Data Centres: can they be cooled using river water?
Data centres are a fundamental element of IT infrastructures, as they allow any IT system to function 24 hours a day. They consist of enormous rooms which house servers, storage, continuity groups and other equipment required to manage processes, communications and services for companies and private citizens.
Due to its continuous non-stop operation, this equipment generates a huge amount of heat. It is therefore essential to dissipate this as much as possible to ensure a constant, optimal operating temperature. A cooling method using river water is currently being tested in California.
The zero impact data centre
Keeping a data centre cool requires complex technology, large quantities of energy and the use of chemical refrigerants, which have a significant impact on the environment. The task of making these essential structures ‘greener’ has been a difficult but necessary challenge for people around the globe.
An interesting article in link Cooling Post (accessible via this link https://www.coolingpost.com/features/data-centre-cooled-using-river-water/), introduce the first high density, zero emissions data centre. It is called Nautilus Stockton and is a minor miracle of engineering, capable of exploiting ordinary river water to cool all its components.
The 930 square metre structure is positioned on a barge along the banks of the river San Joaquin, in Stockton, California. It can generate 7MW of power with all four of its internal modular data rooms operating. This means that a lot of heat is created, but Nautilus’ water-based cooling system is easily able to maintain temperatures at optimum levels.
How Nautilus TRUE technology works
Despite the complexities of creating a zero impact data centre, this first prototype shows how this solution could be applicable on a larger scale. Its success is largely due to the innovative Nautilus TRUE (Total Resource Usage Effectiveness) technology.
The idea behind it is to reject any kind of mechanical refrigeration and allow the system be cooled by an ingenious freshwater circuit. The natural temperature of the river water is low enough to allow adequate heat exchange. The principal behind its successful functioning is quite simple:
- Water is extracted directly from the river flowing beneath the barge;
- It is filtered to remove potential contaminants;
- The water reaches the heat exchanger and absorbs excess heat produced by the individual modules;
- An outlet releases the warm water back into the river.
An important feature is that the liquid is not altered in any way by chemical agents and can therefore be released into the river without causing any harmful effects to flora and fauna.
Advantages offered by river water cooled data centres
As well as having an almost zero impact on the environment, Nautilus Stockton is considered a high energy efficiency data centre. Thanks to some special features in its design, it consumes 30% less energy on average when compared to traditional systems.
The modular data rooms that make up the complex are equipped with four parallel cooling distribution units with a (loss proof) 675kW capacity and follow a ‘4 to make 3’ configuration. Each one is powered by redundant open circuit systems.
The solution developed by Nautilus, using ordinary river water, opens the door to the construction of increasingly high performance data centres which are sustainable, quick to build and can serve the entire community, with no harmful consequences for the local environment.
These results have encouraged the company who produces it to work hard to make this technology available in as many countries as possible, revolutionising the concept of data centres around the world.
Translated by Joanne Beckwith
