Microsoft unveils data centres that use no evaporated water for cooling

2024-12-09 · Publisher : Microsoft · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

Microsoft says its new data centre designs, used since August 2024, cool chips in a closed loop without evaporating water, avoiding more than 125 million litres a year per site.

### What changes On 9 December 2024, Microsoft publishes on its blog an article by Steve Solomon, vice president of datacenter infrastructure engineering, on a **new design with zero evaporated water for cooling**. Since August 2024, all new Microsoft data centre designs use chip-level cooling, with a closed water loop circulating between servers and chillers and no top-up after the initial fill. Microsoft estimates this model avoids more than 125 million litres of water a year per data centre. ### Key facts - Principle: chip-level cooling and a closed loop, filled once at construction. - Claimed saving: more than 125 million litres of water a year per data centre, excluding sanitary uses. - Starting point: an average water usage effectiveness (WUE) of 0.30 L/kWh for the year, down 39% from 2021. - Trade-off: a nominal increase in annual energy use compared with evaporative designs. - Schedule: pilots in Phoenix (Arizona) and Mount Pleasant (Wisconsin) in 2026; new sites come online from late 2027. ### Why it matters Water has become an acceptability issue for data centres, like electricity. Closed-loop liquid cooling reduces water withdrawal but needs more energy: the gain is debated site by site. For customers who must report their footprint, providers' water-use indicators become a criterion for choosing a region. ### Takeaway Cooling AI chips also plays out on water, with a trade-off between water and energy.

Tags : Datacenter, Refroidissement liquide, GreenOps, Azure, Hyperscaler