Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Addressing Data Center Cooling Needs through the Use of Subsurface Thermal Energy Storage Systems

Conference ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2118/215746-MS· OSTI ID:2203234
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of addressing the cooling needs for information technology (IT) equipment in data centers by using reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) to provide reliable and sustainable low-temperature fluid. This project focuses on the technical viability of operating such a system in Houston, Texas, which is a representative location for crypto mining data centers. An analysis has been performed to investigate the technical feasibility with climate data for Houston. Results show that data centers on the scale of 30 MW, and operating at a temperature of 27 degrees C, can be reliably cooled by a combined RTES and dry coolers setup. A techno-economic analysis will be performed and energy/water saving benefits will be quantified in the future. In addition, the study will be extended to other representative data center locations with different climates and geographical locations.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Geothermal Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
2203234
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5700-87821; MainId:88596; UUID:d463f81c-8c7e-496a-a3bb-69f81cfc2794; MainAdminID:70909
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the SPE Energy Transition Symposium, 22-23 August 2023, Houston, Texas
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (6)

Geologic Energy Storage: Fact Sheet 2022 report March 2023
"Hot" for warm water cooling conference November 2011
Multiphase Inverse Modeling: Review and iTOUGH2 Applications journal August 2004
Recalibrating global data center energy-use estimates journal February 2020
Data center growth in the United States: decoupling the demand for services from electricity use journal December 2018
A time-convolution approach for modeling heat exchange between a wellbore and surrounding formation journal December 2011

Similar Records

Related Subjects

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION,MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
cooling
crypto mining data centers
data centers
Houston
information technology equipment
reservoir thermal energy storage
techno-economic analysis