A large data center co-location provider in Phoenix is starting an ambitious project to cover its roof in solar panels, a multi-million dollar undertaking that will provide up to 4.5 megawatts of power to customers.
CEO George Slessman of i/o Data Centers, founded in 2006, says covering the 11-acre data center with thousands of solar panels will cost between $8 million and $10 million, with the project being completed over the next year. Based on today's energy prices, the project costs more than simply purchasing energy from utilities, but Slessman believes it will pay off financially in the long run.
"Right now, it's not really an economic solution if you just do the math," Slessman says. "It's more expensive than just buying the power from the utility, but we really see it as future-proofing the business. Our assumption is that power costs are going to go up drastically over the next five to seven years."
The company's energy costs can be four to five times higher per kilowatt hour during the day than in the middle of the night, Slessman says. Solar will provide just a fraction of the power needed once the 120-megawatt data center is completely filled with customer racks. But shifting power use from the daytime to the middle of the night will have significant financial benefits.
I/o Data Centers is building out the solar panels in phases, 500 kilowatts worth at first, and then increments of 1 megawatt each until the entire roof is covered by the end of 2010. Slessman says peak capacity will be 4.5 megawatts, when sunlight is optimal, but the maximum on most days will be 2.5 to 3 megawatts.
In June 2007, Google completed a 1.6 megawatt solar project involving more than 9,000 solar panels at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, at the time the largest U.S. corporate solar installation, according to Google. The i/o Data Centers' solar installation will provide 2.8 times as much power.
"I don't know of anyone else in the data center space who's doing it [at this scale]," Slessman says.
Solar isn't the only technology i/o Data Centers uses to shift the burden of utility bills from day to night. Another key strategy involves thermal energy storage. "We make ice at night and use that to cool the facility during the day," Slessman explains. "Power costs more during the day than at night, so it allows you to shift load to the off hours. By using solar during the daytime, we get to further push that cost down during the day when power is very expensive."
I/o Data Centers operates its large data center in Phoenix plus a smaller one in Scottsdale, Ariz., with 260 customers including BMC Software and LexisNexis. The company will soon announce a new data center and by the end of 2010 will have 300 megawatts of utility capacity across three facilities.