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DATA CENTRE FEATURE SERIES
COOLING TOMORROW ' S DATA
© RACA Journal
Data centres
By Eamonn Ryan
Intramech and Mitsubishi Electric innovate for Africa ' s growing digital frontier
As Africa’ s population grows and more people come online, the demand for data-intensive applications – ranging from social media to AI – is accelerating rapidly. For companies like Intramech, this represents a major opportunity. From their perspective, Africa is“ one of the biggest opportunities now in this day and age”, driven by the continent’ s rising digital needs and the infrastructure required to support them.
As Africa ' s digital landscape rapidly expands, the demand for sophisticated and energy-efficient data centre cooling solutions is reaching unprecedented levels. At the forefront of this evolution is Intramech, a key distributor for Mitsubishi Electric, constantly innovating to meet the continent ' s unique challenges and opportunities. We sat down with Christo Vermeulen, director: Intramech Gauteng at the 2025 Pan-African Data Centre exhibition and conference to discuss their latest offerings and insights into this booming market.
Intramech, with its roots in data centre cooling and chiller systems dating back to Mitsubishi Electric ' s acquisition of Climaveneta and RC in 2015, has long been a stalwart in the HVAC & R industry. " We traditionally always did data centre cooling and chillers, DX data centre units and CRAC units," Vermeulen explained, clarifying their specific focus on Mitsubishi Electric Hydronics & IT Cooling Systems.
At the expo, Intramech was actively launching cutting-edge innovations to the data centre market. " We ' re launching the CDU( Cooling Distribution Unit) and also the new RCWALL2 fan wall unit," Vermeulen announced. These products are designed to address the escalating demands of modern IT loads and improve energy efficiency.
The exponential increase in heat density within data centres is a driving force behind these innovations. " The load on watercooled racks has increased from six kilowatts a rack to maybe 50 kilowatts a rack now, just in the last couple of years," Vermeulen explained. This dramatic shift, particularly for AI applications, is propelling the market towards advanced solutions like watercooled racks. The CDU, for instance, is specifically designed to precisely control the water flow to these high-density, watercooled racks.
While water-cooled jackets handle the bulk( roughly 80 %) of the cooling for the hottest components( like chips), air cooling is still necessary for other elements such as power supplies. This
RACA Journal I January 2026
Christo Vermeulen, director: Intramech Gauteng, with Giorgia Rossi.
hybrid approach ensures comprehensive thermal management. The new RC fan wall unit, meanwhile, addresses the critical need for energy efficiency by using significantly less power to move large volumes of air, directly impacting the data centre owner ' s operating costs and Power Usage Effectiveness( PUE – a metric used to measure how efficiently a data centre uses energy. It ' s a ratio of the total energy consumed by a data centre to the energy consumed by the IT equipment within it. A lower PUE indicates better energy efficiency). The fan wall creates an artificial wall of cooling, drawing warm air from server racks and returning it efficiently.
SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SHIFTING REFRIGERANT LANDSCAPE Energy efficiency and sustainability are intrinsically linked in data
centre cooling. " It ' s all about using as little power as possible to run the equipment compared to removing energy," Vermeulen emphasises, linking this directly to the data centre owner ' s profitability.
" Beyond power consumption, the industry is facing a major shift in refrigerants. A lot of clients, especially in Europe, are being forced to phase out refrigerants that still have a global warming component. Because of that regulatory pressure, we’ re expecting an abrupt transition by the end of 2026 to newer refrigerants like R1234ze and R32, which will definitely affect global supply chains and practices," said Vermeulen.
From Intramech ' s perspective, Africa represents " one of the biggest opportunities now in this day and age ". The continent ' s burgeoning population means a rapidly increasing number of
“ A lot of clients, especially in Europe, are being forced to phase out refrigerants that still have a global warming component.”
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