NSIDC Data Center: Energy Reduction Strategies

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 reduction is achievable through the use of airside economization and a new indirect evaporative cooling cycle. One of the goals of this project was to create awareness of simple and effective energy reduction strategies for data centers. Although this particular project was able to maximize the positive effects of airside economization and indirect evaporative cooling because of its geographic location, similar strategies may also be relevant for many other sites and data centers in the United States.