Segment
Data centres
Maximize the revenue within your limited grid connection.
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) targets keep tightening, F-gas regulation keeps narrowing the refrigerant menu, and local grid capacity has become the binding constraint on new builds and retrofits alike. Cartesian gives data centres a thermal flexibility layer that reduces the grid strain on the warmest days and unlocks more grid capacity for revenue-generating IT equipment. The rest of the season, the Thermal Box captures free cooling at night, defers expensive chiller upgrades, and rides through grid events as a silent, fossil-free thermal back-up — enabling revenue from grid flexibility markets in the meantime.
Hyperscale and edge data centres need cool capacity and uptime. Cartesian maximizes the utilization of your data centre's limited grid connection.
Common use cases
- Unlock grid capacity for compute power
- Increase free-cooling capture
- Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) reduction
Typical outcomes
- Reallocated grid capacity from cooling to compute power
- Reduced chiller maintenance costs
- Lower Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
Why now
Common pain points in data centres
Cooling load is constant 24/7 with seasonal variation. Outdoor temperature reaches its peak during the warmest days of the summer — but the chillers occupy valuable grid capacity for cooling that could have been used to operate the racks and sell more services.
- Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) targets keep getting tighter — every 0.01 matters
- Local grid capacity is the #1 bottleneck for data centres
- F-gas regulation is forcing refrigerant changeouts
- Free-cooling potential is wasted if you can only use it when it's available
Indicative sizing
What a typical 1–5 MW edge facility looks like
- thermal storage
- 0.5–2 MWh
- PUE improvement
- −0.05 → 0.10
- of grid-upgrade deferral
- Months
Recommended solutions for data centres
Common questions
Got questions about thermal storage?
From PCM chemistry and lifetime to indoor vs outdoor installs and typical payback — the answers are in the full FAQ.
Read all questionsWhat is thermal energy storage?
The term is used when storing energy as heat or cold, which can be released at a later stage. The heat or cold is usually stored when energy is cheap and then released when the heating or cooling demand is at a peak or the cost of energy is high.
What is PCM?
PCM means Phase Change Material and refers to any material that changes state, for example from solid to liquid, when reaching a certain temperature. This phase change enables large amounts of energy to be absorbed or released. Water is one PCM, storing cold at zero degrees Celsius by changing phase to ice. Cartesian uses a wide variety of other materials, such as bio-based waxes, to store heat or cold at different temperatures.
Is the Thermal Box and the PCM flammable?
For applications with HVAC systems, Cartesian's Thermal Box is not considered flammable. While some PCM might be flammable when they reach temperatures above 100 °C or more, the Thermal Box is designed to eliminate any risks of reaching flammability conditions in operations.
Are PCMs safe?
Cartesian offers only safe PCMs and primarily uses bio-based PCMs in the Thermal Box. The PCM will stay in the Thermal Box for its whole lifetime and is not consumed during operation. The Thermal Box is also designed to avoid any risk of PCM leakage.
Let's build the smarter grid