The Heat is On: Climate Change, Record-Breaking Temperatures and the Tech Industry’s Response
July’s Sizzling Start
The Fourth of July 2023 was not just a day of fireworks and barbecues but also the hottest day on Earth in as many as 125,000 years. The global average temperature reached 17.18 degrees Celsius (62.92 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the record set just the day before. According to preliminary data from the ERA5 dataset produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the global average 2m temperature reached 16.88°C on Monday, breaking the previous record of 16.80°C from August 2016. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that these record-breaking temperatures are a clear sign of escalating climate change. This intense heat poses a significant challenge to our digital infrastructure, particularly data centers, the nerve centers of our digital world.
Data Centers: The Heat Test
The resilience of data centers was put to the test in the summer of 2022. Intense heatwaves across California and the European Union strained these facilities. According to the BBC, over 50% of the UK’s oldest active weather stations recorded their hottest day ever in 2022, based on Met Office data. In the U.S., Los Angeles sweltered under a record-breaking 44.5°C (112°F). CNN reported that last September, Twitter experienced the loss of its Sacramento (SMF) data center region due to extreme heat. In London, record summer heat forced Google and Oracle into outages when cooling systems failed at data centers. The culprit was the critical temperature threshold of 27°C (80.6°F), at which point servers automatically shut down to prevent irreversible hardware damage.
Data centers house numerous servers that generate significant amounts of heat during operation. These servers rely on proper cooling mechanisms to maintain optimal performance and prevent overheating. The critical temperature threshold serves as a safety mechanism to protect the integrity and functionality of the servers. Today’s servers, reports Nautilus Data Technologies, contain the hottest processors and GPUs in history and are producing more than 1kW of heat per rack unit — or more than 40kW per rack. Many data centers simply cannot produce enough chilled air to keep those servers from overheating.
Exceeding the critical temperature threshold can lead to issues like reduced performance, data corruption and even permanent damage to the hardware components. By shutting down the servers when temperatures rise too high, data center operators can mitigate the risk of such detrimental consequences.
Tech Innovations: Rising to the Challenge
To counter these escalating challenges, the tech industry is driving forward with innovative solutions. For instance, in 2023, LiquidStack, a pioneer in cooling solutions, unveiled its new immersion cooling technology. This system submerges server components in a non-conductive fluid that carries away heat 1,200 times more effectively than air, offering a promising solution to heatwave-induced outages.
Data Center Frontier reported that at the Open Compute Summit, Meta, the social media giant formerly known as Facebook, outlined a roadmap for a gradual shift to a water-cooled infrastructure, using cold plates to provide direct-to-chip cooling for AI workloads.
A third promising innovation comes from Submer, who introduced a next-generation immersion cooling system in 2023. Their technology uses a proprietary dielectric fluid to cool server components directly, reducing the need for traditional air conditioning systems and making data centers significantly more energy-efficient.
As we continue to grapple with the increasing severity of climate change, it’s clear that the resilience of our digital infrastructures hinges on our ability to innovate and adapt. The tech industry is leading the charge, and while the journey is challenging, these emerging solutions offer a beacon of hope. The urgency to develop and implement such solutions is underscored by the IPCC’s predictions for more frequent and severe heatwaves, highlighting the crucial interplay between climate change and our digital world.
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