Minisymposium Presentation

Los Alamos National Laboratory has experience operating advanced high performance computing facilities since the late 1950s. Today, the computing facilities use about 50% of the lab’s total energy and 31% of it’s total water. The need for efficient water and energy usage is ongoing to support growth and expanded mission. Data-driven engineering, innovations and strategic planning are the lab's toolkit for both its external challenges and its internal processes. We present the history of the resource restrictions, water reuse, carbon-free power procurement and computing optimizations with the following accomplishments: High-performance computing facilities now use almost 100% of reclaimed water instead of potable, reducing our water usage almost to zero. LANL has signed a contract to purchase and use 170MW of solar power from a new solar farm in the northwest corner of the state, enabling mission expansion using a renewable energy source. Current efforts include the application of machine learning models to accurately predict short-term energy needs, enabling more informed and diverse energy procurement strategies. While we have made great strides there is still more to do and some of our plans for the future include a central utility plant and to determine ways to reuse waste heat.