Aligned Data Centers claims 10% cooling capacity and efficiency gains. Published October 28, 2026 News summary. Aligned Data Centers introduced Delta Cube 3.0, claiming 10% improvements in cooling capacity and energy efficiency within the existing footprint. Aligned Data Centers has introduced an air cooling upgrade that it says delivers 10% more cooling capacity and 10% greater energy efficiency without increasing equipment size. Developed with Munters, Delta Cube 3.0 targets denser computing environments, where reducing electricity consumed by cooling could leave operators more power for customer workloads, subject to other facility constraints and conditions. For infrastructure buyers, the commercial question is how much additional computing those improvements can support. Electricity used to move air contributes to operating expenses without running customer applications. Reducing that load could improve the economics of a power allocation. But the benefit depends on where the constraint sits: cooling, electrical distribution, heat rejection, or the equipment inside each rack. The unchanged footprint could matter to operators planning denser deployments within limited mechanical space. More cooling output from the same equipment envelope offers a different proposition from installing additional units. It does not establish that an existing facility can accept the upgrade without modifications, or that every operating condition produces the advertised gains. Those details require examination before capacity planners revise their assumptions. Count the right watts. Aligned Data Centers attributes the improvements to changes in heat exchangers, supply fan impellers, and drive motors. The redesigned equipment also provides revised maintenance access and greater use of standardized, prefabricated construction. The company positions it for high-density environments using a combination of air and liquid cooling. The efficiency percentage needs careful handling. A 10% improvement in air cooling efficiency is not a 10% reduction in a campus electricity bill. Cooling is only part of facility consumption, and the announcement does not supply enough measurement detail to calculate the overall reduction. Buyers need the baseline, load conditions, and boundaries of the efficiency calculation. Higher cooling capacity and lower energy consumption also need to be evaluated together. An operator might use improved efficiency to reduce consumption at a fixed computing load. Alternatively, it could deploy additional equipment and consume the available power. Both may have commercial value. They produce different outcomes for electricity use and customer capacity. Air still has work. The relevant question for a hybrid deployment is how much heat remains for the air system to remove. Aligned Data Centers presents Delta Cube 3.0 as an adaptation to rising compute density, rather than a replacement for liquid cooling. Its airside capacity therefore needs to be matched to the proposed equipment mix and its operating temperatures. For cloud and colocation customers, that makes workload specifications important. A provider's cooling capacity claim cannot establish support for a particular rack configuration on its own. Buyers need confirmed thermal limits, airflow requirements, and the capacity available during maintenance or equipment failure. Maximum output under normal conditions is only one planning input. Aligned Data Centers also says its closed-loop cooling architecture consumes no water for operational cooling. That claim has a defined scope; it should not become a statement that an entire campus has no water demand. The company says units serving North America are manufactured in the United States, but does not provide delivery lead times or a site-by-site deployment schedule. The upgrade calculation. The investment case remains dependent on deployment costs and usable savings. Operators would need to compare purchase and installation expenses with measured electricity reductions, maintenance requirements, and any additional sellable capacity. The same physical footprint may simplify planning, but does not establish compatibility with existing connections, controls, or service clearances. A facilities team evaluating a retrofit would still need an installation method, an outage plan, and performance data at its expected loads. Procurement would need delivery dates and acceptance criteria. The announcement provides no retrofit pricing, so there is no disclosed figure against which to calculate a payback period. Executive insights FAQ. What should buyers request before accepting the efficiency claim? Request power measurements across representative loads, stated environmental conditions, and a clear comparison baseline. Require contractual acceptance tests that reflect the intended installation. Can lower cooling demand increase revenue capacity? Potentially, if electrical distribution and other thermal systems support additional equipment. Finance teams should value only capacity that engineering confirms can actually be sold. How should operators assess retrofit economics? Include installation labor, temporary capacity arrangements, controls integration, and commissioning expenses. Compare these costs with verified annual savings and any achievable increase in contracted load. What should colocation customers establish contractually? Specify supported rack configurations, environmental limits, and service behavior during maintenance. Confirm whether efficiency improvements affect customer charges or remain an operator financial benefit. How should sustainability teams interpret the water statement? Keep operational cooling claims separate from whole-site consumption. Request measurement boundaries and local reporting data before incorporating the technology into broader corporate resource disclosures. [email protected] Enter your full name and email address here and get HostingJournalist industry news in your inbox. Registration is free! Global Tech Wire News contributed by Insider Members Megaport Adds Managed AWS Connectivity in Two U.S. Markets For enterprises moving large volumes of data between facilities and the cloud, the change is as much about operations as bandwidth. Customers can begin an order through Megaport or the AWS console and complete it through the other. The two providers... Legrand Launches 2,000A Busway for High Density Data Centers The product addresses a practical constraint inside high density data halls: operators need to deliver more current to rack rows without filling the space above them with additional distribution equipment. Legrand says the DoubleBar increases current...

Learn how Frontier Group repowered a retired coal plant to meet surging power demand. Specializing in asset redevelopment across the US, Frontier Group of Companies purchases distressed or antiqued assets from businesses looking to divest for any number of reasons and takes on all associated environmental liabilities and related challenges. Under the leadership of owners David Franjoine and Dennis Franjoine, the company's mission is to clean up those sites, meet all environmental compliance requirements, and identify the next best use for each property (including new power generation); one that delivers real benefit to the local and regional communities it serves. While Frontier Group operates across the country, its current focus is the former 2,700 MW Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Since the plant closed in 2019, the company has been determining the next best use for the site while evaluating the economic implications. Given the rapidly growing demand for power generation, driven in large part by the explosion of data center development, the team concluded that the most valuable use of the site was to strip out the coal infrastructure and repower the plant using natural gas. "This allows us to use all of the infrastructure already in place, which supports a speed-to-market solution and revitalizes a power plant that had been providing well-paying jobs and a good tax base for the local school district and community since the late 1970's," explains Christopher Cox, Vice President of Power Generation at FGC. This facility was of great interest for Frontier Group due to its scale and strategic position. Indeed, the former Bruce Mansfield plant is one of the largest power facilities east of the Mississippi River and has been a major energy supplier to the region for decades. It also sits alongside one of the largest inland harbors on the Ohio River, adding significant logistical value. Given that the power plant was built in the late 1970s, its design meant that many industrial requirements were already in place to reduce environmental risk. Moreover, the plant had also been fully scrubbed and operated with an off-site fly ash landfill, so there were no environmental liabilities on the property itself. Its heat rate was already in the lower 9000s, which is a highly competitive figure given the way the original units were designed. All of this meant the site could be cleaned and returned to productive industrial use quickly, without needing extensive environmental remediation. Frontier Group began its due diligence on the conversion in early 2023 and moved forward with the understanding that the plant needed to re-enter the energy market to help meet the surging power demand being driven by data center growth. Now known as the Shippingport Industrial Park, this project required close collaboration with a major developer and its technology partner. Christopher explains how Frontier Group managed to maintain efficient collaboration throughout the project. "A project of this magnitude requires strong communication among all the parties. We engaged all local stakeholders very early in the process to clearly share our vision for the entire site, which includes not only the power plant redevelopment but also the development of an adjacent data center campus and the power requirements that come with it. Similarly, we made sure the local community and key stakeholders in the region understood that our project would not be a burden on the area or create negative impact. We were transparent about the fact that our goal for the power plant would be to supply new generation into the grid, self-power critical assets on the facility, and follow all required permitting guidelines and regulatory requirements." Far from being a burden, the project is actually set to deliver substantial economic benefit to the region. Direct investment in the project is expected to exceed $1.8 billion, with over 1500 construction workers on site during the development process. "When you apply an indirect evaluation to those direct expenditures, looking at the ripple effect on the local economy through hotel stays, catering, local services and all the spending that flows from a project of this scale, the indirect benefit to the region is estimated at around $3.5 billion," Christopher notes. "And that is just our portion of the project. Aligned Data Centers (ADC), recently announced publicly that they are developing a data center campus adjacent to our site on land we cleaned, enabled, and sold to ADC, with over $10 billion of anticipated direct economic impact. We intend to continue training, developing, and hiring locally as much as we can as we move into operation of the facility in the future." On the technical side, the plant's existing infrastructure has proved to be a major advantage. Early assessments conducted with boiler conversion specialists, B&W, quickly confirmed that Frontier could retrofit and redesign the burners to support the steam requirements for the existing steam turbines, enabling the correct power output from each unit and better speed-to-market. Importantly, all of the critical infrastructure, including transformers and local substation connections, remains in place, meaning the path to bringing units online is much shorter than it would be for greenfield development. The only remaining critical supply chain item is the burner configuration, which is being finalized with B&W and is on track to meet the current project timeline. In terms of permitting and interconnection, Frontier Group is currently in the first stage of development, working closely with local, state, and government officials on all the permitting required for the Shippingport facility. The company is also engaged with PJM Interconnection, the regional grid interconnection authority, and expects interconnection approval by mid-2028. Once that is secured, all necessary upgrades can be completed, with the units anticipated to come online in early 2029. "We had the pleasure of hosting US Senator David McCormick at our Shippingport Industrial Park facility earlier this year, along with many other Local and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Representatives," says Robert Zuchlewski, COO of FGC. "Senator McCormick recognized the importance of our project in addressing the nation's power needs and fulfilling a power dominance position for our country, along with the economic importance of job creation and tax base support for the region. Our facility was once part of the power backbone of PJM and we are proud to be bringing that generation back online to support all aspects of the country's power needs." FGC CEO, David Franjoine added, "We are working closely with all regulatory officials and being purposeful with our actions. Permitting and compliance are our top priority; there is no room for shortcuts. A critical need doesn't justify skirting regulations or permitting processes. PA Governor Shapiro recently issued Executive Orders, in our opinion, geared toward ensuring responsible development with regards to the data center industry and related development. We support the Governor's directives and respect that communities and regions can't be sacrificed for the sake of industry pressures. We are always careful to make sure communities and stakeholders have their questions answered and voices heard. Our efforts to convert and restart this power generation facility will directly, and positively, impact every utility customer (small and large users) in the PJM Grid System." Against the backdrop of a stretched American power infrastructure, the Shippingport Industrial Park project is particularly significant as its ability to return 2.5 gigawatts of generation capacity to the grid (a capacity that had recently been removed) gives PJM the flexibility to support additional growth in the region. These are large, base-loaded units designed to provide stable, sustained power output, which will help control costs and support reliability across the region. Looking further ahead, Christopher sees flexible natural gas generation as a way of maintaining long-term grid resilience and supporting renewable energy. "It is difficult to know exactly where the energy market will be in a decade, but we do know that to remain competitive on the global industrial stage, the US needs reliable and sufficient power generation. A power plant like ours helps meet those goals while supporting overall growth and sustainability, as the country develops small modular reactor technology and advances its carbon-free energy footprint. Our development is a critical project for closing that gap, keeping energy supply secure and giving the nation the space to work through the right long-term transition over the next 20 years," he concludes. Manel Bouzerita. Manel Bouzerita is a Deputy Editor with a background in screenwriting and three years of experience in writing content for various B2B magazines. As part of her work on Retail Merchandiser, she covers the latest industry trends and news, looking to bring fresh, original stories to light.

Aligned Data Centers supports Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County to expand access to youth programs. Oct 08, 2026, 13:27 ET FREDERICK, Md., Oct. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County (BGCFC) today announced a new community partnership with Aligned Data Centers to help expand access to youth programs for children and families across Frederick County. Through its contribution, Aligned will serve as the Co-Presenting Sponsor of BGCFC's 2nd annual Blue & Bubbly event, taking place Thursday, October 8, at 7th Sister Restaurant. Commenting on this new partnership, Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County CEO Timika Thrasher said: "We are so excited to welcome Aligned as a new partner in support of our youth. Our mission isn't possible without community supporters and corporate sponsors who are willing to invest in the futures of youth in this great community. We thank the team at Aligned for believing that ALL youth deserve access to opportunities to succeed and create their own great futures." "At Aligned, we believe in building strong foundations, and there is no better investment than our local youth. We are incredibly proud to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County, helping them sustain a supportive environment where young people can receive guidance, explore their potential, and form meaningful connections that help shape their future," said Joanna Soucy, EVP of Brand Strategy at Aligned Data Centers. Funds raised by the Blue & Bubbly dinner event will help keep Club programs affordable for youth and families in Frederick County. About 56% of youth served by the Club receive some level of financial aid towards their membership dues. About Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County: Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County is the premier youth development organization in Frederick County, providing children with the highest quality programs and opportunities for success. The mission of Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. Boys & Girls Clubs of Frederick County serves youth from all different backgrounds and demographics, and no child or family is ever turned away based on an inability to pay membership dues. More than half of the youth served annually receive partial or full scholarship. For more information, visit bgcfrederick.org. About Aligned Data Centers: Aligned Data Centers delivers sustainable, ultra-efficient, and adaptive infrastructure for the world's most demanding technology workloads. Fueled by over 50 patents for award-winning, water-saving cooling technology and a commitment to responsible development, our facilities underpin the digital applications society relies on every day. Aligned is committed to the communities we serve, transforming industrial sites into technology hubs, generating local jobs and fostering widespread skilled workforce development. Learn more by visiting www.aligneddc.com. SOURCE The Boys & Girls Club of Frederick County