Computing Facilities Can Save Big and Keep Cool by Looking Underground

Researchers at the National Laboratory of the Rockies have found a way to cut the huge amounts of energy and water that data centers use for cooling, by storing cold underground. Keeping computer servers cool can eat up 40% of a data center's total energy use. The new approach, called cold underground thermal energy storage (cold UTES), captures cold from winter air or cool nights and stores it underground in rock or boreholes until it's needed to help cool equipment during hot, high-demand periods.

In a study of 12 data centers in Arizona and Virginia, researchers found this method could sharply cut costs. At the Virginia site, annual electricity costs for cooling could drop by 70%, or about $20 million a year for a large facility. It could also reduce the need for expensive grid and chiller upgrades, saving $90 million to $390 million for that size of facility. The Department of Energy is now backing a three-year research effort, led by four national labs, to build commercial-scale demonstration sites using this technology.

This news is about industrial-scale computing facilities, not home cooling systems, so there's no direct action for homeowners here. But the underlying idea, storing cold or heat underground to use later, is related to geothermal heat pump systems that some homeowners already use to heat and cool their houses more efficiently. The research mainly signals that data centers, which are straining local power grids in some areas, may find ways to ease that strain, which could matter for anyone concerned about grid reliability or rising electricity costs in their region.