2011 Innovation Winner - 2 of 2

BendBroadband—The Vault

The Vault is a 30,000 square foot, Tier III certified data center located in Bend, Oregon developed and operated by BendBroadband. This facility offers colocation, disaster recovery, cloud computing, and a full host of dedicated managed services.

What Stood Out to Us:  Data centers consume huge amounts of energy and will proliferate across the country as the demand for cloud computing service grows.  The Vault is a national model for the direction these facilities must go—highly efficient with aggressive use of renewable energy.  The Vault transforms the high desert’s cool evening temperatures into energy-efficient cooling and our sunny days into electricity using photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of the facility.  The Vault is also the first facility in our region that has sought to achieve carbon neutrality, using a combination of on-site techniques and off-site mitigation measures.  

The Vault is designed for extreme energy efficiency, slashing energy consumption by an estimated 20% compared to industry standard data centers, making it one of the most energy efficient data centers in the nation.  The two key energy systems in the Vault are:

1) The KyotoCooling system  uses outside air to cool the building 75% of the time, using the principle of heat exchange.  The cooling units have the capacity to cool the air by as much as 30 degrees and they deliver air into the data center at a steady 72 degrees.  Because the system recycles air that’s already been filtered and humidified, no additional filtration or humidification is needed, conserving both energy and water.

2) 624 solar PV panels manufactured by SolarWorld, of Hillsboro, and installed by Sunlight Solar, of Bend, generate 152kW of power, or 1/6 of the power consumed when the data hall is full.  PV Powered™ solar inverters are part of the PV system.

Some other highlights include:

• 100% of The Vault’s electricity comes from Pacific Power’s Blue Sky renewable energy program.
  
• BendBroadband bought carbon credits from Woodlands Carbon Company to mitigate The Vault’s carbon emissions.  Woodland sells carbon offset credits from family-owned woodlands in the Pacific Northwest, which commit to long-term sustainable management practices that are validated by a third-party verification firm.
• Extensive green building practices were utilized throughout the building, with certification as a LEED Gold facility pending approval.  
• BendBroadband employees are encouraged to carpool, bicycle, walk, use public transportation or telecommute when possible, as part of the Commute Options partner program.
• The Tykeson Family Charitable Trust, of BendBroadband’s CEO Amy Tykeson, recently gave $250,000 to establish an Endowed Faculty position in Energy Engineering Management at OSU Cascades.  The new undergraduate program is one of only a handful of its kind in the nation and will train professionals in engineering and business concepts to identify solutions for maximum energy efficiency.

Learn more about BendBroadband - The Vault here.