California data center strives for largest LEED Platinum site

One week after GE Appliances said it has earned a LEED Platinum designation for its new data center facility in Kentucky, a wholesale data center operator from California has announced its own LEED Platinum rating.

Vantage Data Centers, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has achieved the award for its V3 building, which is a 6-megawatt, 60,000 square-foot facility. Two other sites on the property are registered under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. If the other two buildings are certified at the Platinum level, the site would become the world's largest LEED Platinum data center campus -- with 300,000 square feet of space that run off a 50-megawatt dedicated substation.

The building's Platinum status was verified by the Green Building Certification Institute.

The factors that contributed to the rating for the first building?

• A power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.29. PUE refers to the ratio of cooling equipment that is needed to keep information technology running at optimal levels. Vantage says that its PUE level, compared to those typically possible at other sites, will save it something on the order to $3 million annually in operating costs.
• The lighting design at the facility includes advanced lighting controls; it is rated as 41 percent more efficient than the minimum set out in the state's Title 24 Energy Code.
• The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) installation is based on the New Building Institute's Core Performance Guide.
• During the construction, Vantage diverted 91 percent of the waste from landfill; it used more than 40 percent recycled content in the project.
• The parking lot accommodates hybrid vehicles.
• The landscape design was adopted to reduce the need on local water supply for irrigation.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com