NREL Leads $40 Million ARPA-E Program to Revolutionize Cooling in Data Centers
Dec. 14, 2023 — The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been selected to lead a $40 million program initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to transform the way components within data centers are cooled.
As part of the ARPA-E Cooling Operations Optimized for Leaps in Energy, Reliability, and Carbon Hyperefficiency for Information Processing Systems (COOLERCHIPS) program, NREL is spearheading one research project and supporting three additional projects in collaboration with various national laboratories, universities, and industry partners.
Data centers play a crucial role in powering our digital world, housing high-performance computers and storage systems. However, these facilities are significant energy consumers, accounting for approximately 2% of all electricity usage in the United States. Cooling alone can make up to 40% of the energy consumed by data centers, emphasizing the importance of implementing efficient cooling strategies to decrease their environmental impact.
NREL, known for its cutting-edge research, is a living laboratory where innovative concepts are put into practice. The laboratory utilizes high-performance computing for modeling and simulations, enabling researchers to analyze large datasets and control complex systems to enhance their understanding of real-world applications.
For instance, NREL’s End-Use Load Profiles project leverages the supercomputer Eagle to model building energy consumption, providing insights to policymakers on decarbonization measures for buildings across the country. The efficient warm-water liquid cooling method used to cool Eagle captures 97% of its waste heat, which is then utilized to heat the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) where the data center is located, demonstrating the sustainability benefits of this approach.
NREL researcher David Sickinger is leading a $1.5 million ARPA-E project in collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Sandia National Laboratories to establish standardized testing for evaluating cooling technologies developed within the COOLERCHIPS program. These tests will assess the performance of cooling solutions at various levels, from individual components to full-edge data centers, providing a consistent framework for measuring metrics across all projects.
Additionally, NREL’s Sreekant Narumanchi and his team are contributing to several COOLERCHIPS partner projects. These initiatives focus on developing innovative cooling solutions for data centers, aiming to enhance efficiency, reliability, and sustainability.
The COOLERCHIPS program aims to reduce total cooling energy expenditure in data centers to less than 5% of the total IT load, regardless of location or computing system density. By pushing the technological boundaries in cooling technology, the program seeks to minimize the operational carbon footprint of data centers, enhance security, and lower operational costs.
To learn more about ARPA-E and the projects part of the COOLERCHIPS program, visit their website for detailed information.
Source: NREL
As a news writer for the Wall Street Journal, I ensure to provide accurate and engaging information on the latest developments in the field of renewable energy and data center cooling technologies.
It seems like the news article is discussing the collaboration between NREL and CoolerChips initiative to work on energy-efficient data center solutions. The locations mentioned in the search query are potential options for data center locations.