{"id":266158,"date":"2025-09-30T09:31:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266158\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:31:24","slug":"doe-funded-uta-project-tackles-cooling-costs-in-ai-data-center-boom-dallas-innovates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266158\/","title":{"rendered":"DOE-Funded UTA Project Tackles Cooling Costs in AI Data Center Boom \u00bb Dallas Innovates"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dereje Agonafer\u2019s team at UTA is is working to greatly reduce energy and water use as new AI data centers rapidly rise in Texas<\/p>\n

As AI infrastructure scales across Texas and the nation, a team at the University of Texas at Arlington is working to solve one of the sector\u2019s biggest energy challenges: how to cool the massive data centers powering generative AI without overwhelming electricity and water systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The project is led by UT Arlington professor Dereje Agonafer. It\u2019s part of the Department of Energy\u2019s COOLERCHIPS initiative<\/a>, a $42 million program launched in 2022 to rethink how data centers are cooled. The acronym stands for Cooling Operations Optimized for Leaps in Energy, Reliability, and Carbon Hyperefficiency for Information Processing Systems. It\u2019s a mouthful that reflects the program\u2019s mission to cut energy use in AI and high\u2011performance computing.<\/p>\n

Agonafer is targeting a dramatic reduction in cooling energy use. He wants to reduce cooling energy use from as much as 40% of a data center\u2019s total load to under 5%. Many large\u2011scale centers also rely on evaporative systems that use hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each day.<\/p>\n

Texas as testbed<\/p>\n

Texas has become a major destination for large\u2011scale data centers. Land availability, tax incentives, and existing energy infrastructure have helped drive that growth. But it comes with a cost.<\/p>\n

The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that U.S. data centers could consume up to 9% of the nation\u2019s electricity<\/a> by 2030. In Texas, the state\u2019s main grid operator expects data center electricity demand to more than double<\/a>. It\u2019s projected to grow from 4.6% in 2023 to nearly 11% by 2030, according to UTA.
Water use is rising, too. Many facilities use evaporative cooling systems that consume massive volumes of water. According to the Texas Tribune, Texas data centers will use 25 billion gallons of water in 2025, about 0.4% of the state\u2019s total. That number could rise to 2.7% by 2030<\/a>\u2014the annual water use of 1.3 million U.S. households.<\/p>\n

UT Arlington\u2019s national research role<\/p>\n

Agonafer is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Presidential Distinguished Professor at UTA. He\u2019s working with teams from the University of Maryland, the University of Illinois Urbana\u2011Champaign, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Their shared focus is how to reduce energy and water use in increasingly dense server environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe computing power needed to support AI is growing at an exponential rate,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cIf we don\u2019t find smarter, more efficient ways to cool data centers, the environmental impact will be significant. Our goal is to deliver a scalable solution that is both energy\u2011efficient and environmentally responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commercial tech from Austin startup<\/p>\n

UTA\u2019s research includes a partnership with Accelsius, an Austin\u2011based startup building two\u2011phase, direct\u2011to\u2011chip liquid cooling systems. The company is contributing its MR250 Coolant Distribution Unit, designed for high\u2011density server environments. The hardware supports modular, scalable liquid cooling.<\/p>\n

Accelsius raised $24 million in Series A funding<\/a> last year to expand its technology for the AI market.<\/p>\n

A DOE moonshot<\/p>\n

At the 2024 Data Center World conference, ARPA\u2011E program director Peter de Bock described COOLERCHIPS as a moonshot program<\/a>. The agency is funding immersion cooling, direct\u2011to\u2011chip approaches, and other methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend to have a proof of concept by the first half of 2026,\u201d de Bock said. \u201cBy 2030, the country with the most efficient, powerful, and lower\u2011TCO data centers will be at a major advantage,\u201d he told Data Center Knowledge.<\/p>\n

Real-world experience for students<\/p>\n

Graduate students Sai Pundla and Braxton Smith are part of Agonafer\u2019s team. They\u2019re getting hands\u2011on experience in system\u2011level testing and thermal management\u2014skills that are increasingly needed as data center demand grows, according to UTA.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing part of this project has been an incredible opportunity to apply what I\u2019ve learned in the lab to a real\u2011world challenge with global implications,\u201d said Smith in a statement.<\/p>\n

DFW and Texas data center growth<\/p>\n

More than 400 data centers operate in Texas today. About 70 more are in development, according to the Texas Tribune. That growth is especially concentrated in North Texas.<\/p>\n

Dallas\u2011Fort Worth ranks as the No. 2 data center market in North America, according to JLL research. Development across the region is accelerating to meet rising demand, with several multibillion-dollar projects underway\u2014many focused on high-density, high-performance workloads, including:<\/p>\n

In Fort Worth, Taiwan\u2011based Wistron Corp. is investing $750 million to build two new AI supercomputing facilities<\/a>. The project was announced in August and is designed to support the next generation of AI hardware and training capacity.<\/p>\n

In Grand Prairie, PowerHouse and Provident are planning a new 360,000\u2011square\u2011foot two\u2011story building<\/a> valued at $300 million. The expansion is scheduled for completion in 2027.<\/p>\n

In Wilmer, Stream Data Centers is expanding its 140\u2011acre campus with a new 360,000\u2011square\u2011foot two\u2011story building<\/a> valued at $300 million. The expansion is scheduled for completion in 2027.<\/p>\n

In Red Oak, Gigabit Fiber and two Dallas\u2011based partners are building a build a hyperscale data center campus<\/a> with capacity for 550 megawatts of critical IT load.<\/p>\n

In Lancaster, London\u2011based Yondr Group has acquired a 163\u2011acre site to build a hyperscale data center campus<\/a> with capacity for 550 megawatts of critical IT load.<\/p>\n

At the state level, OpenAI\u2019s Project Stargate is driving even more scale. The new data centers put Stargate ahead of schedule<\/a> to secure a $500 billion, 10\u2011gigawatt commitment by the end of 2025, the company said in an announcement last week. OpenAI, in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank, announced five new campuses in September, alongside its flagship campus in Abilene, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cData centers are the backbone of the 21st\u2011century economy, and they\u2019re economic drivers for D\u2011F\u2011W and in Texas communities,\u201d said Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, in the Dallas Morning News this week.<\/p>\n

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\tR E A D\u00a0\u00a0 N E X T\t<\/p>\n