May 20th, 2009

Advanced Data Centers strives to be an aqua-friendly data center

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 11:49 am

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech, water

Tags: Data Center, Data Centers, Storage, Hardware, Data Management, Heather Clancy

I receive all sorts of e-mails and press releases about companies, especially data center operators, who have done some serious work on greening their facilities and infrastructure. I try to share the relevant, specific ones as quickly as possible, however many are disappointing for their lack of interesting detail.

But a recent note from Advanced Data Centers caught my eye not just because it happens to be one of those rare LEED Platinum buildings but because the company is focusing so much on how its facility is impacting water usage, which is a very rare commodity in its Sacramento, California, home.

There are two sets of numbers to share here.

First is the simple calculation related to how the energy savings realized by the Advanced Data Centers’ facility in Sacramento (when compared to other data centers) affects how much water needs to be used in juicing up the facility. Based on how much water evaporates during electricity generation at both thermoelectric and hydroelectric plants in California, the organization figures it is saving about 220.5 gallons of water compared to a typical data center. (Or, about 18,375 swimming pools. And, no, I don’t know whether or not the pools are Olympic.)

Another twist is that Advanced Data Centers is capturing up more than 150,000 gallons of rainwater to be used in its cooling towers, restrooms and landscaping. The cooling tower water is also filtered and recycled.

Here are a couple of my earlier posts about this innovative data center operator, including this one about its Platinum LEED blessing and this one about the rebate it snagged from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.