Via en.wikipedia.org
The industrial giant's latest thermal management guide leverages waste heat to unlock up to 97 MW of additional cooling capacity for power-hungry AI facilities
Johnson Controls just dropped what might be the most consequential infrastructure blueprint nobody in crypto is talking about yet. The company’s latest AI Factory Reference Design Guide focuses on absorption chiller technology that can increase data center cooling capacity by up to 97 MW, all while slashing chiller electricity consumption by more than 90%.
Johnson Controls’ absorption chillers harvest waste heat to drive the cooling process instead of consuming grid electricity. A single absorption chiller can deliver 2 MW of cooling capacity while drawing roughly 25 kW of electrical input, compared to a conventional electric chiller that would need over 500 kW to operate.
This latest guide is the third installment in Johnson Controls’ Thermal Management Reference Design Guide Series, which launched in February 2026. The first guide covered water-cooled chiller plants designed for AI factories scaling up to 1 GW of total power, with specific recommendations for 220 MW compute quadrants and 105 MW central cores. The second guide, released on May 5, 2026, tackled air-cooled solutions using YORK YDAM and YVAM centrifugal chillers.
Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) has been manufacturing YORK absorption chillers since 1960. What’s new is the application at hyperscale, specifically targeting the gigawatt-class facilities that AI companies are racing to build.
That 97 MW of additional cooling capacity doesn’t require 97 MW of new grid power. It recycles energy that would otherwise be exhausted into the atmosphere.
Johnson Controls is also investing in technician training programs to ensure these systems can be properly maintained at scale.
The risk is adoption speed. Absorption chillers require a reliable source of waste heat, which means they won’t work everywhere. Facilities need to be designed or retrofitted to capture and route thermal energy effectively, and the upfront capital costs are likely higher than conventional chillers.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our