Schneider Electric debuts 2.5MW liquid cooling unit for data centres

Schneider Electric's Motivair has announced the launch of the 2.5MW Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU). This development advances liquid cooling technology for high-density data centres, addressing the needs of GPUs and AI Factories.

Part of the EcoStruxure platform, the MCDU-70 is a high capacity CDU in the Motivair lineup. Its flexible design supports cooling for next-generation technologies such as HPC and AI workloads, with scalability beyond 10MW to accommodate growing data centre demands.

With a compact and efficient design, the MCDU-70 aligns with the evolving demands of large-scale facilities. The unit is especially suitable for projects like the NVIDIA Omniverse DSX Blueprint, where the aim is to reach gigawatt scale using modular deployments. For these designs, six MCDU-70 units seek to offer a 4+2 redundancy setup for a resilient cooling solution capable of handling NVIDIA’s GPU developments.

The era of AI has ushered in a necessity for efficient liquid cooling due to the intense heat generated by GPUs, which can be up to 50 times more than traditional CPUs. Organisations embarking on AI cluster deployments face rack power densities, often reaching beyond 1MW. Motivair by Schneider Electric provides CDUs customised to meet specific capacity requirements.

The CEO of Motivair, Rich Whitmore, underscores the importance of these advancements: "Data centre success now hinges on delivering scalable, reliable, efficient infrastructure solutions that match the next generation of AI Factory deployments."

Intended Key Capabilities of the MCDU-70:

• Capacity and Efficiency: With dual heat exchangers, the MCDU-70 enables parallel filtration at minimal system pressure drop, maintaining a standard of 1.5 LPM per kW, thereby protecting overall system efficiency.
• Performance and Reliability: Each model undergoes comprehensive testing under real-world conditions, including rigorous stress testing to ensure high-level performance and reliability.
• Designed to Scale: With design considerations embracing modularity, the MCDU-70 provides operators with flexibility to tailor cooling solutions to specific AI deployment targets.

Motivair’s CDU offering, spanning models MCDU-25 through MCDU-70, helps support advanced thermal management strategies. With precise flow control and real-time adaptive load balancing, operators hope to achieve enhanced plant performance while effectively managing energy consumption.

The MCDU-70 is now available for order and highlights Schneider Electric’s commitment to meeting data centre cooling needs.