Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Danfoss Partner to Curb Data Center Energy Consumption and Reuse Excess Heat

Rhea-AI Summary

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Danfoss have announced a partnership to launch HPE IT Sustainability Services – Data Center Heat Recovery. This initiative introduces an off-the-shelf heat recovery module to help organizations manage and reuse waste heat from data centers, aiming to enhance sustainability and reduce energy consumption.

HPE's new Modular Data Center (MDC) uses direct liquid cooling, improving energy efficiency by 20%. Danfoss contributes with heat reuse modules and Turbocor® compressors to enhance cooling efficiency by 30%. This solution allows for quicker deployment, reduces energy loss, and offers a lower power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.14.

The collaboration aims to address the growing energy demands of AI technologies and contribute to decarbonization efforts by transforming waste heat into a renewable energy source for various applications. The new services are available for immediate order.

Positive

• HPE's Modular Data Center (MDC) reduces overall energy consumption by 20%.
• Danfoss' heat reuse modules increase cooling efficiency by up to 30%.
• The new solution offers a low PUE of 1.14 compared to traditional data centers.
• Deployment time for the MDC is reduced from 18 months to as few as 6 months.
• HPE and Danfoss' solution supports decarbonization efforts by reusing waste heat for renewable energy applications.
• The compact design of the MDC minimizes energy loss and allows for placement near data generation sites, optimizing data governance and security.

Negative

• None.

Insights

Financial Analyst

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) collaboration with Danfoss to deliver modular data centers equipped with heat recovery capabilities represents a significant move towards sustainable IT infrastructure. This development is particularly noteworthy given the rapidly increasing energy demands driven by AI and compute-intensive workloads. From a financial standpoint, this partnership could be a strategic advantage for HPE, positioning it as a leader in energy-efficient data center solutions.

HPE's solution promises to reduce energy consumption by 20% and improve cooling efficiency by 30% while offering a modular setup that can be deployed three times faster than traditional data centers. These factors can lead to significant cost savings and faster time-to-market for clients, enhancing HPE's value proposition. Additionally, the energy efficiency benefits can translate into lower operating costs and potentially higher margins for HPE and its customers.

The partnership also underscores a growing trend in the industry towards sustainability, which could attract ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) focused investors. With a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.14, HPE's modular data centers outperform traditional data centers, offering a competitive edge. This innovation aligns well with the global push towards reducing carbon footprints and improving energy efficiency.

In the short term, this announcement could bolster HPE's stock due to the positive market sentiment around sustainability and innovation. In the long term, the widespread adoption of such technologies could significantly impact HPE's revenue streams and market position.

Sustainability Expert

The collaboration between HPE and Danfoss to introduce data centers with integrated heat capture systems is a progressive step towards reducing the environmental impact of data centers. Data centers are known for their high energy consumption and heat generation. By incorporating heat reuse technology, HPE and Danfoss are tapping into a reliable source of clean energy that otherwise goes to waste. This initiative not only reduces the carbon footprint of data centers but also provides a renewable heat source for surrounding buildings, contributing to local sustainability efforts.

HPE's approach of modular data centers, which can be deployed quickly and efficiently, adds flexibility and scalability to their solution. The use of direct liquid cooling and advanced compressors enhances energy efficiency, addressing one of the critical challenges in data center operations. This innovation aligns with the broader industry goal of achieving carbon neutrality and can serve as a model for other companies looking to implement sustainable practices.

From a long-term perspective, the successful implementation of this technology could lead to widespread adoption across the industry, significantly reducing the overall environmental impact of data centers. Additionally, it could drive regulatory changes, pushing more companies to adopt similar technologies to meet sustainability standards.

Technology Analyst

The partnership between HPE and Danfoss to develop advanced modular data centers highlights a key technological advancement in the IT infrastructure space. The integration of direct liquid cooling and heat reuse systems represents a significant leap in data center design, addressing both efficiency and environmental concerns. Direct liquid cooling enhances thermal management by directly removing heat from the core components, leading to a 20% reduction in energy consumption. This is particularly vital for AI and compute-intensive workloads that generate substantial heat.

The use of Danfoss' Turbocor® oil-free compressors, which improve cooling efficiency by 30%, is another notable innovation. These compressors are not only energy-efficient but also reduce maintenance requirements, contributing to lower operational costs. The modular design of the data centers allows for rapid deployment and scalability, making them suitable for diverse applications, from scientific research to enterprise-level AI deployments.

The impressive Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.14 compared to traditional data centers' 1.3 to 1.4 reflects the superior energy efficiency of HPE's solution. This metric is important as it measures the ratio of total building energy usage to the energy used by IT equipment, with a lower number indicating higher efficiency. The potential for these modular data centers to support mission-critical and compute-intensive workloads with enhanced efficiency can lead to faster scientific outcomes and improved operational performance for enterprises.

In the broader context, this development signals a shift towards more sustainable and efficient data center technologies, which can drive innovation and set new industry standards.

Enhanced modular data center accelerates AI and compute-intensive workloads at the edge with integrated heat capture systems for external reuse

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- HPE Discover 2024 – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) and Danfoss today announced their collaboration to deliver HPE IT Sustainability Services – Data Center Heat Recovery, an off-the shelf heat recovery module, helping organizations manage and value waste heat as they transition towards more sustainable IT facilities.

The rapid integration of AI technologies across organizations and businesses is expected to have a dramatic increase in the power demand and utilization of AI optimized IT infrastructure. According to the International Energy Agency, by 2026 the AI industry is expected to have grown exponentially to consume at least ten times its electricity demand in 2023¹. To mitigate these challenges, IT leaders and data center facility operators are taking action to reduce energy usage, such as implementing modern power-efficient capabilities and improved cooling systems. Waste or excess heat² from data center cooling represents an estimated 2,860 TWh/y, almost equal to the EU’s total energy demand for heat and hot water in residential and service sector buildings³. The flow of excess heat from data centers is uninterruptible and therefore constitutes a very reliable source of clean energy.

To address these issues, the new energy efficient data center solution from HPE and Danfoss offers:

• HPE’s scalable Modular Data Center (MDC), in the form of small footprint, high-density (kW/rack) containers, can be deployed nearly anywhere in the total absence of heavy industry and incorporates technologies such as direct liquid cooling, reducing overall energy consumption by 20%.
• Danfoss’ innovative solutions, including heat reuse modules that capture excess heat from data centers to provide renewable heating onsite and to neighboring buildings and industries for various applications, and Turbocor® oil-free compressors that enhance data center cooling efficiency by up to 30%.

“Our strategic partnership with HPE is a great example of how we revolutionize building and decarbonizing the data center industry together with customers,” said Jürgen Fischer, President, Danfoss Climate Solutions. “With this latest cross-industry partnership we’re building the blueprint for the next generation of sustainable datacenters – using technologies available today.”

Benefits and agility of modularity

HPE’s MDC incorporates direct liquid cooling (DLC) technologies to enhance energy efficiency by over 20% and optimize energy production and distribution, leading to notable energy savings. The design’s compactness minimizes energy loss by reducing the distance for energy and cooling fluid transport and maximizes the temperature differential at the inlet and outlet, which promotes the capture of waste heat. Furthermore, the MDC’s agility and the exclusion of heavy industrial materials negate the need for costly, conventional building materials and substantially reduces the time to market. Deployment can be achieved three times quicker than with traditional data centers, decreasing from 18 months to as few as 6 months. Finally, the reduced land footprint and flexibility of the MDCs allow for placement in proximity to data generation sites, which diminishes the energy impact and bottlenecks associated with complex networking solutions and data transfer, while also supporting enhanced data governance and security.

“At HPE, we believe in the power of collaboration to create transformative solutions,” said Sue Preston, Vice President & General Manager, WW Advisory & Professional Services & Managed Services, HPE. “Our partnership with Danfoss brings together HPE’s innovative modular data center with Danfoss’ groundbreaking heat reuse technology. Together, we are not just adding value; we are multiplying it. By harnessing the typically untapped resource of waste heat, turning waste into worth, showing the future of energy usage is efficient, intelligent, and, most importantly, achievable now.”

With unparalleled density, HPE’s modular data centers offer an impressive power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.1⁴ in contrast to the PUE of 1.3 to 1.4 typically associated with the best modern designs of traditional brick-and-mortar data centers. Capable of handling the most power-demanding architectures like HPE Cray Supercomputing EX4000, HPE’s modular data center is the adequate architecture for mission critical and compute-intensive workloads like supercomputing and generative AI, enabling scientists, universities, and enterprises to achieve faster outcomes.

From chip to chiller: driving innovation in decarbonization

To leverage excess heat – one of the largest untapped sources of energy and the largest potential for data centers across Europe, HPE has partnered up with Danfoss as their decarbonization partner. The strategic partnership takes advantage of Danfoss’ extensive product portfolio of energy-efficient solutions to drive innovation, support decarbonization and build the blueprint for the next generation of sustainable modular data centers.

HPE IT Sustainability Services – Data Center Heat Recovery is inspired by how Danfoss is already using heat reuse technology at its own headquarters campus in Denmark. Here, the heat is recovered from Danfoss’ onsite data center, boosted by a heat pump, and re-used in surrounding buildings to provide space heating. The heat can also be fed into the local district heating network to provide a renewable heat source to local residents. Reusing heat is a major part of Danfoss’ own decarbonization strategy which has helped Danfoss achieve carbon neutrality in the energy system of its 250,000m2 campus in Nordborg in 2022.

The new scalable modular data center offering leverages Danfoss technologies, including Turbocor® compressors for heat pumps and chillers, heat exchangers, heat reuse modules, drives and pump skids allowing data centers to be cooled up to 30% more efficiently while recovering and reusing excess heat. It’s a modular solution with components that work together seamlessly and includes two technology stack options with a heat recovery system, including hydronic heat recovery heat exchanger and water-water heat pump, recovering heat from an air-cooled edge-to-cloud modular data center today and potentially second phase liquid cooled HPC modular data center.

As part of its holistic “Reduce, Reuse, Resource” approach, Danfoss also partners with HPE to retire its end-of-use IT assets through HPE Asset Upcycling Services, a circular economy solution that enables technology refurbishment and reuse, while recovering economic value from those assets.

Availability

HPE IT Sustainability Services – Data Center Heat Recovery is available to order immediately.

Additional Resources

• HPE and Danfoss unveil Heat Recovery Solution for Enterprise Environmental Goals by Pascal Lecoq, Worldwide Director, Sustainable Data Center Modernization at HPE
• UK Government invests £225m to create UK’s most powerful AI supercomputer with University of Bristol and Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise builds AI supercomputer for CRIANN to accelerate scientific research and innovation
• Danfoss solutions for datacenters
• Danfoss paper on decarbonization of data center industry

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) is the global edge-to-cloud company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way people live and work, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions as a service. With offerings spanning Cloud Services, Compute, High Performance Computing & AI, Intelligent Edge, Software, and Storage, HPE provides a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, helping customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance. For more information, visit: www.hpe.com.

About Danfoss

Danfoss engineers solutions that increase machine productivity, reduce emissions, lower energy consumption, and enable electrification. Our solutions are used in such areas as refrigeration, air conditioning, heating, power conversion, motor control, industrial machinery, automotive, marine, and off- and on-highway equipment. We also provide solutions for renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, as well as district-energy infrastructure for cities. Our innovative engineering dates back to 1933. Danfoss is family- and foundation-owned, employing more than 40,000 people, serving customers in more than 100 countries through a global footprint of 95 factories.
www.danfoss.com.

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¹ Electricity 2024 - Analysis and forecast to 2026 (iea.blob.core.windows.net)
² Excess heat, also called surplus heat or waste heat, can be reused through existing and well-proven technologies, most notably heat pumps.
³ Excess heat - Danfoss Impact Issue no. 2
⁴ When using Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) technologies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240618025437/en/

Media Contacts:

Benjamin Lesueur

benjamin.lesueur@hpe.com

Pia Beltrao Hansen

pia.hansen@danfoss.com

Source: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

FAQ

What is HPE IT Sustainability Services – Data Center Heat Recovery?

HPE IT Sustainability Services – Data Center Heat Recovery is a new solution by HPE and Danfoss that manages and reuses waste heat from data centers to enhance sustainability and reduce energy consumption.

How does HPE's new Modular Data Center improve energy efficiency?

HPE's new Modular Data Center uses direct liquid cooling technology, which reduces overall energy consumption by 20%.

What role does Danfoss play in the HPE partnership?

Danfoss contributes with heat reuse modules and Turbocor® compressors, enhancing data center cooling efficiency by up to 30%.

When will the new heat recovery services by HPE and Danfoss be available?

The HPE IT Sustainability Services – Data Center Heat Recovery is available for immediate order.

What are the benefits of HPE's Modular Data Center (MDC)?

HPE's MDC offers benefits such as a 20% reduction in energy consumption, quicker deployment times, minimized energy loss, and a low PUE of 1.14.

How does the HPE and Danfoss solution support decarbonization?

The solution supports decarbonization by reusing waste heat from data centers as a renewable energy source for various applications.