How Hybrid Design Could Be The Future of Data Centres
As data centres face continued surging demand on account of AI, cloud computing and high-performance workloads, cooling technologies are undergoing a transformative shift.
In 2025, hybrid cooling systems - where liquid and air cooling is combined - are starting to emerge as an industry solution for balancing data centre efficiency, scalability and sustainability.
These systems have potential to offer flexibility for handling diverse workloads, from legacy equipment to high-density AI applications, while also enabling operators to futureproof their facilities.
With this in mind, Data Centre Magazine hears from Danielle Rossi about how Trane Technologies is eager to spearhead innovation with advanced liquid cooling solutions and heat recovery systems that optimise energy use and reduce environmental impact.
She explains how hybrid cooling could redefine thermal management in modern data centres.
How is liquid cooling evolving across the data centre industry in 2025?
Liquid cooling has been around for more than 50 years, utilised in space and graphics applications. Only in the last few years have chip and compute density loads been high enough to justify, or in some cases require, using liquid cooling.
There are several different types of liquid cooling, and each has a place in design. Recently, there has been an increase in hybrid cooling designs making each solution application specific. These hybrid designs are utilising multiple types of liquid cooling and/or air-cooling dependent on the design needs.
What are the benefits of hybrid cooling? Can this give operators greater opportunities for sustainable business growth?
For the foreseeable future, hybrid cooling is going to be prevalent in the industry. With the increase in AI adoption, data centres will be segmented while they adjust to these new large loads and continue to require support for legacy, less dense equipment.
Hybrid design allows for flexibility in density and allows for an easier transition into high-density AI applications, particularly in brownfield design. As chips evolve, supporting thermal management will need to adapt with each type of density, and in many cases, that will include more than one type of cooling.
In greenfield design, there is an opportunity to create adaptable design to support future densities. Ensuring new designs include a variety of stipulations to support different liquid and air-cooling designs means it will be easier to retrofit based on load and it will save a great deal of money and downtime in the future. For colocation companies, this flexibility also allows for a more diverse offering for multiple densities of loads.
How is Trane Technologies developing its cooling technologies to adapt to a changing market, whilst also prioritising energy efficiency?
Having been a chilled water provider to data centres for several decades, Trane has extensive experience designing, commissioning, and maintaining chilled water systems.
We have recently launched a 1MW CDU, expanding our offering further into liquid cooling thermal management. The significant benefit of Traneâs experience is a holistic approach to cooling and water system design, allowing for collaborative and customised design for each application. Application-specific design allows for streamlined and efficient solutions from roof to rack.
Additionally, having one of the worldâs largest technician footprints â roughly 6000 technicians â and detailed controls offerings, we are uniquely positioned to ensure continued design optimisation and peak efficiency.
What are some of the heat recovery solutions that Trane is currently working on?
In addition to heat pumps, many of our chillers offer heat recovery options, and we implement heat recovery globally at varying scale. There are many more applications for heat recovery than the standard district and local heating. Indoor agriculture and fish farming are very common, but we have seen requests for applications such as industrial laundromats, community pool heating, snow removal and supplemental heat to low-income housing.
With these large liquid and hybrid cooling deployments, we are beginning to see multiple, temperature-based liquid cooling loops allowing for optimisation of the liquid cooling design. Each of the cooling loops allows for a specific temperature profile, which can assist in improving heat recovery output.
As an example, a high-temperature loop could be fed to industrial applications while a lower temperature loop could feed adjacent office space.
Why are these new designs essential in todayâs data centre industry?
You can't read the news without hearing about the newest chip design innovations. Every day, compute power is increasing, with chip densities surpassing air-cooled limitations. As chip densities increase, so does the cooling requirement. By optimising design by application, we can ensure the best efficiency for the largest power draw system of the data centre.
Additionally, several countries and areas are beginning to require heat recovery and high-efficiency options. Heat rejection will encompass much more than standard thermal management in those cases. Particularly in those applications, customising output is just as crucial as power usage if output heat can be utilised for power generation or monetised.
Explain what a holistic data centre design is. Why is this becoming more critical in the industry?
Traditionally, data centre design has been very power focused. With the transition to hybrid and liquid-cooled designs, there is a need to optimise site design outside of the traditional PUE and WUE metrics. Some circumstances will require more power but may provide more compute power on a chip.
Another example would be a site adding power by adding a heat pump to boost output heat but can then provide local heat recovery. All components within the data centre should be designed together to ensure the best output of a site. From a cooling perspective, past designs of the entire water system were segmented into outside, gray space, and white space.
A holistic approach to water system design will ensure optimal heat rejection output while still considering water usage and compute output based on density.
Can this approach make data centres more sustainable?
Data centre cooling uses roughly 25-40% of the power of a data centre. Any optimisation of the cooling system, including the efficiency of the product and the efficiency of the system design, will create a more sustainable solution.
A holistic design combination of highly efficient products, roof design optimisation, limited or zero water usage, streamlined chilled water piping to reduce pump power, thermal storage to peak shave power, using multiple cooling loops to best implement heat recovery, real-time optimization using controls and best in class maintenance to ensure product and system performance is the best way to achieve the most sustainable design possible for your application.
Whatâs next for Trane? How will the company continue to innovate with sustainability in mind?
Data centre design is unique. Each owner/operator has different requirements and expectations. Infrastructure needs are evolving quickly to try and keep pace with the demands of AI.
Data centre thermal management is complex, and thereâs no magic wand to balance the need for effective cooling with energy efficiency. Managing complexity is what we do best. This is why we view thermal management with a wide lens, finding synergies between system design, equipment, data analytics, predictive maintenance and other solutions that make operations more holistically sustainable.
Weâre committed to being that âtrusted thermal advisorâ in the data centre ecosystem. While the industry has an eye on next-generation technology for thermal management, including liquid immersion, not every customer is ready to adopt or can afford to move away from the significant investment they have in current infrastructure.
We meet customers where they are. Weâre purposefully rounding out our portfolio to give our customers the most efficient and sustainable hybrid options for the now and the next. We have the most robust chiller portfolio in the industry, and we are working every day to meet the evolving needs of the data centre with expanded operating ranges, faster restart times and wider capacities.
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