Immersion cooling is a technology that involves plunging servers and other data center hardware into specialized liquids.
Photo courtesy of Submer
Submerging Servers in Liquid Helps Data Centers Cut Energy Use
Immersion cooling is gaining traction, but the nascent industry still has major hurdles to overcome.
When Daniel Pope first floated the idea of submerging servers in liquid as an energy-efficient way to cool them a few years ago, his proposal was met with overwhelming skepticism from data center equipment makers. But now, Pope’s startup — Barcelona-based Submer — is a multimillion-dollar business, teaming up with technology giants such as Intel Corp. and Dell Technologies Inc.
The change in attitude reflects a pressing challenge: figuring out how to run data centers with less energy. The facilities, which support digital services ranging from TikTok to ChatGPT and Google Maps, last year consumed more electricity than Poland, Belgium and Norway combined, according to an April report by the International Energy Agency. That figure is set to more than double by 2030, driven largely by the massive computing requirements of artificial intelligence. As much as 40% of data centers’ energy use goes towards cooling computing hardware, making it a ripe space for innovation.