OPTIMIZATION MODEL FOR COOLING ENERGY REDUCTION IN URBAN DATA CENTERS THROUGH PHOTOVOLTAIC INTEGRATION

Resumo

The rising energy demand of data centers, primarily driven by intensive cooling requirements, presents significant economic and environmental challenges in densely populated urban areas. This paper presents an optimization model designed to reduce cooling energy cost in small urban data centers by integrating photovoltaic generation with advanced thermal management strategies. The proposed model incorporates a simplified heat transfer characterization that accounts for environmental heat exchanges and air-conditioning dynamics. The proposal was evaluated using 15-minute climate data from the São Paulo metropolitan region to capture daily and seasonal variations in cooling loads over a full operational year. Results indicate the optimization model achieved monthly costs of 129.58 USD in November and 95.16 USD in April, while maintaining safe CPU operating temperatures (≤ 72 °C). Photovoltaic generation supplied a significant share of the cooling demand, reducing dependence on the power grid and demonstrating the feasibility of solar integration for sustainable data center operations.