{"id":1922878,"date":"2026-05-07T15:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1922878"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:00:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:00:41","slug":"researchers-found-an-innovative-way-to-cut-data-center-energy-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1922878","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Found an Innovative Way to Cut Data Center Energy Use"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/data-center-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Big tech has a big cooling problem. Data centers require massive amounts of energy to keep their chips\u2014the semiconductors that process, store, and transmit data\u2014from overheating. As these facilities proliferate across the U.S., the power grid is feeling the crunch, but an innovative new technology could help ease this strain.<\/p>\n

Direct-to-chip cooling, which circulates coolant through \u201ccold plates\u201d mounted directly on processors, is emerging as a leading cooling method for its efficiency\u2014an increasingly critical advantage as chips grow more powerful. Now, a team of researchers has found a way to make cold plates even more efficient. They published their findings today in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main difference here is that we\u2019re using this new manufacturing technology called ECAM\u2014electrochemical additive manufacturing,\u201d study co-author Nenad Miljkovic, professor and director of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told Gizmodo.<\/p>\n

With this method, Miljkovic and his colleagues created copper cold plates that are optimally designed to deliver up to 32% better cooling than conventional cold plates. They also reduced pressure drop by 68%, making it easier for liquid coolant to flow through the plate. Deploying these plates across an entire data center would lead to significant energy savings compared to both air-cooling and commercially available liquid-cooling systems, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n

3D printing a better cold plate<\/h2>\n
\"Copper
A close-up of the optimized fin design, created using Fabric8Labs\u2019 proprietary ECAM technology. \u00a9 Cell Reports Physical Science, Bazmi et al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The exceptional efficiency of these copper cold plates stems from their fin design. The interiors of most cold plates are lined with tightly packed metal \u201cfins\u201d that project into the coolant to maximize the amount of surface area in contact with it.<\/p>\n

Miljkovic and his colleagues\u00a0collaborated with Fabric8Labs, the San Diego-based company that developed the proprietary ECAM technology, to produce copper cold plates with an optimized fin design. This manufacturing process is essentially like 3D printing with metal at very high resolution\u2014it uses electrochemical plating to build tiny copper structures layer by layer instead of melting and fusing metal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can make these optimized three-dimensional structures that you couldn\u2019t make using classical manufacturing,\u201d Miljkovic explained.<\/p>\n

To create the fin design, his team started with a simple rectangular shape, then used a technique called topology optimization to determine the best shape to maximize cooling capability and reduce pressure drop. This technique uses a mathematical algorithm to gradually alter the fin\u2019s shape and estimate the efficiency of each iteration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 1,000 iterations, it ends up with this really beautiful tree-like structure, which is optimized for heat flow,\u201d Miljkovic said.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, a data center with 1 gigawatt of computing power consumes roughly 500 megawatts of electricity to run an air-cooling system. That means it actually consumes 1.55 GW in total, but only 1 GW is used for data processing. With these optimized cold plates, a 1 GW data center would only need to use 11 MW for cooling, they say.<\/p>\n

The next test: real servers<\/h2>\n

While their prototype testing yielded promising results, Miljkovic said the next step is to demonstrate the cold plates\u2019 efficiency on real chips. He hopes to collaborate with companies providing large-scale cloud computing to see how this design functions on actual hyperscale servers.<\/p>\n

As those companies continue to grow their computing power, finding ways to reduce energy consumption will be critical. Power-hungry data centers are already putting significant strain on the grid, and by 2028, some projections show that their energy demand could double or even triple.<\/p>\n

Deploying this optimized cold plate design at scale won\u2019t solve the grid crunch alone, but it could help pave the way toward a more sustainable future for Big Tech. AI isn\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon, so adapting data centers to operate within the grid\u2019s limits will be critical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

Big tech has a big cooling problem. Data centers require massive amounts of energy to keep their chips\u2014the semiconductors that process, store, and transmit data\u2014from overheating. As these facilities proliferate across the U.S., the power grid is feeling the crunch, but an innovative new technology could help ease this strain.<\/p>\n

Direct-to-chip cooling, which circulates coolant through \u201ccold plates\u201d mounted directly on processors, is emerging as a leading cooling method for its efficiency\u2014an increasingly critical advantage as chips grow more powerful. Now, a team of researchers has found a way to make cold plates even more efficient. They published their findings today in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main difference here is that we\u2019re using this new manufacturing technology called ECAM\u2014electrochemical additive manufacturing,\u201d study co-author Nenad Miljkovic, professor and director of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told Gizmodo.<\/p>\n

With this method, Miljkovic and his colleagues created copper cold plates that are optimally designed to deliver up to 32% better cooling than conventional cold plates. They also reduced pressure drop by 68%, making it easier for liquid coolant to flow through the plate. Deploying these plates across an entire data center would lead to significant energy savings compared to both air-cooling and commercially available liquid-cooling systems, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n

3D printing a better cold plate<\/h2>\n
\"Copper
A close-up of the optimized fin design, created using Fabric8Labs\u2019 proprietary ECAM technology. \u00a9 Cell Reports Physical Science, Bazmi et al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The exceptional efficiency of these copper cold plates stems from their fin design. The interiors of most cold plates are lined with tightly packed metal \u201cfins\u201d that project into the coolant to maximize the amount of surface area in contact with it.<\/p>\n

Miljkovic and his colleagues\u00a0collaborated with Fabric8Labs, the San Diego-based company that developed the proprietary ECAM technology, to produce copper cold plates with an optimized fin design. This manufacturing process is essentially like 3D printing with metal at very high resolution\u2014it uses electrochemical plating to build tiny copper structures layer by layer instead of melting and fusing metal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can make these optimized three-dimensional structures that you couldn\u2019t make using classical manufacturing,\u201d Miljkovic explained.<\/p>\n

To create the fin design, his team started with a simple rectangular shape, then used a technique called topology optimization to determine the best shape to maximize cooling capability and reduce pressure drop. This technique uses a mathematical algorithm to gradually alter the fin\u2019s shape and estimate the efficiency of each iteration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 1,000 iterations, it ends up with this really beautiful tree-like structure, which is optimized for heat flow,\u201d Miljkovic said.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, a data center with 1 gigawatt of computing power consumes roughly 500 megawatts of electricity to run an air-cooling system. That means it actually consumes 1.55 GW in total, but only 1 GW is used for data processing. With these optimized cold plates, a 1 GW data center would only need to use 11 MW for cooling, they say.<\/p>\n

The next test: real servers<\/h2>\n

While their prototype testing yielded promising results, Miljkovic said the next step is to demonstrate the cold plates\u2019 efficiency on real chips. He hopes to collaborate with companies providing large-scale cloud computing to see how this design functions on actual hyperscale servers.<\/p>\n

As those companies continue to grow their computing power, finding ways to reduce energy consumption will be critical. Power-hungry data centers are already putting significant strain on the grid, and by 2028, some projections show that their energy demand could double or even triple.<\/p>\n

Deploying this optimized cold plate design at scale won\u2019t solve the grid crunch alone, but it could help pave the way toward a more sustainable future for Big Tech. AI isn\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon, so adapting data centers to operate within the grid\u2019s limits will be critical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/researchers-found-an-innovative-way-to-cut-data-center-energy-use-2000755543″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/data-center-1200×675.jpg”] Big tech has a big cooling problem. Data centers require massive amounts of energy to keep their chips\u2014the semiconductors that process, store, and transmit data\u2014from overheating. As these facilities proliferate across the U.S., the power grid is feeling the crunch, but an innovative new technology could help ease this strain. Direct-to-chip cooling, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-1922878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1922878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1922878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1922878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1922878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}