New Cooling Tech Can Slash Data Center Energy Costs

By RICHARD HALSALL, CEO, Exhale Fans

When it comes to energy use, data centers aren’t shy to consume.

As true data guardians, these centers run 24/7 and are highly secure, designed specifically to house IT infrastructure, including servers, network equipment, and storage systems. These centers are truly mission-critical, as even a minor glitch, such as a software bug or a server component failure, can cause significant problems.

Proper cooling, therefore, plays a big role in keeping a data center operational. Without it, data center operators are left to deal with overheating servers, which can result in shutdowns, reduced hardware lifespan, and even extreme data loss. So cooling is a crucial part of the larger data center operations ecosystem. However, with that need comes extraordinary energy consumption, which places a heavy financial burden on the owner and operator.

However, modern cooling technologies are giving data center operators fresh opportunities to reduce energy costs – dramatically – while continuing to operate at a well-oiled 24/7 capacity.

Numbers Paint a Painful Picture

The energy consumption data associated with data centers is quite shocking.

In fact, research shows that data center energy use accounted for 4.4% of ALL U.S. annual electricity consumption in 2023. That same research projects that data center energy consumption could double – even triple – by 2028, accounting for up to 12% of U.S. electricity use.

A chunk of this energy usage is attributed to data center cooling needs, crucial to protecting critical data. This aligns with the broader surge in energy costs, particularly cooling costs, driven by record-breaking heat, rising electricity prices, and increased infrastructure needs. What’s more, the rocky political landscape around energy production and use in 2026 is only adding to the concern.

How much energy use are we talking about?

Well, the hyperscale data center is even more energy intensive. In fact, it’s been shown that a single hyperscale data center can continuously consume 20-100+ MW of power, enough to power 15,000-75,000 homes. The largest hyperscale data center consumes over 650 MW of electricity, enough to power nearly 500,000 homes.

Solutions Well Within Reach

Now that modern, energy-efficient cooling technologies are available, data center operators – including those managing hyperscale data centers – can ease the squeeze from burdensome operating costs.

Among these, a major technology standout is thermal de-stratification, a method that effectively and efficiently regulates temperatures within a data center by ultimately eliminating temperature stratification, in which there are different layers of air at different temperatures within a space.

Thermal de-stratification is incredibly effective because it mixes air within a space, creating an even temperature from wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling. With this, thermal de-stratification is a fantastic way to ensure that cooling reaches all parts of a data center, including racks packed with servers, cabling equipment, uninterruptible power supplies, and more.

Additional modern cooling technologies for data center operators to consider include:

• Evaporative/adiabatic cooling: a natural option that lowers air temperature by evaporating water into a dry air stream;
• Free cooling/economization: uses outdoor air or water to cool data centers, utilizing an "economizer" (which is a system of dampers, sensors, and controllers) to bring in cool ambient air;
• Immersion cooling: submerges computer components, such as servers, into a thermally conductive but electrically insulating dielectric liquid (removes heat without fans);
• Direct-to-chip liquid cooling: removes heat from CPUs/GPUs by circulating liquid coolant through metal plates directly attached to the chip;
• AI-driven control systems: sensors, hardware, and software optimize cooling in real-time, based on current thermal conditions

Looking Towards the Future

With energy costs continuing to skyrocket and climate change increasingly impacting our world, investing in modern cooling technologies will become increasingly necessary for optimal data center operations. Those data center operators who are slow to implement these innovations will be more likely to face serious heat-related incidents that compromise systems and cause irreparable damage.

But those who do embrace modern cooling technologies will be on the right path, not only to keeping their sensitive data and systems safe, but also to enjoying substantial cost savings.

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