Aligned Breaks Ground on Third SLC Data Center

The upcoming SLC-04. Rendering courtesy of Aligned Energy

Aligned Energy has started work on a new data center in Salt Lake City. The company acquired a new site for the development of a multi-megawatt build-to-suit facility, SLC-04, its third data center in the metro. Aligned expects to complete the project in December this year.

The new waterless facility will support the geo-redundant growth of the company’s footprint in the region. Aligned will develop the new data center within its ‘Build-to-Scale’ parameters. The term refers to the developer’s approach to custom facilities, provisioning initial deployments that can range from 2 to 20 MW capacity with the ability to scale further within 12 weeks from delivery, depending on customers’ needs.

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SLC-04 will feature Aligned’s patented Delta Cube cooling technology. Rather than pushing cold air in, the Delta units are built to draw hot air out at the rack level. It allows workload densities to scale in place, without modifications to infrastructure. Data halls can sustain variable rack densities, ranging from 1 to 50 kW per square foot. Aligned claims that its cooling systems utilize up to 80 percent less energy and require 85 percent less water than the average data center.

Sustainability in a growing market

The expansion announcement comes on the heels of Aligned’s recent completion of SLC-02, its second facility in Salt Lake City. The West Jordan campus is comprised of two data centers, with a third in the planning stages. Completed in March, SLC-02 is a greenfield development totaling 240,000 square feet, with a 48 MW capacity—expandable to 60 MW. Together with SLC-01, Aligned currently has a capacity of 82 MW in the metro.

The company also stated a commitment to sustainable development. In September last year, Aligned closed on a $1 billion credit facility—which it expanded in July this year with an additional $250 million—that is tied to the company’s ESG objectives. These include a commitment to match 100 percent of energy consumption to zero-carbon renewables by 2024.

Utah presents several advantages as a data center market. The low humidity of the desert enables developers such as Aligned to spend less on cooling infrastructure. The state also provides powerful tax incentives which do not call for specific requirements regarding lease terms, capacity, capital investment or job creation—as is the case with Phoenix or other markets. Furthermore, Salt Lake City has a low corporate income tax, low power costs and access to wind, solar and geothermal renewables.