Microsoft-backed Veir is poised to change the game for data centers. They’ll do this by utilizing the cutting edge of superconducting technology to do so. As power demands continue to increase, the company will test its new cables in 2024. A first commercial launch is planned by 2027. Tim Heidel, CEO of Veir, emphasizes the immediate need for flexible solutions. These solutions need to scale accordingly with the ever-increasing power needs.
The climate impact of electricity use by data centers has grown rapidly in the past several years. Heidel explains that the power requirements have jumped from tens of kilowatts to 200 kilowatts in just a few years’ time. He cautions that in the not too distant future, these demands increase to 600 kilowatts and then one megawatt. Accordingly, data center developers are scrambling to deploy the types of facilities that can support this kind of massive load.
Heidel describes Veir’s role in this technological shift: “We’re really a systems integrator that builds the cooling systems, manufactures the cables, puts the whole system together in order to deliver an enormous amount of power in a small space.” This multi-pronged approach is necessarily ambitious to meet the precarious short- and long-term demands of the data center sector.
Veir’s superconductors are uniquely tailored to function in extreme conditions. As of now, the company is purchasing superconductors from commercial suppliers. Next, they wrap these superconductors in a sheath of liquid nitrogen cooled jacket, maintaining temperature at –196˚ C (–321˚ F). This clever arrangement allows Veir’s cables to take up a tiny fraction of the space. They take up 20 times less footprint than conventional copper cables and send power five times farther.
As demand for data center capacity only continues to expand, competitive pressure increases within the industry. Heidel states, “The AI and data center community is desperate to find solutions today and is desperate to stay ahead. There’s a tremendous amount of competitive pressure to stay at the forefront.” These companies are more than ready to find the right solutions. Most importantly, they are charting a path through the fog that rapid advancements in technology have created.
Tim De Chant is an award-winning senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He teaches in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing and has been following these developments closely. De Chant received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley. He’s got a B.A. from St. Olaf College and was a 2018 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. During his fellowship, he worked on the development and deployment of climate-targeted technologies and explored the intersection of new business models and journalism.
Heidel emphasizes the importance of understanding the interconnected challenges faced by data centers: “We were seeing a lot of folks saying, ‘Oh this grid interconnection problem is a real thing, and we got to figure out how to solve that.’ Then a handful of potential customers started turning around and saying, we actually have really hard problems to solve on our campuses and inside of our buildings.” He suggests that the pace of innovation within the data center sector is outpacing other areas, particularly transmission: “The pace at which the data center community is moving, evolving, growing, scaling, and tackling challenges is far higher than the transmission community.”
