I am going to shove a spanner in the works here. Data Centres are going through a metamorphosis transition, the likes of which I have never seen before.

This is as significant as the introduction of the hybrid motor vehicle (Prius?) was to the motor vehicle industry over twenty years ago.

Although I am "retired" (do we ever?) I was approached last year to see if I was interested in getting involved in a data centre design and build because of my knowledge (particularly commissioning and compliance ) of pumping large volumes of chemicals through a facility. The industry is moving rapidly towards "immersion cooling" for computers.

My take-out is that immersion cooling used in a data centre facility LOWERS the operational energy requirement by greater than 75%! Watch this space!

I asked ChatGPT to make me a simple summary based on a bunch of criteria I had collated.

Data centre cooling — explained simply

Data centres use a lot of electricity just to keep their computer equipment cool. In fact, as servers become more powerful and compact, cooling them can take even more energy than running the computers themselves.

To deal with this, especially in smaller or upgraded data centres, liquid cooling is becoming an increasingly popular solution. Liquid cooling works better than air because liquids remove heat much more efficiently.

How liquid cooling works

Instead of cooling the whole room with cold air, liquid cooling takes the cooling directly to the hot parts of the equipment. A cool liquid flows close to or around the servers, absorbs heat, and then carries that heat away. This makes cooling faster, more efficient, and cheaper to run.

Why liquid cooling is useful

Liquid cooling:

• Supports high-performance servers in tight spaces
• Reduces the need to build new data centres or expand existing ones
• Makes it possible to run powerful “edge computing” systems where space is limited
• Uses less energy, which cuts costs and improves sustainability

Main types of liquid cooling

Rear Door Heat Exchangers (RDHx).

• These replace the back door of a server rack with a liquid-cooled panel. Hot air from the servers passes through the panel, where the liquid removes the heat before the air enters the room. Passive versions rely on server fans Active versions include extra fans for better cooling
• This approach improves efficiency without changing the servers themselves.

Direct-to-chip cooling

Cooling plates are attached directly to the hottest parts of the server (like processors).

• In some systems, the liquid simply warms up and flows away
• In others, the liquid briefly boils, turning into vapour to carry heat away even faster

Immersion cooling

This is the most advanced method. Servers are fully submerged in a special, non-conductive liquid.

• In one version, the liquid heats up and is cooled elsewhere
• In another, the liquid boils, and the vapour is cooled back into liquid and reused
• This method is extremely efficient and removes heat very quickly.

Growing adoption

Liquid cooling is still emerging, but its use is increasing. Currently:

• About 6% of data centre managers worldwide use it in edge locations
• In North America, that figure is closer to 9%
• Future data centres using advanced cooling methods could see 20–40% lower operating costs

Bottom line: Liquid cooling is a smarter, more energy-efficient way to cool powerful computers, especially as data centres get smaller, denser, and more demanding.

NB: I am not currently holding any data centre stocks and I don't really want a job, but I am but looking closely at the new builds via LINKED-IN and SEEK.COM ads where they are looking for specialists in this area.

Comments welcomed

Mallers in Melbourne. [email protected]

@Scot1963 - and then there's the increasing community backlash against the current, full size data centers. Just google "data centers around the great lakes" for recent articles on that. Basically, the slew of data centers already built and being built in that area are straining both the grid and the water supply to major cities (like Chicago and Toronto) and even more drastically affecting the small rural farming communities that ring the Great Lakes. The area is a major food bowl, so... Food grown or data center? Hmm...

Smaller centers localized to businesses actively using them - and as is apparently being discussed, with the data center owners supplying their own power one way or another - might prove a workable compromise.