Following the announcement that Airedale has commenced full scale production at its new US chiller plant in Rockbridge, Virginia, the company has confirmed a significant order with data centre giant, Corscale, with plans for further business in the coming months.
With Airedale by Modine cooling solutions set to be installed at Corscale’s Gainesville Crossing Data Campus, the company has secured a healthy pipeline for its OptiChill free-cooling chillers, AireWall fan walls and SmartCool ONE computer room air handling units.
Corscale is focused on delivering sustainability at scale for hyperscale operators and enterprise clients. Following a substantial period of consultation, Corscale appointed Airedale by Modine due to its history of free-cooling technology paired with its in-depth knowledge and understanding of the data centre industry.
Having worked closely with engineers from Corscale, Airedale by Modine has developed a specialised data centre chiller based on its existing OptiChill range. The Corscale chiller, with enhanced free-cooling, has been designed to meet North American safety standards, using American materials and components, to offer a world-class energy efficient solution. Engineering specialists at the chiller plant in Virginia have worked with their colleagues at Airedale by Modine’s centre of excellence in Leeds, UK, to deliver a cooling solution that delivers on performance whilst operating at higher water temperatures and fluid temperature differentials than traditional offerings, enhancing energy efficiency and free-cooling potential.
Prior to the commencement of site deliveries, the team from Corscale will be invited to a witness test at Airedale by Modine’s brand new state-of-the-art laboratories in Rockbridge VA, where the units will be put through their paces under various conditions and tested at different heat loads, simulating the environment and conditions they will be operational under. The test centre at Rockbridge is capable of testing a complete range of air conditioning equipment up to 2.2MW (expanding to 5MW in future for water-cooled chillers), the climate temperature being fully controllable anywhere from 15°C/59°F to 52°C/126°F.
Chiller
The new Corscale chiller operates using twin screw compressors and has a number of special features, included to enhance efficiency and performance, including:
• High capacity twin screw compressors offer reliability and flexibility, with staged capacity control
• High water temperatures to suit modern data centre designs that prioritise sustainability
• Enhanced controls, including fast start, input power limiting and intelligent management of compressors, refrigerant and pumps
• An on-board variable speed pump to precisely match cooling demand, reducing waste energy expenditure while maintaining water-side temperature differential and saving on space and electrical distribution requirements
• Optimised economisers to provide unmatched free cooling potential
• 100% contained Glycol loop to isolate the economiser from the cooling loop and increase efficiency of the AireWall units
• Enhanced controls platform, including redundancy back-up and fast-start mode, to minimise the risk of disruption in the event of mechanical breakdown
• On-board active harmonic filtration, ensuring a clean power supply to the data centre, while saving on external plant requirements.
Jonas Caino, Vice President at Airedale by Modine says, “We are delighted to announce our order with Corscale, as we start full-scale production at our first-class facilities in Virginia, the largest data centre market in the world.
“Having invested heavily in our US production facilities, ensuring they deliver the same high-quality service and product that our clients have grown to expect and respect from our European production sites, it has been really interesting and enjoyable to work with our American-based colleagues on such a fantastic project and client as Corscale.”
Jonas concludes, “This order is just the start for our Rockbridge facility, and I am excited to see what the next few years holds.”
