Inside BendBroadband's data center
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Data center operator BendBroadband Vault (www.bendbroadbandvault.com) announced on Friday it has recently opened 30,000 square-foot BendBroadband Vault in Central Oregon is substantiating its claims for extreme energy efficiency, slashing energy consumption by an estimated 600kW compared to standard data centers.
The company partnered with Sunlight Solar and Advanced Energy PV Powered to create a truly sustainable facility, which opened in April.
Located in Bend, Oregon, the Tier III certified constructed Vault provides colocation, disaster recovery, dedicated managed services, and cloud computing.
“From conception of the project, BendBroadband’s intent has been to design the Vault to be as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible,” said Leonard Weitman, VP technical operations at BendBroadband. “Green features including solar photovoltaic power generation, renewable energy, pervious pavement, xeriscape landscaping, LED lighting, and air-to-air heat exchange for cooling capacity, have all contributed to this goal.”
The Vault features two energy-saving systems: solar panels and a hot air containment data hall cooling system based on air-to-air heat exchange.
The data center’s roof has 624 solar panels, manufactured by SolarWorld and installed by Sunlight Solar, which generate 152kW of power. This acounts for one-sixth of the power consumed when the data hall is full.
The energy-efficient hot air containment design allows cooling only where needed, while Advanced Energy PV Powered 75 kW inverters installed as solar inverters provide a critical component in the design of the solar energy system.
The inverters convert the variable DC output of the Photovoltaic modules into a utility frequency AC current that can be fed into the commercial electrical grid.
While most data centers produce a Power Use Efficiency ratio of 2 or higher, the Vault is designed to operate at a PUE of less than 1.2, which results in an 80 percent reduction of the power needed for non-computing functions to operate the data center.
Most of the power consumed for non-computing operations is for cooling, thanks to the facility’s two 450 kW capacity KyotoCooling systems, and a solar array.
Using the principle of heat exchange, the KyotoCooling systems use the outside air to cool the building 75 percent of the time.
The Kyoto units are able to cool the air by as much as 30 degrees and they deliver cool air into the data center at a steady 72 degrees.
The Vault maximizes energy efficiency in all areas, including the parking lot which is made of pervious pavement, insulation made of recycled denim jeans, and landscaping which feature indigenous plants that require no irrigatio.
The company also purchases carbon credits from Woodlands Carbon, which makes the Vault 100 percent carbon neutral.
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