Green & Sustainable Data Centers

The infrastructure comprising power supply systems, cooling systems, and digital, integrated configuring and running control systems that supports the stable operation of data centers requires dependability and reliability. It also needs to offer cooling performance that supports GPUs/CPUs with higher outputs and heat, while offering exceptional energy-saving capability that reduces the centers’ environmental loads. On top of this, every customer has unique needs in terms of space limitations, purposes for use, and preferred cooling systems.

Based on our cutting-edge technologies and over 140 years of experience in power generation systems, cooling systems, and control systems, MHI Group offers the engineering required to integrate all of these. We can provide optimized solutions that bring together combinations of products from an extensive lineup for each customer and provide them a one-stop solution with lower burden of system integration. These solutions can also shorten the lead times, while realizing green and sustainable data centers.

Data centers are packed with equipment to process vast amounts of data. First and foremost, they must continuously provide normal operation over the long term. To ensure this capability, a stable power supply system is critical. On top of this, data centers are expected to use more and more power in the future, so decarbonization of data centers is urgently needed as a part of the global effort towards a carbon neutral society.

MHI Group has an extensive track record of supply and operation of highly efficient and reliable operation power generation and engine systems, including to the ones for data centers. We also offer a diverse range of decarbonization solutions tailored to the size of each data center. In the future, we aim to realize power supply with zero CO₂ emissions using our hydrogen-fueled gas turbines currently under development (with hydrogen-only combustion targeted by 2025) and hydrogen engines. 

Delivering Cooling Systems to Meet Customer's Needs

Cooling systems are indispensable for data centers to operate. High-density, high-heat GPUs/CPUs and other new developments requires massive amounts of water and power consumption to keep servers cool. Realizing sustainable data centers requires cooling systems with improved energy efficiency that also respond to decarbonization needs.  

MHI Group is one of the few firms in the world capable of providing superior cooling systems along with power supply systems. We integrate a variety of products and technologies including Centrifugal chillers that have the top domestic share in Japan and significantly improve power consumption during air cooling, and offer a lineup of solutions to meet a customer’s diverse needs, to reduce water and power consumption by data centers, realizing sustainable data centers while also enabling higher server density and lower PUE (Note) to reduce OPEX and CAPEX to improve customer’s cash flow. 

(Note) PUE: Power Usage Effectiveness. Calculated by dividing the total amount of power used by a data center by the IT equipment energy usage.

Developing Next-generation cooling system 

Next-generation cooling systems is also being developed especially for the area where air-cooled systems cannot live up to the cooling needs for the heat, such as that generated by GPUs used for generative AI. Immersion cooling systems, which are being put into practical use, showed 94% reductions in power consumed for server cooling compared to conventional data center cooling systems in test operations. MHI has also made an investment in ZutaCore, a pioneer in two-phase direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems that outperform the immersion cooling system mentioned above in terms of ease of maintenance.  We have forged a strategic partnership to sell products and solutions using ZutaCore technologies.

To provide the stability in operations that data centers require, predictive detection and prevention of troubles in power supply systems and cooling systems are vital. Also, optimization of operations for each piece of equipment is required for efficiency that leads to decarbonization.

MHI Group provides digital solutions cultivated through a wide range of business areas, such as TOMONI®, the remote control system for operation of power generation facilities. We also have deep expertise in the characteristics of the systems in data centers, enabling optimization of energy efficiency through AI-driven visualization of operating status, predictive detection, and precise control. For example, the system measures environmental conditions within the data center and controls air flow to provide ideal conditions, while it builds machine learning models to predict environmental conditions in the center and optimize air conditioner operating criteria to minimize PUE. These steps prevent issues before they occur, leading to better reliability, while also reducing the power consumption and environmental burdens. 

With the acceleration of development in IoT devices and AI, the demand for instantaneous processing of huge amounts of data is growing. In automated driving and remote medical care, for example, the field of edge computing, which performs real-time, high-speed and distributed processing on-site, i.e., in a location close to where the data is generated, has been gaining attention as an alternative to cloud computing, in which processing delays are a weak point. Edge data centers are one of the places where this edge computing is operated.

MHI Group is also working on development of solutions geared toward edge data centers. One such solution is the container-type data center announced in October 2023. This enables housing of servers that use different types of cooling methods, responding to a diverse range of edge computing needs. The solution can be operated independently at factories, defense bases, research facilities and other locations, and it is effective for enhancing security. It also can be built in a very short lead time, enabling delivery and installation whenever and wherever it is needed.