Digital Crossroad has placed an order for Munters to cool its new data center in Indiana in the US. The center covers a space of 105,000 square feet and will run on 100% renewable energy by 2028.
The new data center in Hammond, Indiana, is an example of creatively converting an existing facility into a data center. This particular project is a conversion of a former coal-fired power plant known as State Line.
Most of the electricity consumption, outside of the IT equipment, consumed by a data center is from cooling. In the case of Digital Crossroad, the center will require nearly 5,700 tons of cooling capacity.
Because the cool air delivered to the IT equipment is 70 degrees or warmer, the opportunity for economizer cooling is greater when compared to conventional HVAC that is typically designed around 55 degree supply.
The heat generated from servers is removed from the data center through several types of heat exchangers. Two of the heat exchangers collect economizer cooling, often called free cooling, from ambient air or cool water in Lake Michigan. The third heat exchanger is a traditional refrigerant process with compressors. The free cooling heat exchangers provide the majority of the annual cooling requirements, resulting in very low energy consumption. Munters energy modeling software predicts annual cooling energy equal to 13% of the server energy, or a very low 1.13 pPUE (Power Usage Effectiveness).