Green compute is our superpower.

Green compute is our superpower.

Data centres are the factories of the digital era, scattered across the globe from Los Alamos to Las Vegas, and Perth to Singapore. They are the wheels to the planet’s digital services.

The world’s data centres are also an energy-intensive beast—the industry consumes more energy than entire nations and emits roughly as much carbon dioxide as the airline industry.

And the wheels just keep spinning. You can see all sorts of (worrying) forecasts everywhere. 

The global datasphere to exceed 144 zettabytes in 2025 (that’s 130x the numbers for 2017). 

Over 1,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) consumed by data centres in 2030 (almost 5x the electricity consumption of Australia in 2019)

Electricity required for ICT to exceed 20% of the global total by the time a child born today reaches their teens—with data centres using more than one-third of that.

All that just boils down to more energy being consumed—energy used to remove the considerable amount of heat generated by enormous supercomputers. And that translates into more carbon emissions if the energy utilised isn’t sourced sustainably.

The power to save.

We play our part in helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the data-centre industry by utilising our patented immersion-cooling technology in all our data centres.

A unique product of simplicity and innovation, DUG Cool reduces power consumption by up to 51%—the greenest energy is the energy you don’t use!

Now how did we come up with this number?

We cool our hardware by submerging them into specially designed tanks filled with polyalphaolefin dielectric fluid. It’s non-toxic, non-flammable, biodegradable, non-polar, has low viscosity, and most importantly, will not conduct electricity. Removing the heat from the fluid are simple heat exchangers submerged in the tanks, along with the computer equipment. A water loop runs through the data-centre room and to each heat exchanger.

The thermal qualities of the fluid mean that condensed water-cooling chillers can be used rather than refrigeration. This saves us around 30% of total power usage.

The other 21% comes from the removal of server fans, which aren’t required in a fluid-immersion cooling system.

Now that’s a power saving of up to 51%.

The power of longer life.

Submerging computers into dielectric fluid has some surprising benefits.

Electrical components last longer due to the lack of oxidation of physical joins, solder joints, wires and connecting materials. There’s no oxide build-up at all on the components, which leads to less maintenance.

Additionally, the dielectric fluid has a thermal effectiveness of more than 1000x that of air. This means the submerged equipment never gets hot, which reduces their mean time to failure. 

The result? Much fewer failures. Lower maintenance costs. Reduced expensive downtime.

The power to accelerate innovation.

The power-saving benefits of DUG Cool enable us to offer you high-performance computing as a service (HPCaaS) cost-effectively.

Our patented immersion-cooling technology also allows us to offer greener compute, helping you to reduce your carbon emissions and meet your environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements. Check out the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research’s (ICRAR) Sustainability Statement, which credited our green HPC for lowering their carbon emissions.

Coupled with a focus on data sovereignty, data and cyber security, dedicated HPC support and domain-specific expertise, our unique and green cloud-based HPCaaS allows you to focus on your research and business applications—everything you need to be successful.

Reach out to us at [email protected] to learn more about how we can help you solve your biggest big-data problems.

By Mitchell Lim

Mitchell Lim is DUG's Scientific Content Architect. With a PhD in Chemical Engineering, Mitch is an expert in the fields of catalysis and ultrasonics. Full-time science geek, part-time fitness junkie, Mitch strives to deliver effective and engaging science communication, as he believes that easily digestible scientific perspectives have the potential to impact and benefit society at large.

DUG Technology