NSA to Cool Data Center with Treated Wastewater

The National Security Agency will use treated wastewater, supplied by Howard County, Md., to cool its data center being built at Fort Meade when the center opens in 2016, the Washington Post reports.

According to the deal between Howard County and the NSA, the agency will pay to build the $40 million pump station and will pay the county as much as $2 million a year for treated water that would otherwise be dumped into the Little Patuxent River. The pump station will supply as much as 5 million gallons of reclaimed wastewater per day when the center opens.

The NSA and county officials say the agreement will save money and help the environment, and could serve as a model.

Outdoor retailer REI retrofitted its Seattle data center using “free cooling” via a rooftop evaporative cooling tower to keep servers at optimal temperatures, Energy Manager Today reported in November. The retrofit resulted in a 93 percent reduction in the cooling energy used to operate the facility.

Photo Credit: data center via Shutterstock