Chassis-level immersion liquid cooling goes live

First global use-case to be installed at EcoDataCenter’s climate positive data centre.

  • Wednesday, 13th May 2020 Posted 4 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Iceotope, in conjunction with partners Schneider Electric and Avnet, is to deploy its chassis-level immersion liquid cooling technology at EcoDataCenter’s new colocation facility in Falun, Sweden. Once installed, EcoDataCenter, the world’s first climate positive data center, will become the first colocation service provider to offer chassis-level immersion cooling technology for customer’s hosted IT loads.

Developed by Iceotope, the chassis-level immersion cooling solution will enable 46kW per rack, with the core technology capable of scaling to future-proof power densities of 100kW plus. Liquid cooling can improve chip and hard drive reliability by providing a lower stable operating temperature, as well as increasing the available white space by eliminating the requirement for hot aisle/ cold aisle layouts. Importantly, the cooling arrangement enables high-grade heat to be captured for reuse in a local renewable energy scheme.

“EcoDataCenter has embraced this innovative new technology as an early-adopter, knowing that companies in the market will soon see the operational and environmental benefits, and follow our lead,” said Lars Schedin, CEO of EcoDataCenter. “The integration of Iceotope, Schneider Electric and Avnet liquid cooling enables us to set ground-breaking, new industry standards for energy efficient, high-availability data centers. Together we are empowering customers to take action for a more sustainable future.”


Liquid cooling offers a lower TCO

With an operating PUE of 1.03, analysis of chassis-level immersive cooling shows significant CapEx savings of 14% and at least 10% energy savings, when compared with traditional air-cooled approaches for a 2MW facility. Over a 20-year period, this provides a reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of 11%.

David Craig, CEO of Iceotope said, “Chassis-level immersion cooling offers colocation, hyperscale and edge computing environments a practical and industry-leading solution for cooling high-density, critical IT loads. We’re delighted to be working alongside EcoDataCenter where our liquid cooling technology is helping to deliver reliable IT services with little or no impact on the environment, whilst helping to reduce costs associated with energy usage even further.”


Additional benefits of liquid cooling
Announced earlier this year as the industry’s first commercially available integrated rack with chassis-level immersive cooling, the collaborative solution from Iceotope, Schneider Electric and Avnet combines a high-powered GPU server with Iceotope’s liquid cooling technology to increase energy and cooling efficiency. Avnet’s expertise in integration is key, allowing EcoDataCenter, and other customers from the cloud to the edge, to utilize liquid-cooled servers inside Schneider Electric’s NetShelter™ liquid-cooled integrated rack enclosures.

Liquid cooling also offers a number of other benefits to customers, including greater efficiency; lower operating costs, smaller footprint, increased reliability, and nearly silent operation despite the high-power densities of evolving GPU technologies.

“Schneider Electric is committed to reducing the energy consumption and environmental impact of today’s data centers,” said Rob Bunger, Liquid Cooling Program Director, CTO Office, Schneider Electric. “The deployment at EcoDataCenter presents a significant milestone for our industry and demonstrates a clear business case for greater innovation and sustainability in IT deployments.”