Data centers are about to go from freezing to sweltering. Nvidia just announced a "hotter than a hot tub" liquid cooling system that it says will cut water and electricity use. According to the company, this new solution will run coolant—composed of 75% water and 25% propylene glycol—at 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius). By comparison, the water in hot tubs hovers at 100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (38 to 40 degrees Celsius). This feels counterintuitive, but the company says that the "cool" water is enough to handle the heat generated by Nvidia's Rubin chips and exit the system at 131 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius).

Traditional water-cooling methods, especially those that use chillers, often account for nearly 40% of a data center's power consumption. These systems must also deal with water loss through evaporation. Air-cooled facilities, meanwhile, use considerable electricity and generate noise pollution. Nvidia says its new solution uses far fewer resources because of its higher base temperature.

Since 113 degrees Fahrenheit is often higher than ambient temperature, data centers can simply rely on outdoor dry coolers to expel the heat to the environment. This is a closed-loop system; Nvidia claims an up to 100% reduction in water consumption—it's "filled once and runs closed for the life of the facility." This solution is most effective in regions with cooler climates, but it should still be effective in warmer areas as long as the ambient temperature is below 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

Data centers that face occasional temperature swings exceeding this limit may still need to activate their chillers, though this should happen only a few times per year and allow systems to run more efficiently. According to Vertiv, increasing a chiller plant's target temperature by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) reduces electricity costs by 4%. This means data centers would save significantly on power consumption by raising their chiller units from the 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (21 to 24 degrees Celsius) that traditional chillers run to the 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) that Nvidia recommends for its Rubin chips.

This solution addresses several issues that many local governments raised, leading to the delay of more than 75 data centers earlier this year. However, it will likely take time for this cooling system to roll out to new and existing projects, so delays and resistance are expected to continue until Nvidia's liquid cooling system gains wider adoption. Furthermore, this only addresses the water use of the data center itself—the GPU servers themselves still require massive amounts of electricity.

Unfortunately, most of the power used by data centers in the United States comes from fossil fuel power plants, which themselves consume a lot of water. Developments not tied to the grid and powered by natural gas turbines may need less water, but residents are concerned about the pollution they generate. Still, this new cooling solution is a step in the right direction to help make AI more sustainable.