As China’s “Eastern Data, Western Computing” initiative accelerates to meet the insatiable demands of generative AI, the bottleneck has shifted from raw silicon to thermal management. In a major move for the mission-critical cooling sector, Copeland has announced the successful deployment of a next-generation variable speed cooling solution at China Mobile’s Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (Zhangjiakou) data center, setting a new benchmark for resource-constrained facility design.
The partnership with Chinese HVAC manufacturer Canatal addresses a paradoxical challenge: how to cool massive server clusters in Zhangjiakou, a cold, arid region where water is too scarce for traditional evaporative cooling, yet ambient temperatures fluctuate enough to demand extreme mechanical flexibility.
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The PUE vs. WUE Tightrope
China’s national sustainability mandates are increasingly unforgiving. For the Zhangjiakou facility, China Mobile targeted a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) below 1.25 and a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) below 0.2. In a region with high water stress, achieving these figures meant abandoning water-cooled chillers in favor of advanced air-cooled DX (Direct Expansion) systems that could leverage the “free cooling” of the northern climate without sacrificing peak-load efficiency.
The Engineering Core: ZDV098 and VCR Technology
To meet these targets, Canatal integrated Copeland’s ZDV098 variable speed scroll compressor into its ECS integrated fluorinated pump energy-saving air conditioning system.
The “fluorinated pump” system is a hybrid that uses the refrigerant itself to move heat during colder months, bypassing the compressor almost entirely when outdoor temperatures allow. When the heat load spikes or the mercury rises, the ZDV098 takes over with Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) technology.
Expert Insight: Unlike fixed-ratio compressors that suffer from “over-compression” losses in mild weather, VCR technology allows the scroll to dynamically adjust its internal geometry. This ensures the compressor is always operating at its peak thermodynamic efficiency, regardless of whether it’s a frigid winter night or a humid summer afternoon.
Quantifiable Gains: AEER of 12.5 W/W
The results of the 2025 deployment have shifted the industry’s expectations for DX cooling performance. According to field data released by Copeland, the system achieved:
- AEER (Annual Energy Efficiency Ratio): Up to 12.5 W/W, a figure previously considered the exclusive domain of large-scale water-cooled plants.
- Waste Heat Recovery: The solution incorporates a heat recovery module that captures rejected thermal energy from the server racks to provide space heating for the facility’s administrative zones.
- Liquid Impact Resistance: The ZDV series features a “low-pressure chamber” design, which protects the mechanical components from damage during the rapid transitions between fluorinated pump (liquid) mode and compressor (vapor) mode.
The Broader Strategic Horizon
“This project is a blueprint for the future of green data centers in water-scarce regions,” said Galen Yin, Vice President of China for Copeland. “By combining simulation-driven model selection with hardware that bridges the gap between mechanical cooling and natural cooling, we are proving that the AI revolution doesn’t have to come at the expense of local resources.”
As China targets 788 EFLOPS of computing power by the end of 2025, the industry is closely watching the Zhangjiakou facility. Copeland’s “Future-Ready” campaign signals a shift away from “one-size-fits-all” chillers toward modular, variable-speed architectures that treat the data center as a dynamic thermal ecosystem rather than a static load.