BLACK & VEATCH
Regional variations must be considered, too. A facility in Arizona faces different water constraints than one in Oregon, and cooling strategies must adapt accordingly. Free cooling using ambient air temperatures works well in northern climates but offers limited benefits for AI workloads that generate heat year-round.
When it comes to thermal management, direct-to-chip liquid cooling represents perhaps the most significant technological shift. Rather than cooling entire rooms, these systems capture heat at the processor level with dramatically higher efficiency.
“ It’ s the liquid cooling direct-to-chip that’ s the future here, as we’ re moving forward,” Mikeal notes. This approach enables waste heat recovery for space heating or other applications, turning a disposal problem into a resource opportunity.
Design optimisation becomes crucial when every gallon matters. Computational Fluid Dynamics( CFD) analysis reveals inefficiencies in airflow patterns that waste cooling capacity. Mikeal describes:“ We do a lot of CFD analysis and look at where the hot zones and the cold zones are. If you’ re trying to ensure that the hot air isn’ t mixing with the cold air and making those zones more efficient, you’ re moving the warm air more efficiently.”
“ If we go back 10 years, something that was in the double digits of megawatts was considered a large data centre. So 10-50MW was an enormous campus”
HEATHER CHESLEK, GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL WATER SOLUTION LEADER, BLACK & VEATCH
These improvements can reduce cooling loads by 10-20 % through better airflow management without additional equipment investment.
The discharge side of the equation has become equally important. Utilities need capacity to treat blowdown water, or facilities require independent discharge permits that can affect project timelines and costs.
“ We also have to be concerned with discharge as well,” Heather explains,“ and whether or not the utility that they may be partnering with is going to be able to treat that discharge long-term.”
60 August 2025