Defining the Future of Sustainability Strategy with Polar DC

The AI race still hasn’t slowed, with the technology continuing to put pressures on data centres. Operators are having to grapple with unprecedented demand for power density and cooling solutions, all while fighting to keep emissions down.

With this in mind, traditional air-cooled facilities are struggling to meet the needs of GPU-intensive workloads consuming up to 600kW per rack. Legacy infrastructure is being overhauled across the industry, with calls for more purpose-built infrastructure becoming essential. 

Tom Chubb, COO of Polar DC, shares with Data Centre Magazine how Polar DC is addressing these challenges by developing liquid-cooled data centres specifically engineered for AI workloads. 

The company’s strategy places emphasis on data centres that are flexible and sustainable and can also accelerate time-to-market.

Please introduce yourself and tell us about your role at Polar DC.

I started as a data centre technician 22 years ago and I’ve stayed in the industry because I love it so much. I’m fully committed to the sector and I am excited to see how I can further contribute and give back over the next 22 years!

My role is broad and my responsibilities are a little unusual for a COO: I oversee all aspects of technical delivery and service operations across the business. My remit includes health and safety compliance, security and ESG initiatives, from design and construction through to operations.

Reflecting the dynamic needs of a scaling startup, I also play a tactical leadership role across HR, marketing and IT, supporting these core business functions as we grow and evolve.

What does Polar want to achieve in the data centre market?

We want to support our customers to develop the future of AI. Our vision is to ‘Accelerate Infrastructure’ development because we believe the time is now to bring AI-ready data centres to market. For me, the key focus is being flexible in supporting the new generation of AI technology. 

The market is rapidly shifting, as a new business, we have the benefit of being agile and responsive. We’re listening to our customers and developing solutions with a partnership approach. 

To build a great business, you need great people. We want to deliver what our customers need now, so to do that we’re hiring the best people in the industry. We’re also selecting vendors that are aligned to our mission and leveraging their expert talent where we don’t have those in-house capabilities. 

How has Polar adapted its sustainability strategy to handle AI and HPC workloads?

We are very fortunate at Polar in that we don’t have legacy data centres with infrastructure that needs to be adapted. We are building new facilities for AI and HPC that use our clients and OEM reference architecture as our basis of design, we then overlay Polar’s experience and expertise to form industry leading solutions. We carry that efficient design into operations to deliver excellent sustainability performance. 

We are so confident in our ability that we intend to publish our energy performance metrics for all to see. A key part of our sustainability strategy is to select locations that have access to power that is generated from sustainable sources. Our DRA01 data centre in Tordal, Norway is a great example, we have hydroelectric power at scale that is generated from the region’s abundant resources. 

As we bring more sites on-line, we will continue to adhere to the same stringent sustainability standards.

Can you walk us through how Polar DC manages high-density racks that might require 100kW or more per rack?

We are building data centres specially designed for the high-density requirements of AI technology. Air-cooling solutions can no longer meet these new high-power requirements so liquid cooling is the only viable option. 

We are currently deploying direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems that cools the heat sinks via liquid heat transfer and offers a more efficient solution compared to air cooling. This is directly reflected in improved facility Power Utilisation Effectiveness (PUE) and allows us to forecast efficiencies of 1.2 PUE or better.

Demand is outpacing supply for AI ready capacity, how is Polar addressing this requirement?

This productised approach allows us to create standard designs for our deployments, which in turn, speeds up and simplifies supply and build logistics. This ultimately brings capacity online quicker for our customers. 

We are able to grow the company quickly with excellent financial support from our investors, enabling us to develop a pipeline of sites in rapid response to market demand.

What emerging technologies or current trends in the industry do you expect to revolutionise data centre operations? 

The industry is going through massive changes, the demand for AI-ready data centres is unprecedented and being driven by the requirements of GPU technology. 

Data centres are now being described as AI factories and this reflects how fundamental they are in the AI ecosystem. For example, Nvidia’s Rubin Ultra NVL576 rack is expected to consume 600kW which is a significant increase on any current deployments.

This change in power density has extensive knock-on effects for data centre infrastructure and we will continue to see the M&E infrastructure getting closer to the chip. This amalgamation of the traditional ‘white’ and ‘grey’ space will cause new operational challenges. 

Polar has an expert operational team who pride themselves on delivering unrivalled safety, security, stability and sustainability performance to our customers. 

What are Polar’s future expansion plans beyond the initial DC in Norway? 

We are ambitious and well-supported as we expand our business, actively reviewing and acquiring new sites across the Nordics, as well as Central and Western Europe. 

By listening closely to where our customers want to be and what they need, we can respond quickly with an experienced, agile team and outstanding delivery partners.

I’m excited about the future of the data centre industry. 

At Polar we have some ambitious developments planned and I’m looking forward to delivering next-generation AI-ready infrastructure for our customers.

To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.

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