Variable frequency drive (VFD) fans

Equinix wins energy savings award from Silicon Valley group

Major data center colocation company Equinix scored an energy award from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group this week for the energy-efficient design its data centers.

Equinix has received almost $1 million in rebates from the city of Santa Clara for the energy efficiency measures, which include using airside economizers and variable frequency drive (VFD) fans in their data center infrastructure equipment.

The company estimates that the airside economizers save $300,000 per year and the variable speed fans save $51,000 per year. See “Data center air-conditioning fans blow cost savings your way” and “Data center cooling: airside and waterside economizers” for more information on these cost-saving data center technologies.