Data centers are known for large amounts of water and power usage. In fact, it takes a tremendous amount of energy and water to power and cool any data center. That’s according to a new report from Aligned, that outlines how the company installed a soft water program to its fluid cooler system at its Phoenix data center to save 24 million gallons of water a year.
Get the full report.
According to the report, data centers contribute to industry’s consumption of 45% of all available clean water.
This reality has put water usage and water management at the top of the list of concerns among data center operators and customers — especially those that put environmental responsibility first in their businesses.
When starting its water reduction consumption project at the Phoenix, Ariz., Aligned facility, the data center already included the company’s cooling technology, Delta. The adaptive data center platform already required up to 80% less energy and consumed up to 85% less water, with the ability to run waterless as required.
“However, based on growing customer demand and our shared commitment to environmental stewardship, we sought to achieve even greater levels of water conservation and water usage savings,” Aligned stated.
To approach this challenge, Aligned installed a soft water program to the fluid cooler system at the facility.
This soft water management program works as a “holistic approach” to saving water, energy, labor cleaning hours and treatment chemicals, while also working to maintain equipment health.
“The soft water program also eliminated calcium scale along the fluid cooler wetted surfaces and reduced fugitive microbiological growth due to elevated pH and alkaline water, including Legionella bacteria, which is found in both potable and non-potable water systems.” — Aligned
The Aligned data center in Phoenix, Ariz. (Photo: Aligned)
The results? Aligned outlines in detail in the new report the water consumption savings resulting in a 24-million gallon shift annually. And the installation of the software management program at resulted in abundant makeup water savings for the facility’s fluid coolers.
Aligned explained, “Makeup water is water that is supplied to a cooling system to compensate for losses by evaporation and leakage.”
The program exceeded Aligned’s initial estimations of annual water savings of $99,750 and evaporation credits, and annual makeup water savings of 21 million gallons, to come in at $114,000, and the aforementioned annual makeup water savings of 24 million gallons.
Get the new full report from Aligned, “Aligned Enhanced Soft Water and Water Management Saves Big at Phoenix Data Center,” that to further explore how the company ramped water management and technology to save big on consumption.
Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution.