Microsoft Builds Greener Data Centers with Wood
How Microsoft is Reducing Carbon with Cross-Laminated Timber...
In the midst of a huge boom in a huge expansion in the need for data centers one of the big users of these facilities, Microsoft Corporation, is experimenting with the use of cross-laminated timber to reduce the use of steel and concrete in its new facilities.
Microsoft’s data center footprint is over 6 billion square feet. A facility under construction in Northern Virginia is being built with what Microsoft describes as a “hybrid approach using cross-laminated timber, or CLT, a fire-resistant prefabricated wood material”.
The approach is intended to reduce the “embodied carbon footprint of two new data centers by 35 percent compared to conventional steel construction, and 65% compared to typical precast concrete”, according to the project’s announcement.
A data center that the company opened in Chicago last year was 500,000 square feet and cost $700 million.
The new method is called "hybrid" because of a thin layer of concrete that will be applied for reinforcement to ensure durability and waterproofing.
More information regarding Microsoft’s plans for mass timber construction is available here:
https://news.microsoft.com/sou...
