Data centres are significant consumers of electricity and producers of heat. With the rise of AI and the demand for higher-powered systems, data centres and data transmission networks each now account for between 1 and 1.5% of global electricity use1. To counter the growing carbon footprint of the industry, data centre providers are looking for new ways to meet sustainability goals.
Deep Green has pioneered an immersion cooling technology system, demonstrated by a successful proof of concept in Devon, where waste heat from a small data centre heated a local swimming pool. Subsequently, Deep Green raised a significant funding round and was seeking a partner to help it scale its technology.
Deep Green’s challenge was in sourcing hardware capable of operating in immersion cooling systems. It needed a fully traceable supply chain that ensured every component was suitable for immersion, and that it was using high-density compute to ensure a high heat output in the smallest footprint.
Matt Craggs, CTO at Deep Green, commented, “Scaling our business was a key challenge, and for maximum efficiency, we needed to use immersion heating. But you can’t take off-the-shelf components and use them in an immersion system, hardware either needs to be certified for immersion or we need complete supply chain traceability, from the capacitors on the motherboards to the temperature ratings of coin batteries. We need to know that hardware will be reliable.”
Deep Green selected Vespertec to address its scaling needs due to Vespertec’s reputation for technical expertise and its close working relationships with manufacturers. Vespertec was able to facilitate access to specific, immersion-suitable hardware - this extended from the high density 2U Gigabyte 8 GPU server to supporting network and storage components.
“What struck me was the level of technical knowledge of the Vespertec team was a step beyond any other suppliers we had worked with,” continued Craggs. “They have exceptional relationships with the manufacturers. There was no middleman, Vespertec was speaking directly to Taiwan.”
Ben Langstreth, Open Technology and Infrastructure Specialist at Vesper Technologies, commented: “The data centre industry is in a precarious position that has the potential to limit its growth. By repurposing the power it uses in novel ways that benefit the surrounding communities, Deep Green has shown the way towards a more sustainable future. We have no doubt this project will continue to scale and set the tone for the UK's data centre industry and Vespertec is delighted to support its growth..”