Current and Prospects of Waste Heat Utilization and Cooling Technology in Data Centers

As the COVID-19 pandemic and interest in the virtual world rapidly increase, the data usage in the current society is rapidly increasing to an unprecedented level, and the need for expansion of data centers to handle it is also rapidly increasing. Data centers operate continuously and consume a lot of power in operation. As electricity consumption increases, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions adversely affects the environment, so the increase in data centers inevitably affects the climate environment. Typical technologies that can reduce power consumption in data centers are waste heat energy utilization and outdoor air conditioning. By analyzing the cases of major countries for the two technologies, the technological direction beneficial to Korea was reviewed. As Korea's outdoor air conditioning standards are relaxed, the number of outdoor air conditioning facilities in Korea is increasing. However, the Korean government's practical support for waste heat energy utilization is extremely limited. By analyzing policy cases for waste heat energy utilization in data centers in other countries, policies for revitalizing waste heat energy utilization in Korean data centers were proposed. Furthermore, several ways to reduce the amount of power in the data center were explored and proposed.