Here’s what you should know today:

• COOLING, TECH, AND POWER: The future of data center power, the next battleground: fiber, and Oklo signs another PPA

• CHECK THIS OUT: 👀 A tour of Ericcson’s 5G manufacturing plant

• BIG DEALS: Pre-leasing is industry standard, and huge data centers in Phoenix, Atlanta and Indiana

- Cooling, tech, and power -

Digital Edge and the future of data center power

Data center platform provider Digital Edge has unveiled its new cutting-edge power supply to replace lithium-ion batteries in its data centers. This innovation is possible through a partnership with South Korean energy storage firm Donghwa ES.

The companies have developed what they are calling a Hybrid Super Capacitor (HSC) for Digital Edge's Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems.

The HSC employs a hybrid energy storage method that combines carbon in a novel way, the specifics of which you can read here.
This creative use of carbon reduces the deterioration of the negative electrode compared to other technologies, enhancing performance and longevity.

Here are some of the key features of the new energy storage system:

• Temperature Resilience: HSCs can endure higher temperatures than traditional batteries, potentially up to 149°F. This capability eliminates the need for cooling equipment.

• Rapid Recharge: Unlike traditional batteries that take hours to recharge, the HSC can be recharged in minutes, allowing it to manage multiple contiguous power outages within a data center.

• Fire Risk Reduction: The HSC does not utilize metal oxide, significantly reducing the risk of fire due to thermal runaway.

• Longevity and Maintenance: With a lifespan of 15 years, the HSC lasts more than twice as long as traditional battery products. It also allows for over 100,000 discharge/charge cycles, requiring minimal maintenance.

• Broader Operating Temperature Range: The HSC can operate efficiently over a wider range of temperatures than traditional ion batteries.

Initial tests of the HSC have been successful, and Digital Edge has begun small-scale deployments across its new data centers.
The first installations will support non-critical loads, with plans to expand to critical loads after further evaluation.

Ji-Won Suh, CEO of Donghwa says: “Through our partnership with Digital Edge, we hope to provide a new energy storage system standard for the global data center industry. In particular, we plan to make joint efforts to deploy energy storage systems to hyperscale data centers.”

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The fight for Fiber: Networking the next DC battleground?

Fierce Networks sat down with Chris Downie, CEO of Flexential, who emphasizes that network capacity is critical to monitor as demand for AI and GPU resources surge. 

Recently, the industry has seen secondary locations like Denver, Las Vegas, and Charlotte grow in popularity due to their availability of land and power. However, the demand for networking power within and between these data centers has escalated rapidly.
Downie points out that the scarcity of networking resources within facilities could soon extend to inter-facility connectivity, potentially leading to a bottleneck if dark fiber availability cannot keep pace with demand.

Downie explains: “Ultimately, there’s only so much fiber in a market that feeds data centers. And so if network consumption is prioritized like data center consumption has been over the course of the last 18 months, theoretically, the network provider should have stronger pricing power…if more people want it they’re going to pay more for it.”

More industry insights

Bill Long, Chief Product Officer at Zayo, has mentioned significant investments in 400-gig fiber backbone networks to address the increasing demand for long-haul connectivity driven by AI.

Similarly, dark fiber providers Light Source Communications and Uniti have announced expansions to their fiber networks to support the growing needs of data centers in regions like Phoenix and Alabama.

Jimmy Yu, VP at Dell’Oro Group, suggests that data center operators may need to distribute their GPU compute clusters across multiple locations and connect them with high-speed optical networks.
However, if dark fiber availability falls short, cloud service providers might face new bottlenecks, forcing them to build additional data centers in fiber-rich areas, request new fiber routes, or construct their own.

This evolving landscape underscores the necessity for strategic investments in network infrastructure to support the burgeoning demands of AI and cloud computing.

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More in Cooling, Tech, and Power

1. Data centers and utilities are combining forces to solve for power. The data center industry is quickly becoming an energy supply game. Here, Data Center Knowledge discusses the different perspectives of utilities and data center operators and how they can work together to meet their energy needs.

2. Nuclear Pioneer Oklo inks another 20-year PPA. Oklo might be the most exciting thing happening to the US nuclear industry. They’ve just begun trading on the NYSE, and in two months they’ve signed 150MW of power purchase agreements with Diamondback Energy and Wyoming Hyperscale.
Check out Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouse reactors for more info about their technology.

3. More Nuclear: DCD Podcast talks data center nuclear power with Idaho National Lab. Another excellent conversation on the DataCenterDynamics podcast with Chris Lohse from INL. They talk nuclear innovations, recent developments and what the future of the technology might look like.

Touring Ericcson’s 5G Plant

Data Center Adjacemt: LightReading was invited to walk through and document Erricson’s new $150 million 5G manufacturing facility. Featuring robotics, lasers, and radios, this is a cool look into a next-gen factory.

- Deals and Developments -

AI demand makes preleasing an industry standard

Since 2023, the leasing rate for North American datacenters under construction has surged, reaching 84 percent in Q1 2024, compared to around 50 percent in previous years.

83 percent of the 3,077.8 MW under construction in 2023 was pre-leased. Despite a 46 percent increase in data center construction and a 26 percent rise in actual supply, vacancy rates remain at 3.7 percent.

This high demand has driven up rental costs, with a 14.5 percent increase in 2022 and an 18.6 percent increase in 2023. 

Despite the demand, construction costs remain high due to shortages of critical materials like generators, chillers, and transformers.
Plus, the typical timeline for building new data centers ranges from one to three years.

Whether this level of demand will continue to dominate the market hinges on the future of the AI growth that everyone is so excited about.

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More Big Deals

• Another massive data center coming to Atlanta: The proposed 1.2 million sqft data center will span three buildings on a 59-acre site in Fairburn, GA. Another large data center campus was proposed earlier this month. Nearby in Henry County

• Playing 9: Provident plans new data center on former golf course: Provident funding wants to spend $1.3 billion developing a 200-acre property in Chesterton, Indiana. The facility will feature eight buildings, each 150,000 sqft. Provident Funding has targeted the major cloud firms for tenancy.

•  QTS’s next Arizona project will be 750MW: The new site will be in Glendale west of Phoenix and will include 16 buildings at 180,000 sqft each!

  

  Rendering of QTS 3rd Phoenix campus. QTSdatacenters.com 

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- Taylor