Emerson opens $50 million data center
St. Louis Business Journal
Monday, July 27, 2009
by Kelsey Volkmann
Emerson opened the doors Monday to its new, $50 million data center, which boasts the largest rooftop solar panel array in Missouri.
The center will function as the brains of the company, housing all financial and manufacturing data needed to run Emerson and its more than 200 manufacturing locations worldwide.
The center, located at Emerson's Ferguson, Mo., campus, employs about eight people.
Once information technology applications go live in August, the company said its 35,000-square-foot data center will be 31 percent more energy efficient than traditional data centers, thanks to precision cooling products and a 7,800-square-foot rooftop solar array.
The more than 550 solar panels can generate 100 kilowatts of energy, enough to power the average American home for more than three days.
"We wanted to try to be as energy efficient as practical and have nothing green just for green sake," Steve Hassell, vice president and chief information officer, told the Business Journal. "Everything had to make economic sense as well."
Hassell said he couldn't provide a dollar amount for how much Emerson expects to save using the green technology but said the company focused on saving energy right down to the computer chips used inside the center's 5,000 servers. The center will use 17.5 percent less electricity than a traditional data center, which means about $100,000 in annual savings on electricity alone.
About 80 percent of the waste created through the data center's construction was diverted from landfills through recycling.
Emerson anticipates achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, a rare certification level for data centers.
Hassell is overseeing the consolidation of more than 100 Emerson data centers worldwide to four. Two are completed in St. Louis and Marshalltown, Iowa. The other two will be in Europe and Asia.
Since Emerson's primary business is to manufacture and market electrical, electromechanical and electronic products and systems, the new center showcases its own machinery. Gov. Jay Nixon; U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; and 150 other attendees were on hand for the center's opening Monday.
Fox Architects was the lead designer of the project, and Musick Construction Co. was the general contractor. Guarantee Electric Co. was the electrical contractor, and Henges Interiors, Hammert's Iron Works, Vee Jay Cement Contracting and Roy Gittemeir Contractors also worked on the project.
St. Louis-based Emerson (NYSE: EMR), led by Chairman, Chief Executive and President David Farr, manufactures appliances and tools; electronics and telecommunications equipment; industrial automation and process control systems; and heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment. Emerson posted 2008 sales of $24.8 billion. Emerson has 140,000 employees worldwide, including 43,000 in the U.S. and Canada and 2,400 in St. Louis.
