At the heart of Schneider Electric's argument is a critical distinction that is often lost in public discourse: liquid cooling and water consumption are not the same thing. The former is a thermal management approach — a way of efficiently moving heat away from high-density IT loads. The latter is a specific consequence of design choices about how that heat is ultimately rejected into the environment.

Tuan Hoang, Head of Cooling Technology and Product Development at Schneider Electric, addressed this directly. "Zero water is needed to cool AI data centres," he told journalists. "Liquid cooling is required but it's for the load and radiators. Water consumption for data centres is a choice — a geographical choice dependent on power, land and what is required."

This framing reorients the sustainability debate. For racks operating at 400kW and beyond, liquid cooling is non-negotiable from a thermal standpoint. But whether that liquid cooling loop consumes or evaporates water is an engineering and siting decision — one that operators can and should be making deliberately.

Schneider Electric's answer to the water problem centres on its Uniflair XCA line — a series of pre-engineered, air-cooled chillers purpose-built for data centre environments. Crucially, these systems do not rely on evaporative cooling. "It does not use water, just radiates heat out," Tuan noted. Each unit delivers continuous cooling capacity of up to 2.4MW, supports fast restarts, and offers dual-feed power redundancy.

The systems operate on a closed-loop, factory-sealed volume of high-quality cooling fluid — tested at Motivair's facilities in Buffalo and designed to remain fully contained within the system for the entire operational life of the data centre. With zero evaporation and zero onsite discharge, routine water consumption tied to cooling is effectively eliminated.

Motivair by Schneider Electric — acquired by Schneider Electric in February 2025 — sits at the centre of this capability. As the company with the largest installed base of high-density liquid cooling solutions globally, Motivair brings over a decade of field-proven deployment experience across every major geography.

To ground the argument in concrete data, Schneider Electric presented two modelled data centre scenarios comparing traditional air-cooled infrastructure with liquid-cooled alternatives — one in Dallas, Texas and one in Paris, France. The results were striking in both cases.

In Dallas, projected annual water consumption fell from 382,000 cubic metres under traditional air cooling to 197,000 cubic metres with liquid cooling — a reduction of 48%. In Paris, the figures dropped from 108,000 cubic metres to 51,000 cubic metres, representing a 53% saving. In both geographies — one hot and arid, one temperate — liquid cooling delivered roughly a halving of annual water utility demand, without any sacrifice in cooling performance.

"It's a choice to how you reject the heat, and the myth that all data centres with liquid cooling are using lots of water isn't true," Tuan said. "We focus on high-efficiency chilling."

What is clear from Schneider Electric's messaging is that this is no longer a conversation about future-proofing. Liquid cooling has crossed from optional upgrade to baseline requirement for any operator deploying next-generation AI infrastructure. The question is no longer whether to implement it, but how — and specifically, whether to do so in a way that eliminates or minimises water consumption as a co-consequence.

Schneider Electric's end-to-end portfolio — spanning Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs), ChilledDoor® rear door heat exchangers, Dynamic® Cold Plates, and the Uniflair XCA chiller line — is designed to give operators the full stack of tools needed to make that responsible choice. Backed by EcoStruxure software for thermal optimisation and Motivair's global service infrastructure, the company positions itself as the partner capable of making water-responsible AI infrastructure not just theoretically possible, but operationally deliverable at scale.

Key Takeaways

• →Schneider Electric's leadership argues that AI data centre water consumption is an engineering design choice, not an inevitable by-product — and that zero-water cooling of AI infrastructure is achievable today.
• →Closed-loop, air-cooled heat rejection systems — such as the Uniflair XCA line — eliminate evaporation and discharge entirely, using a factory-sealed cooling fluid that lasts the life of the facility.
• →Modelled case studies for Dallas and Paris show that transitioning from air cooling to liquid cooling can reduce annual water consumption by approximately 48–53%, without any loss of cooling performance.
• →For racks pushing 400kW and beyond, liquid cooling is now mandatory — not optional — making the choice of heat rejection method the critical sustainability decision for AI infrastructure operators.
• →Direct liquid cooling is up to 3,000 times more thermally effective than air, capturing heat at the chip level and enabling rack densities far beyond what traditional data centre infrastructure could support.
• →Schneider Electric's acquisition of Motivair — the world's largest installer of high-density liquid cooling systems — positions it as an end-to-end provider for the next generation of water-responsible AI data centres globally.