Techno-economic performance of reservoir thermal energy storage for data center cooling system

Oh, Hyunjun; Jin, Wencheng; Peng, Peng; Winick, Jeffrey A.; Sickinger, David; Sartor, Dale; Zhang, Yingqi; Beckers, Koenraad; Kitz, Kevin; Acero-Allard, Diana; Atkinson, Trevor A.; Dobson, Patrick

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125858

Techno-economic performance of reservoir thermal energy storage for data center cooling system

Journal Article · Fri Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Applied Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125858· OSTI ID:2555909

Oh, Hyunjun ^[1]; Jin, Wencheng ^[2]; Peng, Peng ^[3]; Winick, Jeffrey A. ^[1]; Sickinger, David ^[1]; Sartor, Dale ^[4]; Zhang, Yingqi ^[4]; ^[1]; Kitz, Kevin ^[5]; Acero-Allard, Diana ^[1]; Atkinson, Trevor A. ^[6]; Dobson, Patrick ^[4]

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Texas A &amp; M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
KitzWorks LLC, Boise, ID (United States)
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Electronic equipment in data centers generates heat during operation, which should be dissipated through a cooling system to prevent overheating and maintain optimal performance. Electricity consumption for the data center cooling system becomes significant as the demand for data-intensive services increases. Although various technologies have been developed and integrated into the data center cooling system, there are limited high-efficiency alternatives for data center cooling. In this study, we designed a reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) system that stores cooling energy during winters and produces it during summers for data center cooling. We then demonstrated the techno-economic performance of the RTES incorporated with dry coolers and heat recovery for a year-round 5 MW cooling load. The RTES cooling production was reliable during the 20-year lifetime. We estimated the levelized cost of cooling as $$\$$$$5/MWh, significantly lower than $$\$$$$15/MWh for the base scenario where chillers and dry coolers supply the same cooling load without the RTES. We also estimated that the RTES-based cooling system annually avoids CO₂ emissions up to 1488 tCO₂e compared to the base case. These results highlight techno-economic feasibility and environmental benefits of the RTES and its potential to be deployed for various applications at large scales as well as for data center cooling.

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Research Organization:: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: US Department of Energy; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Geothermal Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Geothermal Technologies Office (EE-4G)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC07-05ID14517; AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 2555909

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2563293
OSTI ID: 2573008

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5700-89720; UUID:5bc631bd-8030-4923-bba5-a0375a070448; MainId:90499; MainAdminId:76669

Journal Information:: Applied Energy, Journal Name: Applied Energy Vol. 391; ISSN 0306-2619

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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