Novva Data Centers, a state-of-the-art data center company providing purpose-built facilities, announced plans to build a 300MW data center campus on 160 acres of land outside of the 202 loop at the northwest alignment of Ellsworth and Warner roads in southeast Mesa. Novva acquired the acreage via a state land auction in August 2023.

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The campus is Novva’s sixth site, and first entry into the state of Arizona. The data center provider will invest more than $3 billion to build the campus in two phases over the next decade. Novva predicts the project will take 10 million human hours to construct, and the first phase, with 96 Megawatts of Critical IT Load, will launch in late 2026. Novva’s characteristic sustainability-first principles will make the facility unlike any other currently under construction in the area. Once complete, the facility will feature five data halls, an office building and warehouse with a footprint of 1.3 million square feet and employ an estimated 200 people.

Buildings feature site-sensitive architectural details like rammed earth materials, as well as a tribute to the Hohokam people that inhabited the area and built early aqueducts, an invention that many of the Salt River canals still follow today. “Innovation is timeless, and we hope to continue in that same pursuit,” says Wes Swenson, CEO of Novva Data Centers.

An abundance of outdoor gathering spaces and trails, available for pedestrians, employees, and neighboring residents, contribute to the campus’ low-impact, harmonious design. Novva has taken great care to design the development to a higher standard than a typical data center would. Muted colors connect to the land and evoke calm. Patterns and shadows, created by natural light and apertures, enhance this effect.

The data center will be designed to the greatest energy efficiency standards and host numerous advancements in data center design. Data Halls are oriented east and west to minimize the impact of solar exposure. Each data hall includes office space providing variety and visual interest. Xeriscape will feature native plants and downward lighting to enhance the property and minimize light pollution.

Another standout feature of the Mesa campus is Novva’s innovative water-free air-cooling system, which is projected to conserve up to 650 million gallons of culinary water each year—an impressive advancement over traditional evaporative cooling methods. Beyond water conservation, this system is designed to ease the burden on municipal and agricultural water resources. In contrast, a similarly sized data center using conventional methods would typically discharge 350 million gallons of wastewater into municipal systems for treatment. Novva’s approach not only saves water but also reduces the strain on essential water infrastructure.

Other features include:

  • High-density deployments designed for direct-to-chip cooling applications, with liquid (non-water) cooling and air-cooling systems.
  • Backup diesel generators will be designed to operate using 2nd generation biofuel and hydrotreated vegetable oil to reduce emissions.
  • Chilled water loop uses recyclable polypropylene pipes which are non-reactive, non-corrosive and are a less carbon intensive product than traditional steel pipe.
  • Heat-reducing asphalt sealant and ultra-reflective coatings will reflect more sunlight. This will absorb less heat and reduce the heat island effect typical of large industrial areas.
  • Rainwater capture will be implemented to offset the water needs while the installed desert-lush landscaping becomes established.
  • Robot and drone surveillance programmed specifically for data center security.

Based on the high-quality materials, construction methods and design features, Novva predicts the facility will be operable for the next 50+ years without any major reconstruction.

According to Novva’s CEO Wes Swenson, “Building sustainably, preserving natural resources, and ensuring that we are addressing community concerns are our top priorities as we begin our Mesa data center project. Novva Mesa will employ the latest technology to help us reach ambitious goals, such as 100% renewable energy use and drastically less water use when compared to a typical data center.”

Mesa is the sixth location announced by Novva and complements the company’s ever-growing footprint in the Western United States. Novva has campuses in West Jordan, Utah; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Reno, Nevada; Las Vegas and San Francisco.

About Novva Data Centers

Novva Data Centers creates purpose-built data centers for the future across the Western United States, providing scalable wholesale infrastructure services for local, national, and international clients. Novva’s human-centric, sustainable data center solutions are married with an extensive portfolio of high capacity, scalable data center amenities to provide turnkey, client-designed solutions. Novva’s data center campuses in Utah, Colorado, Nevada and California stand out for their forward-thinking features such as state-of-the-art water-free cooling systems, renewable energy usage, drone and robot dog facility monitoring and thoughtful design approaches that provide a one-of-a-kind, modern day data center experience. Learn more at www.novva.com.