Power & Responsibility – The Data Centre Podcast

Morgan Flanagan Creagh talks to Echelon's Sr. Vice President of Engineering, Andy Tolbert, to bust water-usage myths and break down the plain-English engineering behind sustainable cooling and how we are engineering water draw out of the equation:

• Near-Zero Water Draw: How closed-loop systems continuously recycle cooling fluids.
• Irish Weather as an Asset: Utilising our climate for "free cooling" 70% to 90% of the year without power-hungry compressors.
• The AI Density Leap: How we design infrastructure to handle the massive shift from 10kW to 250kW+ racks.

In the latest episode of Power and Responsibility, we explore Fault Ride Through (FRT) – a new approach to how large energy users respond to momentary disturbances on the electricity grid.

Rather than immediately disconnecting from the grid when a fault causes a voltage or frequency disturbance, FRT enables facilities to remain connected and quickly restore demand as the grid recovers. This helps avoid sudden drops in demand that can make grid management more challenging.

Echelon's Paul Harris, Energy Technology & Innovation Lead, and Daniel Moloney, Grid Development Lead, join Morgan Flanagan Creagh to explain how FRT works and the role it can play in supporting a more stable and resilient electricity grid.

With an increasing number of data centre operators generating power through onsite energy centres, Craig McKechnie talks to Cormac Nevin, head of Energy Systems at Echelon Data Centres, about what this means for national electricity grids, for energy security, for the digital economy, and for climate commitments and the sustainability agenda.

Host Craig McKechnie talks to Marcos Byrne, Senior Policy Analyst with Wind Energy Ireland, about the potential of private wires to support the national grid, facilitate the development of renewable energy resources, and help make large energy users, such as data centres, more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. 

The GAA holds a special place in the heart of every community in Ireland – it's very much  'Where We All Belong' – and funding is vital for the great work it does. Gavin Weir, Strength and Conditioning Coach with Wicklow GAA, joins host Craig McKechnie to talk about sport in the community and the benefits of businesses playing their part by supporting organisations in areas where they operate.

Power & Responsibility is produced by 4TC on behalf of Echelon Data Centres.

Ireland is committed to having 5GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 37GW by 2050.  Wind energy is the most important renewable energy source for decarbonising our economy and powering critical infrastructure such as data centres – yet Ireland currently produces just 25MW of it. Host Craig McKechnie is joined by Úna Brosnan, Head of Offshore Ireland with Mainstream Renewable Power; and Leo Quinn, Senior Offshore Development Manager with Mainstream Renewable Power, to discuss Ireland's offshore wind potential and the challenges energy companies face when bringing it onshore and online.

Power & Responsibility is produced by 4TC on behalf of Echelon Data Centres.

Conall Bolger, CEO of the Irish Solar Energy Association, joins host Craig McKechnie to explore the relationship between data centres and solar energy. Where does solar fit in the mix of renewables that Ireland must develop to transition to a cleaner more sustainable economy, what are the legislative and regulatory challenges associated with developing large-scale solar renewables and bringing them into the grid, and how can data centres help that process?
Power & Responsibility is produced by 4TC on behalf of Echelon Data Centres.

Dr Valeria Nico, a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stokes Laboratories in the University of Limerick, joins the podcast to talk about her ground-breaking work on electronic liquid cooling. Developed for the European Space Agency to cool the electronics of small satellites, the micro-pump technology also has huge potential for reducing the amount of energy required to keep servers cool in data centres.
No content with solving the cooling conundrum for data centres, Dr Nico is also developing technology to harvest ambient vibration energy and reduce the need for batteries in the Internet of Things.

Craig McKechnie talks to Simon McCormick, Chief Technical Officer for Echelon Data Centres, about the energy challenges data centre operators are facing and the solutions they are developing. What will the future energy storage ecosystem look like for data centres and what does it mean for sustainability?

This podcast was originally recorded as a video talk for the Digital Infra Network – a company which enables Digital Transformation and is shaping a sustainable world for future generations. Click here to view the video.