Business Chief USA February 2019

manufacturer – the CACTUS,” reveals
Coleman. “The chiller itself runs predominantly
on 100% outside air when
conditions allow (when dewpoint is low
and temperature is in the right range).
It’s not until we see adverse conditions,
which are not consistent annually, that
we activate the adiabatic cooling in the
chiller, which does not run all the time.”
Coleman notes that adiabatic cooling
runs for a fractional number of hours
a year compared to the outside air.
“When dewpoint becomes an issue or
humidity is a little higher and adiabatic
isn’t effective, we do have a traditional
cooling system that can kick in as
well, so we really have all conditions
covered.” He maintains the system is
designed to run on 100% outside air
as much as possible and that reduced
energy and water consumption is driving
the industry-leading 1.15 PUE that
Aligned operates at.
Aligned typically partners with the
top five contractors in the U.S. data
centre market, drawing on the technical
expertise of those who have heavily
invested in the talent needed to support
mission-critical projects. “Very
often, we’re partnered with a large
general contractor to establish the
original building,” confirms Coleman.
“The other reason is the pace that we
build at, nine or even six months in
some cases, requires enormous cashflow
efforts, and a very large workforce.
We have a handful of both capital
and construction partners capable
of supporting that. Once the site is
established and you’ve got iterative
work, whether it’s multiple additional
buildings on the site or additional build
down to the shell, we’ve developed
partnerships locally. The local MEP
contractors and subcontractors are
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