Schneider Electric has introduced AI-ready data center designs aimed at addressing the energy demands and sustainability challenges brought by artificial intelligence (AI). The new solutions are designed to enhance efficiency, sustainability and scalability for AI workloads.
“As data centers are the backbone of this AI infrastructure and are the critical enabler of efficiency and decarbonization, we must scale quickly to seize the AI opportunity while remaining sustainable,” said Pankaj Sharma, executive vice president of the secure power division at Schneider Electric, in a videoconference announcement.
“The data center industry urgently needs transformative infrastructure that can power the most advanced applications efficiently, sustainably and at scale,” said Sharma. “Data centers are the backbone of this AI infrastructure and are the critical enabler of efficiency and decarbonization.”
According to the International Energy Agency, the global data center power demand is expected to double between 2022 and 2026, Sharma noted. AI is especially power-hungry because of its dependence on GPUs for processing.
With that in mind, Schneider’s announcement includes a new data center reference design, co-developed with Nvidia, that will support liquid-cooled, high-density AI clusters of up to 132 kW per rack. The design is optimized for Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 and Blackwell chips and is meant to streamline planning and deployment with proven, validated architectures. It supports both liquid-to-liquid Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs) and direct-to-chip liquid cooling. In addition, it shares comprehensive mechanical and electrical plans to ensure more energy efficient and sustainable operations for the AI data centers of the future.
Schneider also announced new Galaxy VXL uninterruptible power supply, a compact, high-density UPS designed for AI, data center, and large-scale electrical workloads. Galaxy VXL UPS offers 52% space savings compared with the industry average, Schneider claims. With a power density of up to 1042 kW/m², the 1.25 MW modular UPS is designed to deliver more efficient power in a smaller, high-density footprint.
New research on AI power consumption
Separately, Schneider released two reports from its Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) that explore AI’s impact on sustainability, particularly in energy use.
The first research, Artificial Intelligence and Electricity: A System Dynamics Approach, examines four possible scenarios for AI’s electricity consumption over the next decade. The authors built a system dynamics model that forecasts diverse scenarios for AI electricity demand, highlighting the path forward for sustainable AI development strategies and policies to mitigate environmental impacts. Alongside these forecasts and analysis, the report also contains recommendations for policymakers and decisionmakers.
The second report, AI-Powered HVAC in Educational Buildings: A Net Digital Impact Use Case, demonstrates how AI-powered heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems can enhance energy efficiency and environmental conservation in buildings. HVAC systems account for 35-65% of total building energy consumption. The study looks at how educational properties in Sweden drastically reduced carbon emissions over a four-year period.
Source:: Network World