Workers at Sandia National Laboratories work on a computer server submerged in a cooling liquid. Photo: Craig Fritz
By Lee Burnett
Developers of the Sanford Woods Industrial and Technical Campus say they have chosen a cooling technology that alleviates two of the most controversial aspects of data center development – constant noise and heavy water use.
Any eventual builder of the data center proposed for south Sanford will be required to utilize direct immersion cooling of the servers because such a system has been shown to be more efficient and environmentally benign than traditional air-cooled systems, according to Walt Bussells, co-developer of the project.
In direct immersion cooling, servers are submerged in “one or two swimming pools” worth of fluid that does not conduct electricity and absorbs computer server heat in a closed-loop system, he said. The heat is then transferred either to a separate closed-loop water system outside the data center or forced through a boiling and condensation process. “It operates similar to a car radiator,” Bussells said. Maine’s cool climate also helps reduce the load on cooling technology, he noted.
By contrast, traditional air-cooled data centers use industrial air conditioners, fans and targeted air flow patterns to absorb heat from servers and blow it outside for evaporation. “Many data centers use millions of gallons of water a day,” said Bussells. “That’s unnecessary, inefficient and wasteful.” In addition, the air-cooling equipment also produces “most of the offensive noise” of a data center, he noted. He described direct immersion as quiet.
Immersion cooling is still an emerging technology, though Bussells predicts it will become standard in the industry. He asserted that “there’s plenty of time for the fast progression of this superior cooling method” because he projects the start of construction of the proposed Sanford data center in late 2027 or early 2028.
Skeptics note that some direct cooling technologies – not strictly immersion – rely on fluids containing PFAS, a broad class of fluorinated compounds already responsible for groundwater contamination in Maine and elsewhere. Chemours, one of the largest producers of PFAS, is also one of the biggest suppliers of PFAS materials for data center coolants, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.
PFAS are a large family of manufactured chemicals known for their persistence in the environment. Some have been linked to cancer, decreased fertility, immune system effects, and other health problems.
“There are unfortunately some examples around our country where direct cooling liquids included some PFAS,” Bussells wrote in a text message. Even with company pledges, Bussells said Sanford in its ordinance writing should absolutely prohibit use of any PFAS-containing fluids and leave it up to data center developers how best to meet that requirement.
Alex Clary, a leader of Sanford Clean Air & Water Coalition, said he understands closed-loop systems of large data centers cause an increase in the ambient air temperature of the surrounding area, potentially altering the biome. “It’s in the middle of a forest, in a swamp, next to a vulnerable river. A project of this size creates environmental impacts,” he said. In addition, Clary said direct immersion cooling drives up energy and maintenance costs, added to overall cost of the project at a time when overall debt throughout the industry is at unsupportable levels. “Doing efficiency measures, which I think is good, still increases costs,” he said
The coolant choice gets no pushback from David Parent, superintendent of the Sanford Water District. Parent provided supportive testimony to the project last winter when details first emerged during a Maine legislative committee hearing. At the time, Parent projected a data center would consume 300,000 to 500,000 gallons of water a day, which he said the district could easily handle because of the loss of industrial customers two decades ago. This week, Parent said he’d not heard that developers were looking at the less-water-intensive direct immersion cooling but would certainly support a technology that is efficient and environmentally superior.
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