Data Centers look like Light Industry, but are Heavy Industry

Chatting with a low carbon construction executive who does not work in data centers make an interesting observation that data centers are like “Light Industrial” buildings. At first I said yeah data centers are light in that they are cleaner, no heavy mineral use like iron, coal, etc. But the observation was wrong. Because Light vs Heavy industry is primarily based on the capital cost. A warehouse distribution center is light industry. A manufacturing plants is a heavy industry. Data centers are 10X more expensive that a warehouse and it can easily have 10X the value of assets to run the data center.

Here is an example list of heavy industries

1. Chemicals and plastics
2. Steel and oil refining, production
3. Mining
4. Industrial machinery
5. Mass transit (railways, airlines, shipbuilders)

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/heavy_industry.asp#ixzz2AtKTXuBR
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In this Information Age, data centers should be on the list of heavy industries because of the capital equipment investment required. And data centers have the potential to be so much greener than the traditional heavy industries.