Nokia, KDDI Trial Japan’s First Liquid Cooling Innovation to Promote Sustainability

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Nokia announced that it is conducting a trial using its unique Liquid Cooling AirScale Baseband solution with Japanese mobile operator, KDDI. The trial will demonstrate how KDDI can reduce its baseband cooling system energy consumption by more than 70 percent compared to traditional gas coolant-based air-cooling solutions. Efficiencies can be further enhanced by the introduction of a heat reuse option that could yield a potential reduction of 80 percent in CO2 emissions. This is the first time a liquid cooling solution will be trialed in Japan highlighting KDDI’s commitment to sustainability and combatting climate change.

Traditional air-cooling systems are noisy and require regular maintenance such as filter changes and re-gassing, however, Nokia’s Liquid Cooling solution is almost maintenance-free and virtually silent, making it ideal for buildings with tenants. Nokia’s base station liquid cooling functionality captures heat into liquid directly where it is generated and removes it from the site by liquid circulation. It supports the reduction of cooling-system-related CO2 emissions by more than 70 percent.

KDDI is also trialing Nokia’s Nokia AVA for Energy Efficiency solution which applies AI to support the challenge of rising energy consumption in networks. The solution helps to reduce overall energy bills by up to 20 percent and move towards more sustainable patterns of energy usage. Nokia AVA blends telecoms expertise, AI, and cloud-based delivery into a coherent energy control that dynamically adapts energy consumption to traffic levels while maintaining a premium user experience.

Nokia is committed to reducing the CO2 emissions generated by its technology. Nokia has committed to cut emissions by 50 percent between 2019 and 2030 as part of its updated science-based climate change targets, in line with a 1.5°C warming scenario. This target covers emissions across its own operations and portfolio, logistics, and electronics manufacturing. Nokia intends to continue its efforts to research and develop solutions that reduce CO2 emissions beyond this trial.

John Lancaster-Lennox, Head of Market Unit Japan at Nokia, said: “This trial is another milestone in Nokia’s commitment to sustainability and combatting climate change. Nokia was the first vendor to introduce this game-changing liquid cooling solution which supports operators in their quest to be more environmentally responsible while allowing them to achieve significant cost savings.”