INTELLIGENT GREEN TECHNOLOGY
fuel cells , rainwater capture , greywater use .
Some examples of local resource utilisation appear below :
Water recycling Several Equinix datacentres , including Rio de Janeiro , California ’ s Silicon Valley , Sydney and Ashburn campus in Washington DC , use recycled rainwater and municipally supplied gray water for landscape irrigation and sometimes for datacentre cooling systems .
Thermal enhancement Equinix ’ s datacentre in Silicon Valley incorporates techniques from refrigeration systems to significantly reduce the power needed to cool the colocation floor . The system uses direct expansion coils , lower fan power through air management approaches and an innovative evaporative condensing system that is more efficient than conventional air-cooled condensers .
Granular temperature control Equinix ’ s datacentre in Singapore has been retrofitted with a granular temperature control system that has improved the facility ’ s PUE by 15 %. Based on Singapore ’ s results , this control system is now being installed at several other Equinix datacentres , including facilities in Chicago , Hong Kong , Silicon Valley , Sydney .
Solar power Solar photovoltaic systems have been installed at Amsterdam , Frankfurt and Singapore datacentres to supplement power from the local grid .
Green rooftops By covering roofs with plants and vegetation at Amsterdam and Zurich , Equinix lowered cooling costs and reduced storm water runoff , which is associated with flooding and nutrient pollution of nearby lakes and rivers .
Fuel cells The Frankfurt datacentre produces approximately 800,000 Kilowatt Hours of electricity annually through a controlled chemical reaction involving oxygen , hydrogen and water . The power and cooling capacity created by fuel cell system could reduce Frankfurt datacentre consumption of energy from the grid by 24 % and save about 150 metric tons of CO2 emissions each year .
Direct , indirect economisation Equinix datacentres around the world , have deployed air and fluid economisers to provide free cooling to colocation space , maintaining temperatures within acceptable ranges while lowering energy consumption . The economisation systems reduce or sometimes eliminate the need to run mechanical cooling systems , which contribute significantly to energy footprint of any datacentre . The types of economisers deployed by Equinix , direct or indirect , air or fluid , usually water or glycol , depend on local climate conditions and datacentre space constraints .
Aquifer thermal energy storage The ATES system at Equinix ’ s Amsterdam datacentre uses cold groundwater to help chill air on the colocation floor , eliminating the need for traditional mechanical cooling . When temperatures rise above 18 degrees Celsius , the ATES system kicks in to keep equipment cool . At other times of the year , Amsterdam datacentre relies on free-air cooling . Excess heat generated by customer ’ s IT equipment is also used to help warm nearby buildings .
Techniques that use technology adaptation across Equinix datacentres include :
• Aisle containment : Physical barriers are used to reduce mixing of cold air in datacentre supply aisles with hot air from exhaust aisles
• Energy efficient lighting : Datacentres use motion-activated controls to reduce energy consumption and heat from operating lights
• Adaptive control systems : Active airflow management using intelligent , distributed sensors and control policies
• Temperature control : It follows American Society of Heating , Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers thermal guidelines when developing facilities to optimise interior temperatures
• Variable frequency drives : This is used in chillers , pumps , fans , to save energy by reducing motor speed and power to match lower system loads
• Others : Mass air-cooling technology , high-efficiency mechanical equipment , water and air side economization , chiller optimization , high efficiency motor replacements , high efficiency uninterruptible power supply retrofits for existing datacentres
42 Issue 03 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS