Airedale by Modine, has announced the launch of the TurboChill 3+MW, a new air-cooled hybrid chiller designed to support the growing cooling demands of GPU-driven AI data centers. The system expands the TurboChill platform with enhanced heat rejection capacity and an extended operating range for free cooling, aiming to reduce reliance on mechanical cooling and lower energy use.
The TurboChill 3+MW is engineered for high-density workloads and modern data center environments with varying water temperatures. It enables maximum free-cooling performance in suitable climates while providing mechanical cooling as needed for peak heat loads and reliability.
“As next-generation chips are designed to operate at higher temperatures, there is speculation that chillers may no longer be required,” said Art Laszlo, Group Vice President of Global Data Centers at Modine. “However, customers continue to demand proven cooling and reliability to protect their investments... Airedale by Modine’s TurboChill platform delivers an ideal hybrid solution by maximizing free cooling where conditions allow, while deploying mechanical cooling to manage peak heat loads and the reliability customers expect.”
The company emphasized that relying solely on high-temperature liquid cooling or dry coolers can expose data centers to risks from fluctuating ambient conditions, parasitic system losses, and recirculation effects. Hybrid air-cooled chillers offer consistent performance across diverse environments and support varying rack densities within the same facility.
Airedale also noted that the use of air-cooled chillers with integrated free cooling remains a proven approach to minimizing Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) in data centers globally.