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Aquifer thermal energy storages as a cooling option for German data centers

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Abstract

The overall energy demand of data centers (DCs) is still rising dramatically. Since a DC’s cooling system (CS) is a large energy consumer, reducing its demand is a key element for improving the DC’s overall energy efficiency. Integrating an aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) in DC’s CS can help cutting the DC’s energy demand drastically. However, ambiquity about the benefits and requirements for the operation of an ATES with a DC’s CS exists, relating to technical as well as legal aspects. Therefore, this article investigates the technical prerequisites a DC has to fulfill to integrate an ATES into its CS. In addition, a case study with a mid-size DC for three different common German DC locations is conducted to determine the energetic and economic savings of the ATES operation compared to a standard CS design. Using site specific data (e.g., weather and hydrogeological data), we showed that the ATES operation can reduce the CS’s energy demand drastically, depending mainly on the underground structure. It was further shown that ATES operation can be profitable in some cases for DC operators when energy efficiency programs of the German government are used.

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Notes

  1. The building of the German parliament

  2. The underground structures of four locations were analyzed resulting in three suitable locations for ATES operation.

  3. These measures include hardware design improvements as well as hardware operation issues. One prominent idea is to rise energy-aware resource alocation algorithms as for instance described by Beloglazov et al. (2012).

  4. Another option is liquid cooling which is described for example by ASHRAE (2006). Since liquid cooling is not common in german DCs, this technology is not considered.

  5. The solution is called brine; it contains water and, e.g., glycol. Sometimes, the CS does not have an additional water-based cooling loop between the CRAC units and the chiller or economizer; there are also CRAC units directly equipped with VCCs, but these units are normally not used in larger DCs for efficiency reasons.

  6. Experts assume that virtualization and improving workload distribution technologies will lead to both a time-dependent and more flexible workload. Nevertheless, nowadays, these time-dependency and flexibility is not state-of-the-art. Hence, this article assumes a constant workload.

  7. A small difference is usually accepted.

  8. Using market available VCC

  9. Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, a government-owned development bank.

  10. Since the drilling costs account for largest portion of the overall investment costs, they were validated using proposals for Berlin valueing 190 EUR/m.

  11. 11 The heat transfer capacity of the reference PHE is 230 kW.

  12. The pressure drop of the piping system is calculated; the pressure drop of the heat exchanger is 5000 Pa.

  13. The DCs modeled consume between 5351.5 and 5517 MWh/a (cf. Tables 3 and 4); therefore, the prices used from Eurostat (2013) belonged to groups Id (new methodology since 2007) and If (old methodology, prior 2007).

  14. Even though Hamburg does not qualify, the KfW loan conditions are applied. If the ATES operation in Hamburg is profitable when the KfW loan conditions are applied, one has to check other options, but if not, operating an ATES will likely also not be profitable when other financing options are used because the conditions of these options will presumably be less favorable.

  15. Generated cash flows

  16. A decline in electricity prices historically only occurred in situations of economic breakdown, e.g., after the world financial crisis in 2008 (c.f. Eurostat (2013)).

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  1. Berlin Institute of Technology, Berlin, Germany

    Gregor Drenkelfort, Stefan Kieseler, André Pasemann & Frank Behrendt

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  1. Gregor Drenkelfort
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  2. Stefan Kieseler
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Correspondence to Gregor Drenkelfort.

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Drenkelfort, G., Kieseler, S., Pasemann, A. et al. Aquifer thermal energy storages as a cooling option for German data centers. Energy Efficiency 8, 385–402 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-014-9295-1

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