Green Data Center Cooling: Achieving 90% Reduction: Airside Economization and Unique Indirect Evaporative Cooling

The Green Data Center Project was a successful effort to significantly reduce the energy use of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Through a full retrofit of a traditional air conditioning system, the cooling energy required to meet the data center´s constant load has been reduced by over 70% for summer months and over 90% for cooler winter months. This significant change is achievable through the use of airside economization and a new indirect evaporative cooling system. One of the goals of this project was to create awareness of simple and effective energy reduction strategies for data centers. This project´s geographic location allowed maximizing the positive effects of airside economization and indirect evaporative cooling, but these strategies may also be relevant for many other sites and data centers in the U.S.