Data center power demands have increased from tens of kilowatts to 200 kilowatts in just a few years, and data center developers are scrambling to design future facilities to handle the load.
“In the next few years, it will be 600 kilowatts and then megawatts,” Veir CEO Tim Heidel told TechCrunch. “We’re now talking to people who are trying to understand the architecture of how to design a data center with multi-megawatt racks.”
At this scale, even the low-voltage cables that power the racks take up a lot of space and begin to generate excessive heat.
To curb this, Veir has adapted superconducting electrical cables to run inside data centers. The Microsoft-backed startup’s first product will be a cable system capable of transmitting 3 megawatts of low-voltage power.
To demonstrate the technology, Veir built a mock data center near its headquarters in Massachusetts. Heidel said the cable will be piloted in data centers next year before commercial launch in 2027.
A superconductor is a type of material that can conduct electricity with zero energy loss. The only problem is that it needs to be cooled well below freezing.
Mr. Weir previously focused on using superconductors to improve the capacity of long-distance power transmission lines. However, utilities tend to be cautious and slow to adopt new technologies. There’s still a good chance that power companies will eventually use superconductors in high-demand transmission lines, but that transition will be a little further into the future.
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“The pace at which the data center community moves, evolves, grows, expands, and takes on challenges is much faster than the transport community,” Heidel said.
Veir has been negotiating with data centers for years. Recently, the focus of the conversation has changed.
“There were a lot of people who said, ‘Oh, this grid interconnection problem is real. We have to find a way to solve it.’ But then a few potential customers started turning around and saying, ‘Actually, we have problems on our campuses and within our buildings that are very difficult to solve,'” he said.
The startup took the same core technology it developed for power lines and adapted it to the low-voltage needs of data centers. Veir buys its superconductors from the same supplier, which is wrapped in a jacket that encloses a liquid nitrogen coolant that keeps the material at -196°C (-321°F). Termination boxes are installed at the ends of these cables to transition from superconducting cables to copper cables.
“We’re actually a system integrator that builds cooling systems, manufactures cables, and assembles entire systems to deliver huge amounts of power in a small space,” Heidel said.
As a result, the cables now require 20 times less space than copper wire and can transmit power five times farther, Veir said.
“The AI and data center communities are now desperate to find solutions and desperately trying to stay ahead of the pack. There is tremendous competitive pressure to stay at the forefront,” Heidel said.
