Background: The scale of modern datacenters and other large loads and their adoption rate are unprecedented.  The AI datacenter sector is growing at over 40% per year and is expected to consume nearly 10% of US electricity generation by 2030.  Powering datacenters and other large loads creates an interconnected web of challenges: 

• How do we generate this much energy?  Where can large loads be located?
• How do we transmit this much energy, overcoming aging infrastructure and regulatory obstacles?
• How do we convert this much energy efficiently from the grid to the chip/electrolyzer/etc.?
• How do we make more effective use of the energy we consume?
• How do we manage the heat that is generated after consumption?
• How can we do it all while mitigating externalities to the grid, communities, and the environment? 

What we are: The University of Texas at Austin is solving large-load challenges with research covering the entire energy journey. This includes conventional, renewable, and nuclear energy; power transmission, grid interactions, and power conversion; computer architecture and low- and high-level software; thermal management; and policy. 

The TEX-DEL initiative allies and amplifies UT Austin’s strengths, addressing every aspect of the large load challenge at every scale. 

Who is involved:  TEX-DEL unites and connects researchers, centers, schools, colleges and institutes across the 40 Acres:

Members of these areas represent 

• Four schools (Cockrell School of Engineering, College of Natural Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, and LBJ School of Public Affairs)
• Seven academic departments (Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, and LBJ)
• Many established centers and institutes, including the Bureau of Economic Geology COMPASS initiative, the Center for Energy and Environmental Systems Analysis, the Construction Industry Institute (CII), Hydrogen Protohub, the Oden Institute, and Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)

Our capabilities: TEX-DEL offers hundreds of thousands of square feet of lab space and the experimental and computational capacity to meet every aspect of datacenter and large load challenges.  Some unique capabilities include

• Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) with several Top500 supercomputing clusters, among the most powerful academic supercomputers in the world.
• Medium voltage and MW-scale power electronics; 1 MW microgrid at the Center for Electromechanics
• Hydrogen ProtoHub: zero-carbon hydrogen powering TACC and other uses