 or less. PUE is the ratio of the total amount of power used by a computer data center facility to the power delivered to computing equipment. Measurements of efficiency such as PUE helps data center owners/operators gauge their overall operations; as well identify opportunities to increase efficiency.
“Traditional data centers have reported PUEs reducing from 2.23 in 2010 to 1.93 in 2020. In contrast, the largest “hyperscale” cloud providers report PUEs ranging from 1.25 to 1.18. Some report even better performance, such as Google with a Q2 2020 fleet wide trailing 12-month PUE of 1.10.” In contrast, data centers equipment with two-phase immersion cooling has substantial higher efficiency and energy savings compared to traditional air-cooled data centers with > 90% reduction in HVAC thus saving over 50% in energy costs.
Reduced Building Costs
The construction of a two-phase immersion cooling data center depending on the location in the U.S., is around 37%-52% less expensive than a traditional data center. Its technology uses a modular data center design that eliminates the need for complex airflow management. Between reduction of overall floor space and vertical and horizontal shelve space, the physical footprint is around 80% smaller than that of a traditional air-cooled data center.
Speed to Market
The modular buildings are executed as a complete engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model, including project management, scheduling and procurement to ensure delivery targets. Unlike traditional air-cooled traditional centers taking anywhere from 12 to 18 months to build, these modular centers can be built in 5 to 7 months, which is 60% faster. Modular data center facilities allow for expedited infrastructure design and development of Edge and campus site expansion solutions with CAPEX and OPEX certainty.
In addition, the turn-key solution for general contractors to include permitting, electrical, network and infrastructure deployment activities helps speed up the overall construction timeline.
Reduced Operating Costs
Two-phase immersion cooling does not require the HVAC requirements of a traditional air-cooled data center. In fact, the modular design reduces HVAC by 90% thus reducing the total operating expense for electricity by 50%.
Passive cooling system means no unnecessary parts to build or repair, useful especially for edge computing where locations are remote. Other savings include reduced maintenance costs on machines because of improved hardware reliability in 3M fluid which incidentally also extends the useful life of assets.
90% Smaller Scalable Footprint
The modular data centers for two-phase immersion cooling requires no hot/cold aisles, computer room air conditioning units (CRAC’s) or raised floors. Additionally, servers require no fans. Due to the superior efficiency of Immersion Cooling it is possible to greatly reduce the size of transformers, generators, transfer switches, PDU’s and UPS’. By greatly simplifying the cooling requirements and reducing the size of the required power infrastructure, it is possible to considerably reduce the investment and spacing requirements of a Data Center.
Two-phase immersion cooling, unlike traditional air-cooled data centers, is not hampered by its structure when faced with increased temperatures. Immersion cooling eliminates overheating and temperature fluctuations. In addition, there are no issues with idle physical space, cooling and additional power which makes it easy and efficient to scale our business and stay ahead of the curve.
Reduced Environmentally Impact
With the spread of cloud computing, energy use by data centers is on an upward trend and society is showing more concern over the environmental performance of data centers. According to Climate Neutral Group, worldwide, it is estimated that data centers consume about 3 percent of the global electric supply and account for about 2 percent of total GHG emissions.
BCR has selected cities that have historic conservational roots that have the ability to produce affordable, reliable, green commercial energy. In our continued effort to go green, we are in the preliminary stages of planning to build our first 100-megawatt solar farm.
Today’s data centers measure their individual success on an industry calculation called Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and its reciprocal Data Center infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE), which are widely accepted benchmarking standards proposed by the Green Grid to help IT Professionals determine how energy efficient data centers are and to monitor the impact of their efficiency efforts. In simple terms, the closer a company can get down to the value of 1, the more efficient they are running their operation which also reduces their carbon footprint which is good for the environment.
BCR has designed its expansion facilities to operate its infrastructure with a PUE of less than 1.06. We are dedicated and will continue to utilize the latest technologies to further reduce its PUE/DCiE ratio. Our facilities will achieve a 100% net carbon neutral infrastructure with the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates.
Water use has surpassed energy use as an environmental concern. It’s no surprise, because as we previously mentioned, data center chillers and air handling units can consume massive volumes of water to eject the heat from data centers. These compute facilities therefore use billions of liters of water per year. According to recent estimates, data centers consumed over 660 billion liters of water in 2020 alone. This amount of water equates to every person in the U.S. consuming one 16 oz. bottle of water every single day for over 11 years. Immersion cooling eliminates this unnecessary waste.
In addition to wasted space, water and energy, we must add the physical waste associated with outdated cooling systems. Since high power air-cooled servers require larger fans and heat sinks, they take up even more space, are shrouded in more sheet metal, require more racks, and generate vast volumes of waste packaging. All of this Electronic Waste (E-Waste) creates a negative impact on the environment. The idea is to do more with less. Liquid cooling provides the opportunity to achieve exactly that.