by Brianna Crandall — March 2, 2011—FedEx Corp. recently celebrated the grand opening of its first environmentally sustainable data center, located adjacent to the FedEx Rocky Mountain Tech Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Based on the application of a number of “green” design standards, the Enterprise Data Center-West (EDC-W) can be counted among the most energy efficient data centers in the U.S., says FedEx.
Phase 1 of the construction of the 140,000-square-foot building began in 2006 and was completed in 2008. Phase 2 upgraded the existing data center infrastructure and added an additional 26,000 square feet. Recently, FedEx applied for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification of the EDC-W.
Since a major challenge to operating a green data center is the amount of energy it requires to maintain a consistently cool temperature for the computing environment, the EDC-W was constructed with a range of redundant mechanical and electrical systems that yield a high level of energy efficiency while reducing costs. For example, variable frequency drives, used by the mechanical systems, can fine tune the amount of power consumed according to the level of demand.
One method of measuring the energy efficiency of a data center is by calculating the power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio. PUE measures the amount of electricity needed to power the cooling systems, lights, etc. versus the amount of electricity used to run the computing environment. According to the Uptime Institute, the typical data center has an average PUE of 2.5. The EDC-W PUE is 1.28, with a ratio of “1.0,” indicating perfect efficiency.
Among other earth-friendly initiatives, during the construction phase, crews diverted over 75 percent of the construction waste from a landfill. Additionally, nearly 11 percent of the building products were extracted and regionally produced, and more than 14 percent of other materials contain recycled content.