Microsoft's Zero-Water Cloud Region a Promising Step Towards Sustainability
Microsoft has made a significant promise regarding its new India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad. Puneet Chandok, president of Microsoft India and South Asia, stated that the facility will use effectively zero water for cooling.
The company's design aims to address the problem of heat generation in computing hardware, which requires either water, electricity, or a combination of both for cooling. Microsoft has contracted 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity in India, with 630 megawatts already flowing. The company also reiterated its ambitions to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030.
The design uses cold plates that transfer heat directly from chips into recirculating coolant. This closed-loop system avoids evaporative losses and can reduce the facility's water consumption. However, Microsoft acknowledges that replacing evaporative cooling with mechanical cooling increases energy overhead, although this effect is described as modest.