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Key highlights of NTT America’s new co-gen data centre

Tony Chan | August 7, 2011 | 0 Comments

NTT America has implemented one of the world’s first co-generation data centres using fuel cell technology. The project will put in 500kW of power generation from fuel cells from Bloom Energy, which equates to about 10% of the existing power consumption load for the facility.

Green Telecom Live actually spoke to Kazuhiro Gomi, president and CEO of NTT America about the project (full transcript of the interview will be available next week). There are enough reasons for the operator to go with the renewable energy solution, and the ROI for the project is expected to range between 3-4 years.

The system will essentially allow NTT America to reduce its reliance on grid power by 10%, hence reducing its cost by 10%. There are some unique factors that make the business case viable, and there are some obvious challenges, such as the space required for the Bloom Energy Servers that generate the energy from biogas, but it’s something that NTT Communications as a global group is actively pursuing in their effort to reduce their environmental impact, according to Gomi. Stay tune next week for the full interview for all the details.

Here are some key highlights outlined by NTT America:

NTT America’s initial deployment consists of five Bloom Energy Servers, with a total capacity of 500kW (kilowatts), or approximately the baseline required to power 500 average homes or five 30,000 square-foot office buildings.
NTT America will produce over 4.2 million kilowatt-hours annually, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.6 million pounds, the equivalent to planting approximately 4,000 trees each year.
As part of NTT America’s energy efficiency initiatives, the fuel cell option reduces the dependency on the public electric grid, minimizing the company’s carbon footprint by using renewable fuels.
The fuel cells at the NTT America data center utilize renewable biogas, additionally reducing the carbon footprint through decreased dependency on fossil fuels.
Distributed generation means electricity is generated where it will be used, allowing NTT America to reduce the amount of energy loss due to transmission across power lines, increasing efficiency and trimming costs.
NTT America’s energy efficiency initiatives include hot aisle/cold aisle server rack design, aisle containment solutions, high efficiency computer room air conditioner (CRAC) cooling systems, distributed electricity generation and dynamic temperature sensor/control technology.