The Microsoft Data Centers in Aragon They will have an innovative design that is mainly characterized by the implementation of the “Zero Water” system . A model with which the company will not use water for refrigerationthanks to the use of cooling solutions at the level of the chips themselves to guarantee precise temperature control without having to depend on the evaporation of water.
The implementation of this system Zero Water has been announced by Eoin Doherty, vice president of Cloud Operations & Innovation of Microsoft Emeain Zaragoza, where precisely the company is developing its Cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence With three availability areas, the last one recently announced with an investment of 2.9 billion euros in the data center in Aragon, a community on which he has affirmed that he is becoming a “logistics center of data”.
“Water is a problem in Spain,” said Eoin Doherty, who has stressed that the company has worked to find a solution and limit the impact of the activity of data centers and artificial intelligence. “Aragon will be Zero Water“He said, with what this infrastructure will be one of the pioneers worldwide in not having an intensive water consumption.
And this “zero water” will be possible because New liquid cooling technologies recirculate water through a closed circuit. In this way, once the system is filled during the construction of the center, the water is circulated continuously between the servers and cooling equipment in order to dissipate the heat without having to provide more water.
Doherty explained that in Microsoft they have the commitment to improve in the data centers efficient use in water, a resource on which it has pointed out that it is “very precious.” However, it has deepened that this innovative design, with which water consumption is minimized, “is only part of our approach”, since the company also combines efforts in the Reduction of consumption with investment in water recovery projects pARA protect the different hydrographic basins. “It is a way to help restore and protect water resources where we operate.”
The vice president added in The Wave, in Zaragoza, that this innovative design It is a key step to offer a sustainable and high performance cloud that benefits both companies and citizens.
In this sense, it has influenced that from the company we work to build and operate digital infrastructure that not only promote innovation, but also address social challenges and benefit communities. Within this framework, for example, the training actions that are carried out, also in Zaragoza, by the hand of Factory 5, the sustainable development actions with entities such as Ecodes or the impulse of the Steam vocations by the Ibercaja Foundation.
Consumption
According to the data provided by the company, Microsoft data centers operate worldwide with a WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) Medium of 0.30L/KWh In the last fiscal year. It is a figure that represents a 39% improvement with respect to the year 2021.
In addition, since 2000, the WUE of data centers has improved by 80% compared to the first generation of cloud infrastructure. The company’s objective is that, with the deployment of the next generation of data centers, the Microsoft WUE is reduced to a practically null value for Carda Data center that uses the new Zero Water evaporation technology.
Objective: Be positive in water
Microsoft’s plans in water matters do not stay here. The company has also marked the objective of be positive in water in 2030. A step with which it will return more water than the one that consumes, what will be achieved with the combination of WUE reduction and water replacement projects. “We see replacement as a way to help restore and protect the hydrographic basins in which we operate.”
In this line of water recovery, Microsoft has started working in Aragon. Specifically, the technology company is immersed in a Project in the Ebro Basin to provide local technology farmers and formation of the local community in digital competences to optimize the use of water to achieve annual savings of about 100,000 cubic meters of water in 740 hectares.
In this project, advanced technology is used for sustainable use of water, climate resilience and agricultural productivity, acting in real -time irrigation optimization, the analysis of the roots through artificial vision techniques and precision agriculture recommendations that integrate data on climate, crops and soil.
Another project that is being carried out is based on the application of artificial intelligence technologies. This initiative, called Water Pipe Inteliigence and that is executed in collaboration with the Spanish company AGANOVA, it is allowing to implement IA -based solutions to identify leaks in water distribution networks to preserve vital water resources and improve the resilience of communities against drought. The latest CNMC data suggests that water losses due to leaks and breakdowns in the distribution and rush network represent 25%, which is equivalent to the annual water consumption of 14 million people in Spain.
Microsoft also undertakes, with the Dutch Startup Fieldfactors, another project for Reporting a local river using rainwater collected in a new urban development of more than one million square meters and will include almost 1,400 homes. An infrastructure that has the capacity to capture up to 200 million liters of rainwater per year and that will be used to return water to the Valdebebas stream, tributary of the Jarama River in Madrid.
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