UF Receives U.S. DOE Funding for More Efficient Cooling for Data Centers
U.S. DOE Funds 15 Projects to Develop High Performance Cooling Systems for More Energy Efficient Data Centers to Reduce Carbon Emissions and Mitigate Climate Change
The University of Florida is among recipients of $40 million in funding by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for 15 projects that will develop high-performance, energy efficient cooling solutions for data centers. Used to house computers, storage systems, and computing infrastructure, data centers account for approximately 2% of total U.S. electricity consumption while data center cooling can account for up to 40% of data center energy usage overall. The selected projects—located at national labs, universities, and businesses—seek to reduce the energy necessary to cool data centers. These efforts will lower the operational carbon footprint associated with powering and cooling this critical infrastructure and support President Biden’s goals to reach net-zero carbon by 2050.
“Climate change, including severe weather events, threatens the functionality of data centers that are critical to connecting computing and network infrastructure that power our everyday lives,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “DOE is funding projects that will ensure the continued operation of these facilities while reducing the associated carbon emissions to beat climate change and reach our clean energy future.”
UF will receive $3,042,417 to develop a disruptive thermal management solution proposed for cooling future CPU and GPU chips at unprecedented heat flux and power levels in data centers server racks. The new technology allows for significant future growth in processor power, rejects heat directly to the ambient air external to the data center, and would facilitate adoption within existing data center infrastructure with a primary liquid cooling loop.
Read more about all the projects selected as part of the COOLERCHIPS program here: U.S. DOE Announces $40M for More Efficient Cooling for Data Centers.