Grundfos and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (China’s top ministry-based policy authority of data centre and ICT industry) have jointly published Green and resilient now: Report on fluid systems enabling water–energy coordination for computing infrastructure in the AI era.

By 2030, China’s data centres are projected to consume 262.9 million cubic metres of water, enough to meet the household water needs of Beijing’s 23 million residents for more than four months.

These figures show why computing growth can no longer be separated from the way we manage water, energy and heat.

Advocate water-energy nexus

Cooling decisions often involve trade-offs between water and energy use. The industry must therefore move beyond single-metric optimisation and manage water and energy as an interconnected system.

Fluid systems make this coordination possible. By capturing, transporting and controlling heat across the cooling chain, they provide the vital link between computing, water and energy.

Unlocking the system-level value of fluid systems

The report highlights the value of fluid systems across four interconnected areas: thermal management, energy efficiency, water use and operational resilience. It then translates this value into a three-layer framework covering architecture, equipment and platform, together with seven key technology domains.

Shaping the next phase of green computing

The future is not simply about more computing power.

The next phase of green computing calls for system-level optimisation centred on the water-energy nexus, supported by shared standards and industry-wide collaboration, to build more efficient, resilient and future-ready computing infrastructure.