Silicon Valley-based colocation and connectivity service provider Hurricane Electric has commenced construction of the third phase of one of its data centers in native Fremont, California. The next phase will add 24,000 sq ft of space and 3MW of power to the facility, an expansion identical to the preceding phase, launched in November 2009.

The build-out commenced earlier than planned because of high demand and Hurricane founder and President Mike Leber, in a statement, attributed the company's quick growth to its pricing and history of nearly-100-percent uptime. "We at Hurricane Electric are pleased with the accelerated growth of our colocation business," Leber said in a statement. 

The Fremont 2 facility is a former 208,000 sq ft Apple manufacturing plant. Its first phase consists of 11 computer rooms, but with the second phase, the company decided to build in 24,000 sq ft open data halls. As with the second phase, the ongoing expansion will feature energy efficient design elements, such as a McQuay Maverick II rooftop HVAC system that uses variable-frequency drives and has a 100-percent-economizer mode. 

Hurricane was also the first company in California to use Eaton's 9395 UPS system, which operates at a 99-percent efficiency rate, when incoming power is in an ideal state. 

The facility uses overhead cooling and segregation of hot and cold aisles. 

On the connectivity side of its business, Hurricane claims to be the world's largest provider of IPv6 native-Internet backbone services, currently connecting to more than 900 IPv6 backbones.