Watch: 60 seconds around Google’s Data Center on Far South Side
60 seconds around Google’s Data Center on Columbus’ Far South Side near Eldorado Scioto Downs
New Albany is getting another data center, one meant to use less water and energy than other data centers.
Edged Energy is building the data center at 6525 New Albany Rd. E. It is expected to open next July.
It joins a long list of data center companies operating in New Albany, including Amazon, Facebook and Google.
Edged Energy would not identify its customers.
Edged Energy pegged the investment at $246 million. The project will create 780 construction jobs and 20-25 permanent jobs.
Edged Energy says the data center will be built to handle artificial intelligence workloads. What makes Edged Energy different is that its data center will use far less water and electricity.
Demand for electricity in central Ohio is soaring in large part because of the additional data centers coming online. AEP Ohio has asked state regulators for a special electricity rate for the data center operators.
Data centers also are big consumers of water.
Edged Energy is expected to save nearly 95 million gallons of water each year compared with conventional data centers along with being more energy efficient.
“Our highly differentiated platform of technologies is optimized for energy efficiency, water conservation and top-tier performance,” the company’s CEO, Bryant Farland, said in a statement.
The waterless cooling system the data center will use helps reduce energy usage by as much as 74% compared with typical data centers, according to the company.
New Albany is joining several cities across the country where Edged is building data centers, including Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas, Dallas and Phoenix.
mawilliams@dispatch.com
@BizMarkWilliams