Schneider Electric launches solutions to address AI led sustainability challenges

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Schneider Electric launches solutions to address AI led sustainability challenges

Schneider Electric launches solutions to address AI led sustainability challenges

Industry News
Dec 06,24

Additionally, to address the increased temperatures of high-density workloads, Schneider Electric recently signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in the Motivair Corporation, enhancing its liquid cooling portfolio and strengthening its expertise in direct-to-chip liquid cooling and high-capacity thermal solutions.

Schneider Electric launches solutions to address AI led sustainability challenges

Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has accelerated its end-to-end AI-ready data centre solutions.

The first part is a new data centre reference design, co-developed with NVIDIA, which will support liquid-cooled, high-density AI clusters of up to 132 kW per rack. Optimised for NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72 and Blackwell chips the design streamlines planning and deployment with proven, validated architectures, addressing the unique challenges of utilising liquid cooling at-scale.

Additionally, Schneider Electric has introduced its new Galaxy VXL uninterruptible power supply (UPS), the industry’s most compact, high-density UPS designed for AI, data centre, and large-scale electrical workloads. Galaxy VXL UPS offers 52% space savings compared with the industry average, and with a power density of up to 1042 kW/m², this scalable, 1.25 MW modular UPS is designed to deliver more efficient power in a smaller, high-density footprint.

Both innovations form part of Schneider Electric’s end-to-end, AI-ready data centre solutions, which focus on three key areas including developing an energy strategy for the AI era; deploying advanced infrastructure; and sustainability consulting. They seek to benefit data centre owners and operators as they deploy energy efficient, high-density infrastructure to support AI workloads as sustainably as possible.

“The energy and environmental impact of AI is growing at unprecedented pace, and it’s paramount we bend the energy curve downward by finding new ways to decarbonize data centres and the digital infrastructure,” said Pankaj Sharma, Executive Vice President- Data Centres & Networks, Schneider Electric. “At Schneider Electric, we are committed to pushing boundaries, setting new standards, and shaping the future of AI, whilst protecting the environment. This requires a strategic approach from the grid to the chip, to the chiller, and beyond.”

Partnership with NVIDIA

Schneider Electric’s newest data centre reference design has been co-developed with NVIDIA to support liquid-cooled, AI clusters, while addressing the unique challenges of deploying liquid cooling within hyperscale, colocation and enterprise data centre environments.

Building on the companies’ partnership, the reference design includes options for liquid-to-liquid Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs) and direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and shares comprehensive mechanical and electrical plans to ensure more energy efficient and sustainable operations for the AI data centres of the future.

Developed using Schneider Electric’s software tools including Ecodial and EcoStruxure™ IT Design CFD, the design can be customised to meet specific requirements of the AI workload, while helping users to leverage the most sustainable and energy efficient infrastructure designs for high-density applications.

“Building the future of accelerated computing and AI requires speed and a bedrock foundation," said Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO, NVIDIA. "Our work with Schneider Electric enables customers to design the world’s technological advances on stable and resilient infrastructure. Together, we are creating AI data centres that are purpose-built for accelerated computing, supporting complex architectures that are essential to deliver digital intelligence to every company and industry."

Energy strategy for the AI era: Schneider Electric supports companies in securing renewable energy and optimising on-site power generation with diverse sources like wind, solar, and hydrogen. It provides services such as site selection and geographical analysis based on customers’ deployment plans and enables on-site power generation through AlphaStruxure, which ensures speed to market, reliability, resilience, and sustainability of chosen power sources.

Advanced infrastructure solutions: Schneider Electric has developed a comprehensive portfolio of high-density, energy-efficient infrastructure systems for a host of AI requirements exceeding 100kW per rack. This includes data centre infrastructure components from grid-to-chip and chip-to-chiller, AI-powered remote monitoring and energy management software, and digital services for lifecycle optimisation.

Schneider Electric’s new Galaxy VXL UPS is the latest addition to the company’s end-to-end, advanced infrastructure portfolio. For the first time, this new UPS provides customers 1.25mw scalable and modular solution with 125kw/3U power modules in 1.2m2 footprint, while being capable of supporting up to 1.25 MW of critical load in one frame and up to 5 MW with 4 units in parallel in only 4.8 M2 space.

Efficiency and sustainability: Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Consulting business helps customers exceed decarbonization goals via tailored sustainability strategies, emissions assessments, and supplier engagement programs. These global consulting services offer customers data-driven insights via EcoStruxure Resource Advisor, and are supported by 2,400 experts in 100+ countries.

Bending the energy curve of AI

Schneider Electric also advocates for a science-based approach to "bend the curve" of energy consumption. Central to this approach is employing “energy intelligence for sustainable AI”. Schneider Electric believes this can be achieved by integrating data centre infrastructure with AI-driven applications.

This way, industries can not only mitigate AI's energy footprint but also use AI monitoring capabilities and insights as tools for broader decarbonization efforts. Achieving this vision requires a united commitment to deploying sustainable solutions and leveraging AI’s potential to drive efficiency across all sectors.

“By 2027, data centre electricity consumption is projected to account for 2.5% of global demand, with the remaining 97.5% spread across industries such as buildings, manufacturing, transportation, and energy," said Sean Graham, Research Director, Cloud to Edge Datacentre Trends, IDC. "While data centres pursue their own net-zero goals amid unprecedented growth, the real sustainability promise lies in leveraging AI to decarbonize entire value chains across industries. As Schneider Electric and NVIDIA have demonstrated, long-term collaboration and innovation are essential to driving efficiency and sustainability.”