Leading partners join forces with Equinix to test sustainable data center innovations including fuel cell and liquid cooling technologies.
Equinix has announced the opening of its first Co-Innovation Facility (CIF), located in its DC15 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center at the Equinix Ashburn Campus in the Washington D.C. area.
A component of Equinix’s Data Center of the Future initiative, the CIF is a new capability that enables partners to work with Equinix on trialling and developing innovations. These innovations, such as identifying a path to clean hydrogen-enabled fuel cells or deploying more capable battery solutions, will be used to help define the future of sustainable digital infrastructure and services globally.
Sustainable innovations, including liquid cooling, high-density cooling, intelligent power management and on-site prime power generation, will be incubated in the CIF in partnership with leading data center technology innovators including Bloom Energy, Zutacore, Virtual Power Systems (VPS) and Natron.
In collaboration with Equinix, these partners will test core and edge technologies with a focus on proving reliability, efficiency and cost to build. These include:
- Generator-less and UPS-less Data centers (Bloom Energy) – Utilizing on-site solid oxide fuel cells enables the data center to generate redundant cleaner energy on-grid, and potentially eliminates the need for fossil fuel-powered generators and power-consuming Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems.
- High-Density Liquid Cooling (ZutaCore) – Highly efficient, direct-on-chip, waterless, two-phase liquid cooled rack systems, capable of cooling upwards of 100 kW per rack in a light, compact design. Eliminates risk of IT meltdown, minimizes use of scarce resources including energy, land, construction and water, and dramatically shrinks the data center footprint.
- Software-Defined Power (VPS) with cabinet-mounted Battery Energy Storage (Natron Energy) – Cabinet power management and battery energy storage system manages power draw and minimizes power stranding to near zero percent, leading to a potential 30-50% improvement of power efficiency.
Deia Bayoumi, Vice President, Product Management, Bloom Energy, said: “Bloom Energy’s clean, modular fuel cell technology is well-suited to meet the growing demand for clean and resilient power among data centers.
“Building upon our continued collaboration with Equinix, we’re proud to bring our solution to the CIF and move the industry toward a more sustainable future. By generating power on-site with high levels of power availability and needed resiliency, data centers can take control of their sustainable energy needs.
“Bloom’s technology eliminates reliance on electricity utilities to meet capacity requirements as well as highly pollutive diesel generators to provide backup power.”
Udi Paret, President, ZutaCore, said: “ZutaCore is honored to be featured at the CIF and partner with Equinix to advance the proliferation of liquid cooling on a global scale. Together we aim to prove that liquid cooling is an essential technology in realizing fundamental business objectives for data centers of today and into the future. HyperCool liquid cooling solutions deliver unparalleled performance and sustainability benefits to directly address sustainability imperatives.”
