As the digital world continues to evolve, data centres play a critical role in making that possible. Increasing volumes of data means larger numbers of data centres and the increasing traction of AI and other digital technologies means higher rack densities. While this has particularly impacted Sydney where over 60% of Australasia’s data centres are located, other cities, especially Melbourne, Perth and Auckland are being impacted by the demand surge. Most of the growth is accounted for by ‘service’ data centres (colocation and cloud providers). By 2025, it is estimated that 82% of Australia’s capacity will be held within these data centres.
Growth has created the need to build new facilities or upgrade existing ones. Data from questions completed by 300 attendees to the 2023 CDC Sydney indicates that 42% of these enterprise and facility service provider companies were planning to build in 2023/24. This figure includes the continuation of projects started before 2023. Smaller proportions are intending to expand their facilities (31%), retrofit (30%) and consolidate (22%).
The construction of data centres is a process under continual review due largely to increases in demand and costs. While security remains the paramount concern, other design factors are beginning to play a greater role. These include building data centres which fit into their local natural or social environment. The availability and cost of resources has led to locations being chosen closer to sources of energy and water and to using local, natural resources to provide power and cooling for the data centre.
Cooling and heat removal remains one of the key areas of concern in terms of data centre operations. The failure of cooling represents a key factor in unplanned downtime. The costs of powering cooling systems may represent a considerable proportion of overall operational costs so access to ‘free cooling’ may be prioritised wherever possible.
For these reasons the Construction Specialties’ [CS] approach is based on developing and marketing technology-based solutions. The company’s range includes Acrovyn wall and door protection, architectural louvres, solar shading and architectural grilles, expansion joint solutions, entrance flooring solutions and Explovent safety venting. As data centres look urgently to build and operate efficiently, so this range has been designed to enable more sustainable buildings that can be adapted flexibly to the potential its location offers for using the natural environment to save costs and carbon. The CS range also helps extend the building lifecycle and improve its environmental credentials.
As such, CS has acted as a partner for data centres in their construction and renovation projects rather than just a supplier and offers ongoing advice to builders and designers engaged in relevant projects. Local manufacturing facilities based in Western Sydney enable faster delivery of materials and also quicker response time to changes in the capabilities or scale of a build. The company’s quality management systems have been certified to the ISO 9001 2015 Quality Management Standard.
Steve Cobelli, Regional Manager at CS, defines the value of louvres to a data centre as assisting in the maintenance of good operating temperatures through the use of natural air: “A data centre is like a big fridge – it needs to keep cool while using considerable amounts of energy to do that due to the intensity of its activities. Any way of reducing energy means big savings in costs and helps reduce high PUE scores which never look good.”
Louvres help maintain acceptable ambient temperatures as well as helping control moisture and humidity. They are designed to prevent water, rain or storms entering the data centre while reducing the air flow pressure drop to bring efficiencies to air handling.
The application of these solutions within data centres have demonstrated the positive impact of louvres that optimise air flow on ventilation and cooling. Two solutions from the Architectural Louvre range were used to cover 345 m2 of the exterior of the Polaris Data Centre in Queensland. The solutions were customised in terms of size, shape and colour to suit the appearance of the building. According to Thiess, the company in charge of delivering this project, the louvres were chosen since they would perform to the highest standard on both weather proofing and airflow. They were also the only solution in this category that guaranteed no damage would occur since CS is the only Australian manufacturer producing louvres that are tested and certified by the Air Movement and Control Association International (AMCA).
These steps were critical to protect Polaris’ data centre which, typical to the sector, houses fragile IT equipment which is sensitive to changes in its operating environment and which is managed with precision in order to ensure continuous service with minimal downtime. –The Polaris construction overall cost $121 million. The facility offers 14,000 m2 of floor space over 5 floors. 7,000 m2 of the space is raised floor on three of the levels.
The RS-5605 architectural louvre excels at maintaining high airflow while preventing air pressure drop, and is trusted by some of Australia’s largest cloud computing companies for use on Tier 4 data centres. With 99.999% uptime, Tier 4 data centres require strictly-regulated, consistent air temperature and ventilation to ensure optimal system efficiency.
Cobelli sees louvres as representing a cutting-edge frontier for these data centres: “The data centre can control what happens inside its walls but it has little control over what goes on outside – snow, storms and so on – louvres sit on the border – that’s one reason it’s unwise to change louvres like filters on a car”. He is keen also for CS louvres to be recognised for the testing they go through (“real world not just CFD testing”). –For their deployment at a Sydney data centre, the capabilities of the CS range were put through an actual rig test and underwent a third-party performance certification.
One of CS’s stand out achievements within data centres is located at the Hydrokraft AS data centre in Glomfjord, Norway. Full details of this project, together with photographs and technical specifications can be found here: https://www.c-sgroup.co.uk/blog/arkon-energy-data-centre-glomfjord-norway/
Construction Specialties will be sponsoring the 2024 CDC Sydney on 12th September. To find out more and to register, please visit:
https://clouddatacenter.events/events/sydney-cloud-datacenter-convention-2024/
