Although the details of the design haven’t been revealed, it’s fairly easy to understand what Microsoft is working on. There is no secret equipment, and the composition is public. This alone sets a good example for other companies.
Howard called Microsoft’s move a beneficial sustainability example. The hyperscaler’s sustainability initiatives are impressive, he said, adding, “If leaders move in a certain direction, it can have a positive impact on local communities and good stewardship of natural resources can also become a trend.”
Microsoft’s Community Commitment
The most economical way to cool a data center is evaporative cooling. However, it is also the method that consumes the most water; Microsoft is known to consume hundreds of millions of liters of water to cool its data centers.
Microsoft measures water efficiency with the Water Use Effectiveness (WUE) metric, which is the total annual water consumption used for humidification and cooling divided by the total energy consumption of IT equipment.
Last fiscal year, Microsoft data centers operated with an average WUE of 0.30 L/kWh, a 39% improvement compared to 2021, when the global average was 0.49 L/kWh.
But there is also something to lose. Traditionally, water is evaporated to reduce the power demand of the coolant. Microsoft is replacing evaporative systems with mechanical cooling, which slightly increases power consumption, which increases power usage efficiency (PUE), a measure of a data center’s energy efficiency.
Source: www.itworld.co.kr
