Microsoft reveals new zero-water data center cooling design

1 week ago 3

Microsoft is set to pilot a new closed-loop data center cooling system
It will cool on a tighter chip level for improved efficiency
By 2030 it wants to replenish more water than it consumes

Microsoft is aiming to reduce its reliance on natural resources by eliminating the need for water to cool its power- and resource-hungry AI data centers in a major leap forward for sustainability.

The company plans to employ chip-level cooling technology on a much tighter scale, enabling it to use a closed-loop system to recycle water and therefore stop wasting the resource.

Microsoft has already reported a 39% improvement in its Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) since 2021, and by 80% since its first-generation data centers in the early 2000 - and it hopes transitioning to a closed-loop system where the water is reused could see it improve this figure even more.

Microsoft closed-loop cooling for data centers

Comparing the new system to its performance this financial year, Steve Solomon, VP for Data Center Infrastructure Engineering, confirmed: “This design will avoid the need for more than 125 million liters of water per year per datacenter.”

Solomon explained how the system, which was introduced in August 2024, works: “Once the system is filled during construction, it will continually circulate water between the servers and chillers to dissipate heat without requiring a fresh water supply.”

This year, Microsoft reported using 0.30 liters of water per kWh of consumption for IT equipment for the purpose of humidification and cooling, down from 0.49L/kWh in 2021. It has also been sourcing reclaimed and recycled water for data centers in Texas, Washington, California and Singapore in order to reduce its impact on the natural water course.

Solomon added that existing data centers will continue to use their current mix of air-cooled and water-cooled systems, suggesting that they won’t be upgraded over time, however when they retire they will likely be replaced by closed-loop cooling systems. New projects in Phoenix, Arizona, and Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin are set to pilot the new closed-loop cooling system in 2026 before they’re taken online in 2027.

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Moreover, Noelle Walsh, CVP for Cloud Operations and Innovation at Microsoft, said earlier in 2024 the company plans to replenish more water than it consumed locally for data centers by the end of the decade.