An hour of lost time can cost millions of
dollars in lost production wafers. While control and emergency systems
can be backed up to ensure safe shutdowns and control of hazardous
materials, production power is reliant on the grid. Electricity price
is not a priority, as it is a tiny fraction of the costs of finished
product. However, a facility design that incorporates energy-saving
technology is attractive nonetheless because it still represents the
ability to achieve savings - savings that drop straight to the bottom
line over a facility's entire operational life.
Data center site
selection is driven by energy more than any other sector. While risk
analysis and distance to backup facilities or related institutions are
important criteria, energy (right next to telecom) is the primary
concern. Electricity represents the entire operating cost (excluding
depreciation), and some data centers simply cannot ever afford to "go
down" due to power problems. That's why reliable, cheap power will make
or break site selection decisions in this market sector. Depending on
the tier level, data centers use redundancy and backup power to guard
against outages, but every client insists that activation of these
systems is a rare occurrence. Using multiple feeds and typically
falling in the 10-30 MW range, data center clients typically want to
stay away from heavy industry and even transportation hubs to minimize
risk. Paradoxically, this preference can place data centers further
from the ready electrical supplies they so critically need.
Changing Dynamics
Fifty
years ago, chemicals, metals, pulp and paper, and other industrial
operations were sited near cheap power or water because that was the
only economically feasible option. For today's growing industrial
groups, things are different. Better infrastructure, new technologies,
and a different business environment are opening up new siting options
that would have been considered impractical not too many years ago.
This
changing dynamic adds a higher level of importance to site selection
processes as they experience increasing pressure to include
sustainability, renewable energy, and carbon footprint information in
decision-making. Generally applauded, the growth of renewable power
sources can make grid management more difficult. The consistency of a
wind farm, for example, is not its selling point. As alternative energy
sources become more widespread, renewable infrastructure will learn to
adapt to industrial needs, but for now it is a concern. On-site
generation is also an option for mission-critical or very large-scale
processes, or where co-generation opportunities can provide access to
necessary facility heat and/or cooling. If high power demand, high
price of grid power, cheap land, and a sunny region intersect, options
like onsite solar PV or solar thermal become potentially viable.
Scenarios
such as these are exciting because they reflect the kind of challenges
and opportunities that the rapidly evolving energy dynamic are bringing
to bear on the site selection process. The focus on energy won't be a
passing fancy. It's here to stay as energy security increasingly drives
economic success for companies in many markets. More than ever it will
be up to site selection professionals to carefully weigh the growing
significance of energy criteria against the full range of other site
selection factors to produce the most prudent location decisions.
