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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Office Hours

Using underground water to cool the data center

Come Sunday, Spokesman.com and our print version Spokesman-Review business section will have a story on TierPoint, in Liberty Lake, using aquifer water to cool its servers.

The new project is called TierPoint 3, and is estimated to cost more than $8 million to put together. It may be just one of a few data centers anywhere that use underground water to chill their interiors.

To read a bit about the innovative idea, here's a link to the TierPointe announcement.

TierPoint's managers say they hope to make it one of the biggest non-dedicated data centers in the Northwest. Once the work is finished, the new center should start operations in spring 2011.

The story draws a comparison to other buildings that also tap the aquifer. Also covered is the method used by Yahoo in taking outside air to cool its very large data center in Quincy.



Tom Sowa
Tom Sowa covers technology, retail and economic development and writes the Office Hours blog.