Immersion cooling market

 Why is the immersion cooling market getting “hot”?

Recently (Dec 2022), Reportlinker.com published the report "Immersion Cooling Market in Data Centers - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022-2027)”.[i]

According to the report, the immersion cooling market in data centers is estimated at 399.9 million for the last year. It is expected to register a CAGR of 26.06%, reaching USD 1596.1 million by the end of the forecast period. The increasing carbon footprint of data centers was identified as one of the major drivers for immersion cooling adoption.

Immersion cooling is not a ‘new’ technology, but why is the immersion cooling market growing so fast and getting ‘hot’ in recent years? You also may be curious why the increasing carbon footprint leads to liquid cooling technology adoption.   

Emerging services and technologies such as streaming, cloud gaming, machine learning, and virtual reality are boosting demand for data services. To keep running continuously and without interruption, data centers use a lot of electricity. Global data center electricity uses in 2021 was 220-320 TWh[ii], or around 0.9-1.3% of global final electricity demand and comparable with the power usage of the entire United Kingdom. [iii] This has a very significant impact on the environment due to the generation of greenhouse gases. Data centers are responsible for up to 3% of global carbon emissions.[iv]

Therefore, how to reduce power consumption, improve power usage effectiveness and at the same time minimize the environmental impact of the data centers?

One of the very significant contributors to overall power consumption in data centers is the electricity used for cooling electronic components. According to a recent study conducted by 3M, data centers with air-based cooling technologies use 38% of their electricity consumption to cool electronics.[v]

Thus, how to cool down the electronic components in data centers efficiently?

Immersion cooling is one of the most effective ways to cool data centers through dielectric liquids. Immersion liquid cooling provides the solution for many applications, including high-performance computing, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency mining. Different dielectric liquids can be used for immersion liquid cooling, such as mineral oil, deionized water, fluorocarbon-based fluids, and synthetic fluids. The liquids must be carefully optimized to ensure optimal heat transfer away from electronic components without conducting electricity. The suitable dielectric liquids absorb approximately 1,500 times more heat energy than air with the same volumes and temperatures.[vi]

North America is expected to be the largest market for Immersion Liquid Cooling, Figure 1. Cloud providers, such as Microsoft, are researching the application of immersion liquid cooling, Figure 2. Microsoft has been investigating liquid immersion cooling for high-performance workloads like AI and has found that two-phase immersion cooling can reduce power consumption for any given server between five percent to 15%.[vii]

The key benefits of immersion liquid cooling include reduced energy and water usage, improved power efficiency, and reduced carbon footprint for data centers. Therefore, the adoption of advanced liquid cooling technology plays a critical role in data centers’ sustainability.

[i]

Immersion Cooling Market in Data Centers - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022-2027), https://www.reportlinker.com/p06067789/Immersion-Cooling-Market-in-Data-Centers-Growth-Trends-COVID-19-Impact-and-Forecasts.html?utm_source=GNW

[ii] Data Centers and Data Transmission Networks, https://www.iea.org/reports/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks

[iii] https://www.worlddata.info/europe/united-kingdom/energy-consumption.php

[iv] How data centers can reduce their carbon footprint, https://energydigital.com/technology-and-ai/how-data-centers-can-reduce-their-carbon-footprint

[v] https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/12/15/2574580/0/en/Immersion-Cooling-Market-in-Data-Centers-Growth-Trends-COVID-19-Impact-and-Forecasts-2022-2027.html

[vi] https://www.asperitas.com/datacentre-immersion-cooling/

[vii] https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-gets-two-phase-immersion-cooling-running-in-an-azure-data-center/