Bright key facts / Deployed
A hybrid cooling system cut direct water use at an operating national-laboratory data center.
DOE reports that NREL’s thermosyphon hybrid system avoided 2.10 million gallons over two years and cut data-center water use in half by using dry heat rejection when weather allowed while retaining a cooling tower for peak conditions.
- AI’s role
- The HPC facility supports advanced computing; the documented result is conventional thermal engineering and measured operating water reduction, not an AI-model outcome.
- Documented result
- A May 2019 DOE case study reports that the roof-mounted thermosyphon cooler avoided 1.16 million gallons in its first operating year and 2.10 million gallons over two years, cutting data-center water use in half. Controls route heat to campus reuse first, dry rejection when conditions permit, and the existing open cooling tower for remaining and peak loads.
- Important limitation
- The result comes from a 10,000-square-foot national-laboratory HPC facility, not a hyperscale commercial campus.