Guest Bio
Anthony McCray is the director of business development for data centers at Danfoss. He has 40 years of experience in engineering, sales and business development in the wireless communications and data center industries.
Episode Summary
Host Vic Marinich is joined by Anthony McCray, director of business development for data centers at Danfoss, to discuss the trends facing the data industry and the outlook on data center sustainability over the next five years.
Main Points
- Data centers currently account for about 3-4% of total electricity demand. With the growth in cloud storage, AI and machine learning, that number is going to increase to around 11% by 2030. (6:40)
- Data centers tend to be clustered in specific geographic areas. There are growing concerns about electrical infrastructure and power availability. As a result, data centers are exploring alternative power sources, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric and green hydrogen. (6:50)
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced its Data Center Components initiative in which they are taking an in-depth look of all their infrastructure and looking for flexible components that that can generate an additional 12% of compute power in order to support the demands of AI in an energy-efficient way. (9:10)
- In order to decrease carbon emissions and energy consumption, the data center industry is exploring new cooling technologies such as immersion cooling and direct-to-chip liquid cooling. (11:15)
- Heat recovery, or heat reuse, has much potential for helping data centers reduce energy consumption and contribute to the energy efficiency of communities but unlike in Europe, the U.S. does not have the infrastructure to support it. (17:20)
- More data centers will need to be built in order to meet growing data demands. It is critical for data center operators to educate communities about the benefits of data centers and how they can help communities – employment opportunities, increased data processing speeds, tax benefits – to minimize community opposition. (20:35)
- Many of the energy-efficient HVAC/R technologies adopted by data centers can also be used by commercial and residential buildings. Data center operators can also educate the public on how data centers are driving efficiency in communities. (24:20)
Links
For more insight on data center trends, new cooling technologies and the potential of heat reuse, read our recent report, “Data Centers and Energy: Reaching Sustainability”
To learn more about how Danfoss solutions are helping data centers reduce their carbon footprint and energy consumption, visit https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/markets/buildings-commercial/shared/data-centers
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