Novva Data Centers bringing $400M facility to North Las Vegas
A Utah data center firm is working on a $400 million facility for Southern Nevada.
And, its founder said, the outpost will have a cooling system that doesn’t rely on continuous water use in the parched metropolis.
Novva Data Centers announced plans this week for its 275,000-square-foot location in North Las Vegas, saying the 100 megawatt facility is expected to open in late 2023.
The firm started its interior build-out a few weeks ago to turn the newly constructed industrial building off Tropical Parkway and Interstate 15 into a data center, founder and CEO Wes Swenson told the Review-Journal.
In June, the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development approved more than $15 million in tax incentives for the company’s project, Swenson confirmed.
Las Vegas’ data center industry is all but synonymous with one major operator, Switch.
Swenson said the region has had only a few competitors, and he contends there is room for a “wholesale” product that lets clients take down large amounts of computing capacity.
He also said Southern Nevada is a prime spot for California traffic; that he expects people to keep buying more internet-connected products, generating more data; and that his company, based in West Jordan, Utah, near Salt Lake City, is familiar with Las Vegas and not too far away.
“Vegas is really a perfect fit for us,” Swenson said.
Data centers are essentially warehouses filled with computer servers, which require cooling systems.
Swenson said his firm’s new facility is designed to withstand an outdoor temperature of 125 degrees. Novva’s data center in West Jordan uses half the amount of cooling gear he expects to roll out in North Las Vegas.
Still, Novva’s cooling technology will save about 150 million to 200 million gallons of water annually, according to its news release.
Swenson described it as a complex system that relies on outside air to cool the facility when it’s below 72 degrees outside; fans and refrigeration when it’s between 72 and 85 degrees; and compressors and fans when it’s above 85 degrees.
He said the company fills the system with water once, using anywhere from 35,000 to 75,000 gallons, but the water is sealed in and doesn’t evaporate or sweat out.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.