AMERESCO MICROGRIDS: Amazon system delivers data center waste heat The e-commerce giant will achieve net-zero energy at its Seattle headquarters RELIABLE, through an innovative partnership with a downtown neighbor. Tom Marseille, PE, Hon. AIA, LEED Fellow, Senior Vice President and Director of Built Ecology, WSP USA SECURE ENERGY. Photo Shutterstock. Amazon headquarters campus, Seattle. chieving net-zero energy on providing the data center building owner, of this otherwise wasted heat can be Ameresco develops flexible, scalable microgrids, building projects is becoming an Clise Properties, with a way to utilize its transferred to the online retailer’s district increasingly realistic goal given excess heat. energy system. providing secure energy systems that utilize a Acurrent and emerging building technologies, design approaches and A CREATIVE COLLABORATION combination of renewable power generation, more engaged and educated occupants. Amazon’s new 1.1 million-sq-ft UP TO 5 MW OF OTHERWISE WASTED energy conservation and load reduction measures But even with a well-charted and proven Doppler building was occupied in late HEAT CAN BE TRANSFERRED TO AMAZON’S road map, the majority of projects face 2015 as the first phase of a planned DISTRICT ENERGY SYSTEM. tailored to each customer’s individual needs. inherent constraints that hinder the buildout on the three-block Denny Tri- aggressive pursuit of net zero at scale. angle campus. It will ultimately comprise Fortunately, new district paradigms are three high-rise towers, each at approxi- Amazon has contracted to purchase emerging that are practical and achiev- mately 37 stories with its own meeting this data center waste heat through a able. The concept of heat sharing – center, plus one mid-rise office building third-party entity that has enabled the harvesting neighboring energy resources of 16 stories. The Doppler building houses neighbor-to-neighbor transaction: Eco that would otherwise be wasted – is one a central heating plant and is intercon- District LLC, formed by Clise Properties such opportunity, which can help enable nected via water piping with the Westin and its Seattle-based contracting firm Learn more about Ameresco microgrids the step change in efficiency needed for Building Exchange across the street. McKinstry. Before the agreement came and our full range of solutions. building projects to achieve high-perfor- Formerly Westin Hotels’ headquarters, together with Amazon, these two Eco Dis- mance outcomes. the 34-story building is now a hub for trict partners had been discussing what Amazon’s corporate headquarters more than 200 telecommunications and the data center might do with its waste or in the Denny Triangle neighborhood of Internet-based companies, with their heat other than releasing it to the atmo- 1-866-AMERESCO ameresco.com downtown Seattle is the setting of one operations occupying around 70 percent sphere. For its part, Amazon, together with recent example of a local energy district of the total 400,000 sq ft of space. WSP USA, had been considering options that exploits such a synergy within an Data centers are inherently very for the design of the Denny Triangle cam- urban environment. The corporation has highly reliable sources of heat – a natural pus energy system – which at one point a unique arrangement with a data center byproduct of the server farms. The heat included the possibility of tapping waste building across the street to recover waste generated at this facility, equivalent to heat from a potential on-site data center heat from server operations for use in 11 MW per day, was previously rejected that ultimately was not built. Eventually, the hydronic heating system serving its year-round through cooling towers on Amazon and Clise Properties (which had headquarters campus. This arrangement its roof, consuming energy and water sold Amazon the land for its urban head- benefits both parties – reducing Ama- at a high cost to the owner. Now – since quarters) became aware of their mutual ©2017 Ameresco, Inc. Ameresco and the Ameresco logo, the orb symbol and the tagline “Green. Clean. Sustainable.” zon’s electricity use, in keeping with the January 2016 – when Amazon needs to interests and agreed to collaborate on the are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All rights reserved. company’s sustainability principles, and warm its buildings in winter, up to 5 MW waste heat recovery project. © 2017 International District Energy Association. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. District Energy / Fourth Quarter 2017 7 The design of Amazon’s first office Amazon’s second office tower, the It also required the emergence of a high-rise, the 37-story Doppler building, 1.1 million-sq-ft Day One building, opened persistent and effective project champion, includes the central plant located in the in November 2016 and is also served by Craig Norson of Seneca Group, Amazon’s basement, equipped with heat recovery the district heating loop. Outside this development management firm, who ad- chillers that take the low-grade heat tower, construction is proceeding on The vocated for the implementation of a dis- byproduct and boost it to temperatures Spheres, an eye-catching, five-story land- trict energy system – presenting lifecycle suitable for building heating. In addition, mark set for completion in early 2018. The and cost-benefit analyses and ensuring the building contains a 400,000-gal water Spheres will comprise three giant inter- that the concept remained on the table tank that also stores low-grade heat for connected glass domes that will house throughout the various discussions. In so the Amazon district energy system and 40,000-some plant and tree species from doing, he helped maintain momentum for can be tapped by the Westin Building around the world as well as spaces where district energy until both Amazon and Eco Exchange as an emergency water source. Amazon employees can work or relax. District LLC were comfortable and their Amazon currently intends to leverage heat-sharing contract could be executed. the data center heat resource to help heat Accomplishing the heat recovery its buildings in the Denny Triangle, whose project also required collaboration with a district heating loop will serve the five number of city departments, including the office buildings and meeting centers total- Office of Sustainability and Environment. ing over 5 million sq ft of space by 2022. The Seattle Department of Transportation issued permits allowing the two property KEY STAKEHOLDERS owners to install water piping in public The Amazon-Eco District heat-sharing rights-of-way below several streets. Pub- strategy required solutions to a number lic utility Seattle City Light has also paid of planning, permitting and technical out rebate incentives to Amazon reward- challenges, including engineering design ing its building energy efficiency. and construction coordination of a district energy system that cost-effectively LIMITING FACTORS TO NET ZERO harvests, transports and utilizes the data With its waste heat recovery system, center’s waste heat for a growing corpo- Amazon’s Denny Triangle campus has rate campus. At the same time, successful achieved a step-change increase in heat- implementation of the strategy required ing efficiency from what is conventionally the stakeholders (see next page) to find used in Seattle – a key step down a road solutions to the business challenges, for Amazon in eventually decarbonizing including negotiating a mutually benefi- its building portfolio. However, even with cial financial contract and establishing motivated owners and talented project Courtesy Wikipedia. Photo SounderBruce. Eco District LLC – the Clise Properties- teams like those involved in the Amazon McKinstry partnership – as the third-party project, certain buildings are generally The 37-story Doppler building, which houses the central plant, was the first office tower to entity to serve as the waste heat recovery identified as poor net-zero energy or net- open on the Amazon campus. project administrator. zero carbon candidates. These include, for example, those with high energy- or water-use intensity (e.g., hospitals or data centers) as well as high-rises that lack sufficient space and/or solar exposure for effective on-site renewable energy. In urban areas, even if a building design ap- pears on paper able to achieve net zero, projects may not be able to annualize out to net-zero energy during operation. For example, if the electric utility is config- ured as a highly reliable network grid, the utility is likely to prohibit backfeeding ex- cess on-site-generated electricity. So, the utility grid cannot serve as the “battery” to take energy generated by the building at those times when there is excess. Photo Shutterstock. Climate, too, can affect a project’s The Spheres, comprising three giant interconnected glass domes, is set for completion in early 2018. net-zero energy candidacy. Highly efficient 8 District Energy / Fourth Quarter 2017 © 2017 International District Energy Association. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. able the compliance of each building as it Amazon heat-sharing project stakeholders was designed and permitted with the suc- Amazon cessive versions of Seattle’s strict energy · Eco District LLC (Clise Properties, McKinstry) code (2009, 2012 and 2015) that are or · were applicable as the campus is being WSP – district energy system designer · built out. Moreover, Amazon’s heat-shar- University Mechanical – mechanical contractor for the Doppler and Day One ·