EvoSwitch Unveils Adiabatic Data Hall

Amsterdam-based data centre EvoSwitch has today unveiled a new data hall, boasting energy efficient design that reduces electricity usage.

Taking three years to complete, EvoSwitch’s Hall 5 uses adiabatic cooling, that avoids the use of mechanical chillers and takes the PUE (Power Utilisation Efficiency) to 1.2 – substantially lower than the normal PUE of 2.0 in traditional facilities.

“Recent technical developments, coupled with important innovations in design mean that we can offer an even more efficient service with the opening of hall five,” said Eric Boonstra, managing director at EvoSwitch.

Carbon-neutral data centre

As data centre energy efficiency becomes increasingly important to customers, EvoSwitch has decided to make the data centre hall carbon neutral, by using energy from renewable sources.

“We get our ‘green’ electricity from the DELTA power company. It’s called ‘Zeeuws Groen’ – the green electricity from Zeeland,” the company explains, adding that the power is generated from renewable energy sources such as wind, sun and biomass.

Despite a number of green technologies employed, however, the facility still generates non-sustainable energy consumption caused by the emergency power generators and company vehicles, among others.

To compensate for such energy usage, EvoSwitch offsets any carbon footprint by working with the Climate Neutral Group on worldwide projects to neautralise CO2 emission by planting trees and initiating biogas projects.

“A particular feature of these projects is that they are not only good for the climate but also benefit the local population – often located in under-developed areas,” said the facility.

Modular data centre boxes

Besides the adiabatic cooling system, the Amsterdam-based data centre has also pioneered the use of modular data centre boxes in building the new data hall. Each module, which is 6m by 12m each, can can be built customised to a client’s requirements.

“Each module is built bespoke for each client and then installed in the data centre.  They are all individually cooled,” a technical adviser at EvoSwitch told eWeek Europe.

According to the company, each rack has two uninterruptable power supplies of 180 kW as well as the fully redundant power supply in the data centre, plus emergency provisions in the form of 2.5 MVA 1.5 MVA transformers.