Google announced in early January that it is investing an additional $66 million into its Taiwan data center.
The Asia data center initially cost $600 million and was opened in December 2013. The facility is one of only two in the Asia-Pacific region for Google, including its Singapore data center. In the beginning of January 2015, the Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs approved the plan to increase funding for the Taiwan data center located in Changhua County.
According to Google, its Taiwan facility is one of the most efficient in the region. The complex utilizes nighttime cooling and thermal energy storage to reduce power consumption and carbon emissions by as much as 50 percent when compared with older facilities.
Not only are these systems good for the environment, they can also help to save Google money by leveraging lower overnight energy rates. Air conditioning is run at night when power is cheaper, while water is cooled at the same time when the outside temperature drops. The water is then stored in insulated barrels where it stays cool while waiting to be pumped throughout the Taiwan data center to cool servers during the day when energy costs increase.
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