University of Siegen wins public prize
“New Data Center” earns recognition for outstanding energy efficiency at the award ceremony for the German Data Center Award 2013.
A fabulous accolade for the University of Siegen – the university’s “New Data Center” (NDC) received the public prize at the presentation ceremony for the German Data Center Award 2013 in Frankfurt am Main. Siegen’s concept of an energy- and resource-saving data centre under the motto of “Shaping a Humane Future” was selected from 62 institutions entered for the prize, and Siegen’s data centre was selected for the top award. Prof. Dr Sabine Roller and Prof. Dr Manfred Grauer accepted the prize.
The core of the conceptual plan focuses on the continued development of IT infrastructure to ensure the data centre relies on the efficient use of energy, resources and eco-friendly treatment of the environment. This was possible thanks to an integrated energy cycle with combined cooling heat and power (CCHP). The cycle comprises a block heat and power plant, absorption refrigerator and compressor refrigerator and free cooling.
This integrated solution based on physics / thermodynamics can reduce resource loss at full capacity by 10 per cent for primary energy input in the form of natural gas. This is equivalent to a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.20. PUE is a measure of how efficiently the input energy is used in the data centre. The ideal value is 1.00, however, a value of 2.0 and higher is usual for modern data centres.
Further information about the presentation of the German Data Center Award is available here.