Shell Skybox Houston immersion cluster

Project brief

What is publicly known

Status: operating. GRC's customer case study identifies Shell as the operator of 1.2 megawatts of immersed compute at the Skybox Houston One facility in Katy, Texas. It says the cluster came from Penguin Solutions, uses AMD processors, and runs in GRC ICEraQ Series 10 Duo single-phase immersion systems.

The page describes an open-house event where attendees saw the installation. A named operator, host building, integrator, processor family, cooling system, and capacity make this a credible deployment record. The limitations are equally clear: GRC is the cooling supplier, the page is undated, and no Shell or facility operator report provides commissioning dates or measured results.

Each Duo system is described as able to cool 200 kilowatts using warm facility water, split across two 42-unit rack positions. GRC says each rack position can carry up to 100 kilowatts with 90 degree Fahrenheit water and nearly twice that with chilled water. Those are product conditions, not proof that Shell runs every rack at those loads.

Cooling matters in Houston because warm and humid weather reduces the hours when outdoor air alone can reject heat. The immersion loop removes server fans and can accept warm water, but the final plant and its seasonal energy use are not described. Unknowns include the number of tanks, operating temperatures, actual information-technology load, heat-rejection equipment, fluid, power usage effectiveness, uptime, and service history.

An operator commissioning statement, dated capacity update, measured seasonal performance, or site energy data would strengthen the record. Expansion records would change the capacity. Evidence that the cluster moved, shut down, or no longer uses the tanks would change the operating status.

For now, only the named 1.2 megawatts should be counted, without extending GRC's maximum product ratings to actual site performance.

Status is labeled from public evidence. Supplier orders, MoUs, pilots, projects under delivery, and operating sites are not counted as equivalent.