University of Massachusetts Medical School is building a new data center on its property in Shrewsbury, Mass., to replace two of its existing IT facilities. The school has retained Tishman Construction as construction manager for the $16 million project. Conforming to the institution's Growing Green program, the data center will utilize a number of technologies to increase its energy efficiency.

According to university spokesman James Fessenden, the 20,000-square-foot facility will initially house about 7,000 square feet of raised data center floor, with capacity to expand by another 4,000 square feet in the future. One of the school's existing data centers is about 20 years old and the other is about 10, Fessenden said. Combined, both facilities provide about 3,500 square feet of data center floor.

All mechanical components of the new data center's HVAC system will be housed in a room adjacent to the server room, preventing air flow from being restricted by pipes, conduits and ducts and reducing the amount of electricity needed to run the fans, according to the medical school's Web site. This will also reduce the time lights stay on inside the data center, since technicians will not need to enter it to perform HVAC maintenance work.

The data center will take advantage of air-side economization and the school expects the technology to enable the facility to only need chilled water for 25 percent of the year. To reduce power required to run water pumps during the months when chilled water is needed, a reverse-cycle chiller system will be deployed to minimize pressure necessary to move water through the pipes.

Instead of using a battery, the data center's UPS system will be based on flywheel technology - storing energy kinetically, rather than chemically. Flywheels have longer life spans than do batteries and do not produce hazardous waste.