Edged’s New Albany Data Center Supports Resource Conservation and AI-powered Infrastructure

Redefining Data Centers

Edged data centers is reducing water and energy usage by employing sustainable features designed to handle AI workloads at its two-story Edged Columbus data center. The new, state-of-the-art data center in New Albany, Ohio, located at 6525 New Albany Road East, is anticipated to save nearly 95 million gallons of water annually and deliver 24 megawatts of critical capacity to the Silicon Heartland.

Edged partnered with FCL Builders and local utility provider AEP Ohio on the project.

Edged Chief Operating Officer Mitch Fonseca said Edged’s approach to data centers prioritizes sustainability.

“Data centers consume a lot of natural resources, but they are critical to our daily lives,” he said. “So, we know we must build data centers, and we’d rather be in the business of building data centers in a way that is the most sustainable as possible. The Edged Columbus facility—and the rest of our facilities—feature advanced waterless cooling technology that is designed and built by our sister company ThermalWorks.”

Fonseca said the project was inspired by their customers and the city’s forward-thinking sustainability initiatives for development. The Midwest has become a popular destination for data centers because of the reliable power and fiber and few natural disasters, Fonseca said.

“The building is designed for high-density AI and advanced computing workloads,” Fonseca said. “This means that we can support 70 kW per rack out of the box. There’s not a lot of modifications needed within the facility to enable our customers.”

Sustainable Technology

The 206,000-square-foot data center features an advanced waterless cooling system and ultra-efficient energy systems that reduce energy overhead by 74%, compared with the global average. Outfitted with the ThermalWorks waterless cooling system, this modular system handles densities of up to 70 kW per rack with air cooling and 200 kW per rack with plug-and-play liquid cooling integration. Fonseca said the system is expected to save 95 million gallons of water yearly. The ThermalWorks system has a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15 portfolio-wide, compared to the global average PUE of 1.58 reported by the Uptime Institute. The facility supports 24 megawatts of critical capacity, so 24 megawatts of power can be delivered to customers.

“It consumes zero water for cooling, which is critical because the amount of pressure the data center industry is putting on natural resources is very important,” Fonseca said. “From a resiliency standpoint, our facilities are designed for 100% uptime, and they’re designed to current Tier 3 sustainability standards.”

Uptime Institute classifies Tier 3 as concurrently maintainable without downtime for maintenance. Tier 3 is designed for data centers requiring a high level of availability and maintainability concurrently without operational interruption.

The ThermalWorks waterless cooling system requires minimal maintenance, which reduces the risk of outages as many outages are caused by human error, Fonseca said. LED lighting will be installed throughout the facility, reducing the energy consumption and lifespan of each bulb.

“I think our cooling system is one of the key differentiators for Edged,” he said. “That’s what really drives down our PUE, enables our sustainability, and ensures we’re not wasting any water.”

A comparable 24- or 25-megawatt data center would normally consume water equivalent to that consumed by 1,000 homes per year, he said. The 74% energy overhead savings from the data center’s energy systems can power 7,000 homes, reducing the water and energy demand on the local utility companies.  

Meeting Tier 3 standards means that the data center could experience multiple mechanical or electrical failures and still deliver services to customers.

Tier 4 final generators are used for power, which are the cleanest and are typically only used for continuous power. Fonseca said they emit nearly zero nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter emissions and have four times longer runtime than a standard diesel generator. The EPA’s designation of Tier 4 requires a 90% reduction of NOx, particulate matter, and hydrocarbon emissions using after-treatment of the exhaust gas.

GridBlock’s electrical switching system is a plug-and-play modular power infrastructure that will provide the community access to EV chargers or other alternatives on the property. The enabled infrastructure is futureproof and will be evaluated for use once the facility is operational.

“It would enable another company—it wouldn’t be Edged deployed—to deploy EV charging on the property and leverage the infrastructure and power that’s being brought to that property for a second use when we’re not using it,” Fonseca explained.

Building Design and Security

The $246 million building is designed into two spaces—an administration area and a data center. The modular design allows the design to be scaled vertically or horizontally based on the plot of land and to serve 24, 36, or 48 megawatts of energy to meet customers’ needs.

One-third of the energy expected to be consumed will be covered by carbon-free generation. AEP’s goal is to achieve 80% carbon-free generation by 2030 and zero carbon by 2050.

Fonseca has seen the use of AI and cloud computing become more common, sighting the trends of the past decade continue to drive an increase in density. Futureproof design will enable Edged to update the New Albany data center as the technology improves to sustain greater capacities.

“High-density environments have become the table stacks as opposed to how we think we’re going to do it. You already have to know how you’re going to support high-density because if not, you’re going to get left behind,” Fonseca said. “The building we’re building today in New Albany—the 24-megawatt building—will be able to be modified from a distribution standpoint to support 200 kW per rack once we have customers who have that requirement. We don’t think they’re very far away. That’s why it’s been important for us to build our facilities in a way that’s futureproof and where we can enable these cooling technologies to increase our capacity and kilowatts per rack with our customers.”

The data center will be surrounded by a no-climb perimeter fence and have six layers of security to restrict access to the building. Fonseca said they will have employee badges, turnstiles at the door, biometric scanners to prevent people from stealing badges, 150 cameras on the campus, 24/7 security, and a central security monitoring team to support guards in reacting to issues. Staff will also have to provide fingerprints to access secure areas of the building as an added layer of precaution.

The data center area has no windows. The security area has bulletproof glass to protect personnel and minimize potential threats at the facility.

Redundancies are built into the systems to avoid customer interruptions during periods of maintenance and the right personnel expertise to repair the systems.  

The project broke ground in June 2024 and topped out in October 2024. The Edged data center is expected to come online in July 2025.

“So just over 12 months and that’s a short timeframe for data center builds,” Fonseca said. “Most data center builds take a significant amount of time longer than that. That’s due to our modular design and our vertically integrated supply chains, which allows us to be nimble, agile, and flexible in our builds so we get through the process quickly.”

Once the New Albany data center is operational, Fonseca said Edged will explore future development and expansion opportunities within the community.