How do you engineer data center cooling infrastructure, when AI capacity is constantly evolving? AI is transforming the technology inside data centers at an extraordinary pace, but the infrastructure that it relies on is built to last for decades. As demand for AI continues to grow, so do compute requirements and heat generation, creating new challenges, and opportunities, around how teams design, power and cool data centers sustainably. In this episode, we hear from Oakley Roberts, President of Data Centers at Trane Technologies, discussing the shifting engineering and technology landscape. He explores how teams build data center infrastructure for changing needs by adapting cooling systems to different climates, balancing liquid and air cooling, reducing water use, and designing modular systems. Michael Winterson, Secretary General of the European Data Centre Association, expands the conversation to the broader infrastructure and policy picture. He discusses Europe's ambitious plans to expand data center capacity and the questions that growth raises around grid capacity, energy, regulation and decarbonization. Michael explores what it will take to support that expansion, and how policy and infrastructure will need to evolve alongside it. Together, they reveal a bigger shift in how we think about data center infrastructure. The future isn’t just about building more of the same or pushing for more technology and standardization. It’s about balancing repeatability and flexibility and designing smarter systems that can be deployed at speed, while adapting to changing technologies, local environments, and the broader systems around them. EPISODE CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction - Why the era of the standard data center is over 01:03 Engineering flexibility 03:26 How AI is changing data center cooling 06:45 Rethinking data center water usage 08:00 Designing now for an uncertain future 10:28 Can policy keep up with data center growth? 11:36 Europe’s ambitions for the Digital Decade 13:12 Why Europe needs more computing 14:29 What’s holding back data center sustainability 15:43 Keeping flexibility while implementing standardization 19:52 How data center innovation benefits the whole economy 26:03 The race for speed, modularity, and adaptability LEARN MORE Trane Technologies Blog – What is Data Centre Cooling? [https://tinyurl.com/DataCentreCooling] Trane Technologies Blog – Infomaniak Data Center Heat Recovery [https://tinyurl.com/InfomaniakDataCenter] EUDCA Website [https://www.eudca.org/] Trane Technologies Website [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/] Scott Tew [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/scott-tew.html] Dominique Silva [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/dominique-silva.html] Oakley Roberts [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/oakley-roberts.html] Michael Winterson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwinterson] ABOUT HEALTHY SPACES Healthy Spaces, a podcast by Trane Technologies, brings together engineers, innovators, and industry leaders for bold conversations at the frontier of sustainable technology. In Season 6, we zero in on the moment when innovation becomes infrastructure - when breakthroughs move beyond the lab and start transforming industries. From pioneering AI research and next-generation data center cooling to climate-resilient cities and pathways to decarbonization, each episode explores the innovations at the cutting-edge of sustainable technology. Designed for leaders, builders, and anyone with a stake in the future of sustainable technology, the series offers a front-row seat to the ideas and innovations shaping what comes next. The challenges are real. The solutions are being built now.
