NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

What’s the Green Behind Data Centers?

Nextgov Prime

December 3, 2012

Dr. Dan E. Arvizu

Laboratory Director

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NREL, An Early Adopter in Sustainability

Only National Laboratory Dedicated Solely to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

• Leading clean-energy innovation for 35 years

• 2540 employees with world-class facilities

• Campus is a living model of sustainable

energy

• Owned by the Department of Energy

• Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable

Energy

Laboratory Snapshot

Scope of Mission

Energy

Efficiency

Renewable

Energy

Systems

Integration

Market

Focus Residential

Buildings

Commercial

Buildings

Personal

and

Commercial

Vehicles

Solar

Wind and

Water

Biomass

Hydrogen

Geothermal

Grid

Infrastructure

Distributed

Energy

Interconnection

Battery and

Thermal

Storage

Transportation

Private Industry

Federal

Agencies

Defense Dept.

State/Local

Govt.

International

Focus on Buildings

National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

DOE Labs Focused on Green IT

Leadership

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Power Usage

Effectiveness <1.3

=

World Class

The Path to Net Zero Energy—

Research Support Facility

Presentation Title

Green Data Center

Key Design Features

• Fully daylit office wings

• Continuous insulation precast wall panels

with thermal mass

• Radiant heating and cooling

• Outdoor air preheating

• Transpired solar collector

• Datacenter waste heat

• Crawl space thermal storage

• Aggressive plug load control strategies

• Data center air-side economizer, hot aisle

containment

• Roof top and parking structure-based PV

http://www.nrel.gov/news/rsfnews/awards.html

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RSF’s Green Data Center • Enterprise data center serves entire Lab.

• Highly energy efficiency (1.14 PUE)

• Won national award—White House Green Gov FY 2011

Energy System Integration Facility (ESIF)

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LEED Platinum Building

– Tour views into pump room and mechanical spaces

– Reveal the inner workings of the building

– Color code pipes, LCD monitors

– World class P.U.E. 1.06

– Energy savings of $1M/year

NREL ESIF Data Center/HPC Cross Section

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Take a Holistic Approach to Green

Green Data

Center

Power

• Make efficiency part of acquisition strategy.

• Minimize conversions and associated losses.

• High Voltage Distribution.

Cooling

• Manage Your Hot Air.

• Minimize Fans.

• Move to Warm Water Liquid Cooling.

• Liquid 1000x more efficient than air for cooling. Re-Use

• Capture and use the waste heat.

• Warm water is a valuable by product.

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Our Approach….

• Establish an organizational commitment to sustainability

• Think systems level, campus-wide optimization

• Align corporate function to coordinate IT equipment purchasing, how it is managed and operated, and the facility infrastructure that provides the power cooling

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