Built Differently: The New Rules Of Data Center Design

As AI rapidly transforms data centers, the challenge is designing data center cooling and infrastructure that can keep pace with rising compute demands, increasing heat loads and long asset lifecycles.

In this episode, Oakley Roberts, President of Data Centers at Trane Technologies, discusses how teams are adapting through climate-responsive cooling strategies, the balance of liquid and air cooling, lower water use and modular system design, while Michael Winterson, Secretary General of the European Data Centre Association, explores the broader implications of Europe's expanding data center capacity, including grid constraints, energy demand, regulation and decarbonization.

Together, they highlight a fundamental shift in data center design: building systems that balance speed, repeatability and flexibility while adapting to evolving technologies, local conditions and infrastructure needs.

Key Moments

0:00: Why the era of the standard data center is over 03:26: How AI is changing data center cooling 06:45: Rethinking data center water usage 11:36: Europe's ambitions for the digital decade 19:52: How data center innovation benefits the whole economy

Featured in this Episode:

Hosts:
Dominique Silva, Marketing Leader EMEA, Trane Technologies
Scott Tew, Vice President Sustainability and Managing Director, Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, Trane Technologies

Guests:
Oakley Roberts, President, Data Centers, Trane Technologies
Michael Winterson, Secretary General, European Data Centre Association (EUDCA)

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.

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