Data Center Cooling, Management And Infrastructure Analyzed At Bisnow’s Midwest DICE Event

With growing demand for data center capacity, primary markets like Northern Virginia on the East Coast and Silicon Valley on the West Coast have become saturated and must cope with issues related to energy consumption and expensive land prices. 

Owners and operators are looking to expand to the Midwest because of the developable land, energy infrastructure and tax incentives. And Chicago, in particular, has become one of the top data center hubs. The market size is nearly 1,070 megawatts and is expected to reach 1,650 MW by 2029. 

Data center cleaning service SET3 sees great growth potential in the Chicago data center market. 

“While Chicago has become a central location and is in a unique position to offer a diverse mix of energy sources like wind and nuclear power, there are still infrastructure and scalability constraints we have to address,” SET3 Executive Director Jason Roth said.

Roth shared his thoughts at Bisnow’s DICE Midwest event on Sept. 19 at the Hyatt Lodge in Oak Brook, where he joined other panelists speaking about effective rack management and cooling in data centers.

Bisnow spoke with Roth about Chicago’s data center trends, how owners should plan accordingly and how SET3 is working to find solutions to contaminant problems.

Bisnow: What data center trends are you seeing in Chicago? 

Roth: Chicago is having issues with housing larger data center networks downtown, limited ability to add space and growing power consumption due to the artificial intelligence revolution.

Bisnow: What was one of the top data center concerns you discussed at Bisnow's DICE Midwest event?  

Roth: One of the top concerns I spoke on is the amount of pollutants that have increased in Chicago's data centers. This doesn't have to do with the volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that are emitted from operations, but rather the computers, the graphics processing units and how other materials are made. These man-made materials react with gasses coming from local traffic and other environmental factors in Chicago. This is creating an uphill battle with corrosion in data centers due to foreign particles causing miscalculations in daily operations. 

Bisnow: Since Chicago typically has lower temperatures year-round than other regions, is there a different approach for rack management and cooling in daily operations?

Roth: Absolutely. If there's a marriage between cooling and free-air cooling, or using outdoor air to regulate the temperature inside data centers, Chicago does have some options that other locales would not have. However, free-air cooling is very hard to filter to the levels necessary for some of the issues we see with particles and gasses. When you're allowing that outdoor influence to cool and save energy, you have to assess the risk management of downtime from environmental factors while also experiencing higher costs from trying to control it.

Bisnow: What suggestions does SET3 have for data center owners and operators?

Roth: One suggestion I have is to make sure that planning is happening according to today's infrastructure changes. We need to include groups in the discussion that look into power, temperature, humidity and the symbiotic nature of where the data center will be. This also includes the concentration of particles and how building substrates will affect the transfer of potential material temperatures, not just air temperatures.  

The temperature fluctuations from the computers and outside affect the air quality inside data centers. Owners and operators must be more diligent about consulting with their architects to design future-ready facilities to adapt to infrastructure changes. 

Bisnow: How is SET3 helping to provide reliable and cleaner cooling methods in these new high-density environments? 

Roth: We’re consulting with new technologies beyond ones we’ve used for decades, like immersion, liquid cooling and direct-to-chip cooling in air controls or the subfloor. Some of the newer technologies are addressing the density and the sprawl issues that come with the advent of AI. 

We’re involved in a few projects that can help revolutionize the state of data centers, but until those are fully realized and put into the marketplace, companies need help making sure all angles are looked at. We offer services to get us through this time when the standards of building, the standards of protocol and the needs of the data center don't exactly meet. 

We help mitigate some of the problems that come with this disconnect, so customers can still be successful in running their operations from a standpoint of risk management of particles and gasses, even if the way they built their center, the type of equipment and the infrastructure do not meet the protocols necessary to run them without a higher risk. 

Bisnow: What do you see for the future of Chicago’s data centers, and how will SET3 continue to contribute to its evolution? 

Roth: Smart technologies will solve a lot of the issues related to cooling infrastructure.

SET3 will play a pivotal part in helping to get these new technologies out to the world. We’ll be able to adapt to changes in the data center market and have the resources to train other companies on new safety and cleaning protocols. A lot of these systems today have a limited ability to be powered and cooled as gasses rise into the air. 

Current cooling methods are still not efficient enough for the rapid expansion of data centers because they contribute to major contaminants that cause corrosion and downtime. Soon, we will help mitigate those concerns and continue to spread knowledge as these new technologies become viable. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Sterile Environment Technologies. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.