FedEx opens green data centre

FedEx seeks to reduce its carbon footprint and costs associated with its computing via a new green data centre, located adjacent to the FedEx Rocky Mountain Tech Centre in Colorado Springs, says EarthTechling.com.

The Enterprise Data Centre-West (EDC-W) - FedEx's first green data centre - iscurrently LEED-registered. Whatever level of certification the building eventually receives will be an accomplishment, considering the fact that facilities like this are notorious energy-hogs, largely because the many computers they house must be kept cool to function properly.

In an attempt to meet this challenge in an energy-efficient way, the EDC-W was constructed with a range of recycled mechanical and electrical systems such as variable frequency drives, which can fine-tune the amount of power consumed according to the level of demand.

According to JustMeans.com, FedEx global headquarters in Memphis has just achieved the LEED Gold certification. The entire complex comprises nine buildings, totalling an area of more than one million square feet. In 2008, FedEx decided to pursue a LEED certification for the complex, and began to upgrade the building's environmental standards.

Reuters says one method of measuring the eco-credentials of such data centres is in terms of their power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio - ie, the amount of electricity needed to power the cooling systems, lights, etc. versus the amount of electricity used to run the computing environment.

FedEx reports that, according to the Uptime Institute, the typical data centre has an average PUE of 2.5, while the EDC-W's PUE is 1.28, just over a quarter of a point away from perfect efficiency.