How to build a more flexible, quieter, less obnoxious data center

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Verrus is building data centers designed to address every objection the public has raised: they use batteries instead of diesel generators, which makes them grid assets that help hold down power prices; they use closed-loop cooling, which uses a tiny fraction of the water; their equipment is quieter; and as a bonus, they squeeze more servers into the same grid connection. Yet both of Verrus’s proposed sites, in Michigan and Oregon, are mired in fierce local opposition. In this episode, CEO Nelson Abramson walks through the engineering — and the politics that the engineering hasn’t quite solved.

Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction

02:43 – Three decades in data centers

05:05 – What a Verrus data center looks like

07:39 – The medium voltage power plane

12:13 – UPS batteries vs. the big LFP battery

17:27 – Priority aware capping and provisioned utility capacity

22:31 – Why not buy the pieces off the shelf?

25:42 – Duration: what happens when four hours runs out

34:28 – Diesel backup and what customers ask for

37:15 – How flexible is compute, really?

42:37 – Noise, fans, and the sound studies

48:42 – Water use and the 12 million gallon question

52:19 – Industrial land and by-right zoning

56:07 – Public opposition, recall petitions, and community benefits

1:00:07 – Oregon, Salem, and the moratorium

1:03:56 – Ride-through, NERC, and losing the moat

1:07:11 – What V2 looks like