IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v391y2025ics0306261925005884.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Techno-economic performance of reservoir thermal energy storage for data center cooling system

Author

Listed:
  • Oh, Hyunjun
  • Jin, Wencheng
  • Peng, Peng
  • Winick, Jeffrey A.
  • Sickinger, David
  • Sartor, Dale
  • Zhang, Yingqi
  • Beckers, Koenraad
  • Kitz, Kevin
  • Acero-Allard, Diana
  • Atkinson, Trevor A.
  • Dobson, Patrick

Abstract

Electronic equipment in data centers generates heat during operation, which should be dissipated through a cooling system to prevent overheating and maintain optimal performance. Electricity consumption for the data center cooling system becomes significant as the demand for data-intensive services increases. Although various technologies have been developed and integrated into the data center cooling system, there are limited high-efficiency alternatives for data center cooling. In this study, we designed a reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) system that stores cooling energy during winters and produces it during summers for data center cooling. We then demonstrated the techno-economic performance of the RTES incorporated with dry coolers and heat recovery for a year-round 5 MW cooling load. The RTES cooling production was reliable during the 20-year lifetime. We estimated the levelized cost of cooling as $5/MWh, significantly lower than $15/MWh for the base scenario where chillers and dry coolers supply the same cooling load without the RTES. We also estimated that the RTES-based cooling system annually avoids CO2 emissions up to 1488 tCO2e compared to the base case. These results highlight techno-economic feasibility and environmental benefits of the RTES and its potential to be deployed for various applications at large scales as well as for data center cooling.

Suggested Citation

  • Oh, Hyunjun & Jin, Wencheng & Peng, Peng & Winick, Jeffrey A. & Sickinger, David & Sartor, Dale & Zhang, Yingqi & Beckers, Koenraad & Kitz, Kevin & Acero-Allard, Diana & Atkinson, Trevor A. & Dobson, , 2025. "Techno-economic performance of reservoir thermal energy storage for data center cooling system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 391(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:391:y:2025:i:c:s0306261925005884
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125858
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261925005884
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125858?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:391:y:2025:i:c:s0306261925005884. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.