The ever-increasing need for larger and more powerful data centers is fueling new construction and design innovations.
According to a recent article in Propmodo, energy requirements for new data centers are growing along with investment in the construction of these facilities. Driven largely by the ongoing evolution of artificial intelligence technologies, tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon Web Services are testing the limits of energy grids.
“Hyperscale data centers have grown over the past several years from dozens of megawatts to hundreds, and some tech firms are looking for sites to power more than a gigawatt of capacity,” writes Propmodo’s Nick Pipitone. “To put that into perspective, one gigawatt is sufficient to provide a full year of energy to about 900,000 households, about the size of a major U.S. city.”
Data centers accounted for 19 gigawatts of power usage in the U.S. in 2023, and that’s expected to climb to 25 gigawatts by 2026 – about 6% of the country’s power.
Tech firms and their data center developers are getting creative to solve their power and cooling problems. Amazon’s newly acquired, 1,200-acre data center campus in rural Pennsylvania will reportedly be powered by the nearby, 2.5-gigawatt Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear power plant. Meta is accelerating the implementation of liquid cooling as it restructures its data centers for high-performance computing. And IBM and Schneider are experimenting with rear-door, self-contained water cooling units.
Prefabrication: The Solution to Supply Chain Woes?
On the construction front, supply chain disruptions continue to cause extended lead times for equipment. In addition, limited land availability, permitting difficulties, and resistance from communities to new developments are further slowing the creation of new facilities. To counter these challenges, developers are increasingly adopting prefabrication techniques.
Prefabricated modular designs have significantly reduced construction timelines, lowered expenses, and boosted sustainability for many data center projects. According to Propmodo, one firm reported cutting the cost of building a 45-megawatt European facility by 20%, while trimming construction time from 17 months to 11 months with the use of modular building components, as well as modular systems for electrical and cooling.
Another rising need for hyperscale data centers is localized power generation. As with the Amazon project, nuclear power is emerging as a sustainable energy option for certain developments due to its near-zero emissions, once operational. While still in its infancy, nuclear power is gaining interest for large data centers, with companies showing optimism about small, factory-built modular reactors. These reactors are far smaller than traditional nuclear plants and can be safely located near population centers. Many feature safety systems that require no human intervention for shutdown, essentially eliminating the risk of a radioactive incident.
GPRS Keeps Data Center Projects on Track
As of March 2024, there were 5,381 data centers operating in the U.S., according to Statista.com. In comparison, Germany, which ranks second, has just 521. Even China and India, the two most populous nations, together account for only 612 data centers.
“The demand for data centers is expected to surge in the coming years as the world becomes increasingly interconnected,” The Birmingham Group’s President and CEO, Brian Binke, wrote in a blog post last fall. “With companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook leading the charge, data center construction will continue to thrive, supporting the digital infrastructure needed for a connected future.”
GPRS helps ensure data centers stay on schedule by offering a full range of services for subsurface damage prevention, existing conditions documentation, and construction and facility project management.
Our services include concrete scanning, utility locating, video pipe inspection, and leak detection — crucial for preventing subsurface damage during excavation or when drilling and cutting through concrete. We employ advanced technologies such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic (EM) locating, and remotely operated sewer pipe inspection rovers. Our SIM and NASSCO-certified Project Managers (PMs) provide detailed insights into your site’s subsurface structures.
For precise above-ground documentation and to capture our PMs’ findings, our 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry services deliver data accurate to 2-4 mm, supporting project design as well as future operations and maintenance (O&M) efforts. Our Mapping & Modeling Department can customize this data into any format or software as needed.
SiteMap® (patent pending), our cloud-based platform for project and facility management, provides 24/7 access to this field-verified data, improving asset protection and team collaboration.
With SiteMap®, you and your team can securely access and share critical data from any computer, tablet, or mobile device, ensuring smooth, real-time collaboration anytime, anywhere.
From skyscrapers to sewer lines, GPRS Intelligently Visualizes The Built World® to keep you on time, on budget, and safe.
What can we help you visualize?
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are the Benefits of Underground Utility Mapping?
Having an updated and accurate map of your subsurface infrastructure reduces accidents, budget overruns, change orders, and project downtime caused by dangerous and costly subsurface damage.
How does SiteMap® assist with Utility Mapping?
SiteMap®, powered by GPRS, is the industry-leading infrastructure management program. It is a single source of truth, housing the 99.8%+ accurate utility locating, concrete scanning, video pipe inspection, leak detection, and 3D laser scanning data our Project Managers collect on your job site. And the best part is you get a complimentary SiteMap® Personal Subscription when GPRS performs a utility locate for you.
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Does SiteMap® Work with my Existing GIS Platform?
SiteMap® allows for exporting of data to SHP, GeoJSON, GeoPackage, and DXF directly from any user’s account that either owns or has a job shared to their account. All these file formats can be imported and utilized by other GIS packages if manually imported by the user. More information can be found at SiteMap.com.
