No Chiller, No Water, No Problem: A New Way to Cool AI’s Hottest Chips
Researchers at UC Davis’s Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC) have designed a modular data center for AI computing that packs 1.5 megawatts of computing power into the volume of a standard 40-foot shipping container—and keeps it cool without energy-intensive compressor-based systems. Better still, the sealed-loop design rejects heat directly to the air, consuming no water at all.
UC Davis Energy News: July 2026
Special Seminar: Resource Demand and Supply Chain Drivers in Concrete Production Wednesday August 5th, 2026 / 1pm PDT Sabbie Miller, Faculty Director, Materials Decarbonization and Sustainability Center Societal demand for concrete is enormous, with estimates suggesting it is the most widely consumed engineered material in the world. Meeting this demand requires substantial natural resources, including […]
Field Testing Results for a Ventilation Controller That Knows What’s in the Air
Typical ventilation controllers are programmed only for energy savings. For example, a demand-control ventilation system with economizer cooling will pull in outdoor air whenever it’s cool enough to give the compressor a break—but it has no idea what’s in that air. On a smoky day, the system will do its job and lower indoor temperatures while filling the building with PM2.5 from wildfire smoke. Traditional controllers simply can’t tell the difference.