Facebook Data Centers Push for Renewable Energy

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--As demand for social media, instant messaging and smart-device access to electronic data continues to rise, so does the need for ever-larger data centers to handle the increased network traffic. One of the most important factors in data-center construction is the availability of large amounts of electricity to power the many computer servers, data-storage media and other necessary equipment. Thus, almost all data-center construction takes place near an existing electric substation--or one is built along with the data center.

Communities concerned with global warming, carbon footprints and emissions from power-generation facilities built especially for data centers often resist such the construction of these facilities, especially since data centers typically do not bring a large numbers of jobs to the community after they open.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) (Menlo Park, California) has listened to these objections and is committed to using only renewable energy for its data centers. A two-phase, 970,000-square-foot campus recently begun in New Albany, Ohio, and a three-phase, 2 million-plus-square-foot complex under construction in Fort Wort, Texas, are among the facilities that are expected to use only "green" energy. While the New Albany project has not yet detailed how this will be accomplished, Facebook has arranged to purchase renewable energy through the use of power-purchase agreements from several local providers.

For a two-phase, 1 million-square-foot data center under construction in Los Lunas, New Mexico, Facebook partnered with Affordable Solar (Albuquerque, New Mexico) and Array Technologies (Albuquerque) to construct three solar farms totaling 30 megawatts (MW) to provide some of the power to the data center, and purchase the rest from local wind-power providers. These projects alone account for nearly $2.8 billion in capital investments.

This may have a larger impact on the renewable-energy industry, as other data-center developments decide to go with fully renewable energy. For example, IO Data Centers (Phoenix, Arizona) has announced it will use only renewable energy for a 720,000-square-foot data-center.

As Facebook strives to reach fully renewable energy at its data centers, the resulting increase in renewable-power generation could have an effect on other downstream developments, as corporations look to "green" their image by committing to renewable energy.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.