A photograph showing the Consonus Utah South Data Center, the first commercial facility to receive the EPA's Energy Star rating for data centers.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REIVEW) — Data center operator and colocation provider Consonus (www.consonus.com) announced on Wednesday that its Salt Lake City, Utah data center has achieved the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star rating for power efficiency.
The Energy Star seal is a well-known mark of energy efficiency, commonly seen on household appliances. The data-center specific Energy Star designation was officially introduced in June of this year, after a development period of roughly a year, during which the agency solicited input from data center operators.
The Energy Star designation for data centers requires a licensed engineer to verify the energy performance of the facility using the power usage effectiveness metric.
“This achievement is a direct result of our continuous improvement program that focuses on resiliency, customer service and energy efficiency,” says Consonus chief information officer Brent Wall, quoted in the press release. “Over the past year, we identified and completed over 40 initiatives that improved data center energy efficiency and reduced power consumption. We are delighted to be recognized through the EPA’s new Energy Star rating for our proactive efforts to make our data centers more energy efficient.”
In its press release, Consonus says the program “facilitates the government’s continuing efforts to reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuels.” There are critics of the program, however, who point out that the Energy Star program makes no distinction based on the source of the power to the facility. In March, GreenPeace issued a report calling out several large data center operators for choosing locations where the local energy grid was supplied by coal-based power sources, in which it specifically took issue with the Energy Star program’s rating criteria.
In its announcement, Consonus calls its Salt Lake City facility “the first commercial data center in the nation to achieve an Energy Star rating.” The distinction there is the “commercial” aspect of the data center, as data storage firm NetApp made a similar announcement regarding its North Carolina data center.
Consonus says the Energy Star designation places the facility in the top quartile of data center peers for energy performance. Among the energy efficient practices and tools being used in the facility are cold aisle containment, CFD modeling and analysis, ducted return systems and high efficiency floor tiles.
“We are very proud of the continuous scrutiny and diligence that our team employs to ensure that we are constantly improving our service to our clients while focusing on green data center initiatives,” says Daniel Milburn, senior vice president and chief operating officer of hosting and infrastructure services for Consonus, also quoted in the press release.
