We continue our review of data centers that have achieved LEED Platinum rating, the highest level attainable under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program, a voluntary rating system for energy efficient buildings overseen by the US Green Building Council. Here's a look at the data center facilities that have been certified or pre-certified for Platinum LEED ratings.
VANTAGE V2, Santa Clara, California
In its new V2 data center, Vantage Data Centers has taken design concepts pioneered by “Internet scale” server farms in remote locations, and implemented them in the heart of Silicon Valley. The V2 data center is delivering a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.12, placing it among the world’s most energy-efficient data centers. The facility was fully pre-leased to an undisclosed customer, which worked closely with Vantage to customize the design from the ground up. The two-story data center features a “penthouse” cooling system that uses the entire upper floor of the building as a plenum to process outside air for cooling servers, similar to the Open Compute design implemented by Facebook last year in its first data center in Prineville, Oregon.
VANTAGE V3, Santa Clara, California
V3 is a 60,000 square foot facility that has 40,000 square feet of data center space on a 30-inch raised floor, and is supported by 6 megawatts of provisioned power from Silicon Valley Power. Vantage says it expects V3 to operate at a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.20 when using fresh air economization to cool servers, and a PUE of 1.29 when using chillers. As part of the LEED certification effort, the project incorporated responsible site development practices, water-saving strategies, energy-saving design measures, efficient material selection and low-toxic building materials. The lighting design at V3 is a 41 percent improvement over the minimum standard of the Title 24 Energy Code, while advanced lighting controls earned points in the Energy & Atmosphere category. Vantage was able to divert 91 percent of its construction waste and use 20 percent recycled content (post-consumer and one-half pre-consumer) in the construction project. The V3 data center also earned credits for addressing regional environmental concerns. A water-efficient landscape design has reduced the demand on the local water supply for irrigation
E-SHELTER, Zurich, Switzerland
Artist rendering of large-scale LEED Platinum data center being developed in Rümlang.
In May, European data center developer e-shelter opened a new 26,000 square meter (279,864 square foot) data center in Rümlang, about 10 kilometers from downtown Zurich, Switzerland. The company said it has been awarded Platinum pre-certification by the US Green Building Council. The building features a newly developed high temperature heat pump that enables the distribution of district heating, which allows the waste heat from servers to be used in warming adjacent buildings. “We plan to set new standards in Switzerland with our project in Zurich,” said Rupprecht Rittweger, CEO and founder of e-shelter. “The building is designed according to state-of-the-art efficiency criteria to reduce energy consumption and is set to meet the business needs of any corporate company looking for data centre space near Zurich."
GE DATA CENTER, Louisville, Kentucky
Inside the GE Appliances and Lighting data center in Louisville, Kentucky.
GE Appliances & Lighting recently unveiled a new LEED Platinum data center at Appliance Park in Louisville, which will support the GE Appliance and Lighting division. The GE facility is designed to support racks at 18 to 24 kilowatts per cabinet. Ultra-low-flow water fixtures ensure that water consumption inside the building is 42 percent less than the industry baseline, and GE has offset 35 percent of the predicted annual energy consumption by purchasing off-site renewable energy. Rather than building a new data center from scratch, GE revitalized an existing building, retaining 98.3 percent of the walls, floors and roof of unutilized factory space. GE also received LEED credit for sourcing 50.7 percent of construction materials regionally, building with 30.2 percent recycled materials, and diverting 85.4 percent of on-site generated construction waste from the landfill (i.e. recycling).
AMERICAN COLLEGE TESTING: Iowa City, Iowa
The ACT data center opened in February 2008 and features 4,000 square feet of raised-floor data center space within an 8,000 square foot building. The facility is cooled by a geothermal “bore field” - a system of vertical holes drilled into the earth’s surface which house a closed-loop piping system filled with water and/or coolant. The cool earth allows the underground piping system to serve as a heat exchanger. The ACT data center also has an exterior dry cooler as a backup to the geothermal system. The building’s other environmentally-friendly attributes include a high performance HVAC system, 30% recycled content during construction, and numerous renewable materials used in the interior design. Read Geothermal Data Center is LEED Platinum for more details.
HCL INFOSYSTEMS, Noida, India
HCL Infosystems is a leading hardware, services and ICT System Integration Company in India, and has earned LEED CI Platinum certificate for its facility in Noida, making HCL the first company in India to achieve the certification. "Today sustainability has to be acknowledged as a pivotal point in any organization’s growth and this recognition is a testimony to our sustained commitment towards the environment," said George Paul, Executive Vice-President, HCL Infosystems. "It’s a matter of pride to receive the prestigious LEED CI Platinum certification and we will continue with our efforts to make technology ecologically viable." We have no additional information on this facility beyond the press release.
ADVANCED DATA CENTERS: Sacramento, Calif.
Advanced Data Centers (ADC) is building a 237,000 square foot data center at McClellan Park on McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, California. The USGBC has pre-certified the ADC facility for a LEED score of 50 points, above the 45 points required for LEED Platinum, the highest certification tier. The building will use air-side economizers and also make use of recycled “grey water” from the Air Force base as a redundant water supply for its chiller infrastructure. ADC is currently seeking a tenant for the facility. See LEED Platinum Rating for Advanced Data Centers for more details.
If you came here directly, please check out page one of LEED Platinum Data Centers.
Have we missed any? If so, please let us know..