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end configuration, where one side can take over if another side
fails; and an external heat-rejection unit that uses 80 percent less
water than a traditional cooling tower. We are able to get the efficiency
of traditional phase change without significant uses of
electrical load.
We are not breaking any laws of thermodynamics. But we get
the efficiency of a refrigerant that has 78 more times the cooling
ability of water, which in turn is more efficient than air. Instead of
being a water-cooled system or air-cooled, it’s neither.
We focused on a developing a technology where we could have
the same overhead for cooling different loads, from 5 kilowatts to
50 kilowatts per rack. And the eoPTI-TRAX system tracks to the
environmental condition and adjusts automatically.
How does “tracking environmental conditions” differ from what data
centers call “air-side cooling,” where you essentially open the windows
and let cool air in?
Most data centers find it difficult to switch to free cooling. They
64 Q www.theregistrysf.com
Social media companies are even recording mouse movements
on the screen, to understand how people navigate a page.
That creates massive amounts of data.
do it only a couple of times a year, once as the winter starts, then
again six months later. They can’t do it daily. This system does.
The problem with using air is that you need good filtering, and
it is costly.
How does this go back to your point of measuring output?
If you look at the pace of IT growth, you are still going to have
more data center growth. The question is building it efficiently so
that companies can afford to continue the pace.
Right now the model is an unsupportable business model. Some
companies are moving their data centers to Finland and Sweden
to take advantage of the cooler weather. We wanted a technology
that would let people build in warmer environments and build
where there is more population density.
For the Bay Area, given that the cost drivers are energy and infrastructure,
the central point of digital infrastructure is that we
come up with ways to support those industries that allow them to
grow and flourish. Q
Prefabricated data center module that Skanska is building for national telco client TeLUS
which will soon be one of the most energy-efficient, greenest data centers in the world.
Adam Friedberg