Data Center Links: eBay, CyrusOne, Oregon

Some of the data center industry's largest players have been in the news over the weekend. Here's a look at news developments involving, Apple's data center design, eBay's interest in renewable energy, data center energy use in Oregon, and the "topping off" for a huge CyrusOne facility.

Data centers proliferate in Oregon, and power planners raise a red flag - From Mike Rogoway at Oregon Live: "As Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and others plant server farms across the Northwest, regional energy planners and consumer watchdogs are starting to raise questions. If the data centers keep coming, and fail to make their massive facilities more efficient, they could devour nearly 10 percent of all the Northwest's energy by 2030. The secretive industry and the utilities that serve them will say little about their long-term plans, frustrating analysts who say they're left to guess at how data centers will affect regional power rates."

eBay takes its RFQ process to renewable-energy sourcing - From DataCenterDynamics: "eBay has sent a request for qualifications (RFQ) to suppliers and developers of renewable energy projects, asking them to submit bids to provide clean energy for the company’s data centers and offices in Utah and other Western-US locations. The company used this process successfully to get a cutting-edge design for two of its latest data center builds – Project Mercury in Phoenix and the latest expansion of its Project Quicksilver data center in Utah – and hopes it will work just the same with getting renewable energy, according to a blog post by Dean Nelson, VP of global foundation services at eBay."

CyrusOne Completes Steel Framework for Phoenix Data Center - From The WHIR: "Colocation provider CyrusOne, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cincinnati Bell, announced on Thursday it has completed the steel framework of its Chandler, Arizona modular data center. The company first announced last October it CyrusOne purchased a 40-acre parcel of land to build the massive 1-million-square-foot data center in Chandler. Construction of the the “Massively Modular” data center’s steel skeleton was completed incident-free. To celebrate the completion, ironworkers hosted a traditional 'topping out' ceremony to recognize the quality performance."