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Making your energy efficient datacenter pay off. Literally.

A cash reward is the result of careful planning and design.
Written by David Chernicoff, Contributor

When the focus of your datacenter design includes detailed plans to maximize energy efficiency in power and cooling your expectation is that your efforts will pay off in the long run. Your datacenter will cost less to run and deliver more IT work for the money spent on energy than your existing facility or if your focus didn’t have the same energy efficient goals. But with a new datacenter in Oregon from operator Fortune Data Centers the results of their design and implementation efforts had a far more immediate impact; a $500,000 award from the Energy Trust of Oregon.

The Trust is a non-profit corporation focused on all aspects of energy savings, from the awards to datacenter operators to handing out cash to consumers for their old, energy inefficient appliances. Their website offers all sorts of resources to consumers and businesses looking to save money on energy expenses.

While the new Fortune datacenter is expected to achieve a PUE of 1.16 in full economization mode, true PUE requires measurement over time, so the award is based on design elements of the new facility. These include 100% aisle containment, full waterside economization, and a 99% efficient UPS system. Added together with the climate in Oregon, which will allow them to budget for natural cooling at least 30% of the year and the datacenter measures up as a winner in energy efficient design and operation.

Fortune has been working with the Energy Trust since 2011 in designing and building this Oregon datacenter. This is Fortune’s second full datacenter installation, adding on to their existing facility in San Jose, CA, which has maintained 100% uptime since its opening in 2009.

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