Air-core motors could cut data centre energy costs by 15%
Infinitum, the US-based developer of air-core motors, has announced a next-generation, sustainable motor designed specifically for cooling applications in data centres.
Data centres currently consume around 2% of the world’s energy and their energy demand is expected to increase eight-fold by 2030. Some 40% of the energy consumed in data centres is for motors that power equipment such as fans, pumps, and compressors used to dissipate the heat generated by the centre’s servers. Many of the fan systems used in data centres today have motors that are more powerful than the application needs.
Infinitum’s Aircore EC motor for data centres can be customised to suit the application’s power, speed and torque requirements, cutting energy consumption by more than 10–15%. The motors allow lower input currents, reducing the wiring and protection equipment needs of data centre power supplies. Designers will be able to cut the costs of upstream electrical infrastructure such as wiring, circuit breakers and transformers.
The motor has a built-in VSD (variable-speed drive) to optimise control and efficiency, as well as smart functions, such as IoT connections to monitor critical equipment, and BACnet and Modbus controllers to link the motor into building control systems.
Infinitum’s air-core motors are 50% smaller and lighter, more efficient, much quieter and need 66% less copper than traditional motors. They are designed and manufactured with a sustainable, circular lifecycle in mind. A modular design allows the housing, rotors and stators to be re-used, giving their parts multiple lives.
“We’re excited to bring our class-leading, sustainable Aircore EC motors to the data centres world and to give operators the opportunity to reduce energy demand and costs,” says Infinitum’s founder and CEO, Ben Schuler. “When thousands of motors are often required to power data centres, our improved motor efficiency, reduced noise levels and smart features for visibility and building optimization add up to make a big impact for this sector.”
The data centre motors will be available from the third quarter of 2023
