Guest Bio
Dick Lord is a Senior Fellow at Carrier Corporation and an ASHRAE Fellow. He has 50 years of experience in the HVAC industry and has been involved in writing data centers standards like ASHRAE 90.4.
Episode Summary
Host Vic Marinich is joined by Dick Lord, Senior Fellow at Carrier Corporation and an ASHRAE Fellow, to discuss the challenges in building carbon-neutral data centers.
Main Points
- ASHRAE has set forth energy efficiency requirements for commercial buildings. 90.4 defines requirements for data centers. (3:00)
- Data centers primarily use air cooling to cool the equipment. As the growth in AI and machine learning increases the demands on data centers, cooling demands will require new methods such as liquid cooling, direct-to-chip cooling and immersion cooling. (8:30)
- The increased reliance on cloud computing and AI has resulted in a need for more data centers. This has put pressure on the electrical grid and has resulted in data centers looking to locate near robust power sources. But communities are often resistant to data centers being built in their neighborhoods. (16:00)
- Heat reuse and district heating allow data centers to play an important role in a community’s energy system, but unlike in Europe, most communities in the U.S. do not have the infrastructure to support that. (18:20)
- Reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption in data centers is a challenge, due to multiple heat transfers. Many cooling methods require water, which results in concerns about water usage. The challenge is to improve heat transfer while minimizing water use. (21:10)
- Technology is evolving quickly, along with demands for new solutions. Component suppliers, OEMs, labs and data centers can optimize technology development by collaborating. (24:00)
Links
For insight on current sustainability initiatives in the industry and where the industry is headed over the next few years, listen to our recent podcast with Danfoss’ Anthony McCray: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/5bcc3c1b-cb09-4b18-8fe7-4c3b3fd5c0a7/
Our recent report “Empowering Transformation: Data Centers and Progress for Business and Community Life,” takes a deeper dive into the challenges and opportunities with creating sustainable data centers: https://online.flippingbook.com/link/170918/
To learn more about ASHRAE 90.4, visit https://tpc.ashrae.org/Documents?cmtKey=e500d5cf-3968-4b53-b85e-04719e6ffe8b
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For more information and additional episodes of the EnVisioneering Exchange podcast, visit https://envisioneering-exchange.captivate.fm/
