October 5, 2009 -- Wholesale data center provider Digital Realty Trust, Inc. announced that it has been awarded LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for a new data center facility located in Silicon Valley. The facility will be utilized by NVIDIA, a supplier of visual computing technologies, to house a data center to support mission-critical systems for its global IT infrastructure.
"Achieving LEED platinum certification means that attention has been paid to every aspect of the building's design and construction, including the operating energy efficiency of the finished data center as well as often overlooked, key issues such as building materials, materials re-use and construction practices," comments Jim Smith, CTO of Digital Realty Trust.
According to a press release, the facility was developed using sustainable design principles, construction techniques and input materials that enabled it to achieve the highest LEED rating, including airside economization, which enables the facility to use 100 percent outside air for cooling. Based on historical weather data for this location, the data center will be able to take advantage of this feature more than 65 percent of each year. At full load, this will deliver approximately 3.5 million kilowatt hours of annual energy savings worth more than $250,000 annually at today's energy prices. Using this architecture, the site achieved a peak power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.31 during the commissioning process. The site also supports real-time PUE monitoring, allowing users to monitor PUE in 15-minute increments and identify trends in PUE metrics over time.
"Through a LEED program in conjunction with a PUE-optimized data center, we have been able to repeatedly meet sustainable and effective corporate green strategies," continues Smith.
"Operating our data centers efficiently is a critical focus of NVIDIA's IT strategy which supports our overall environmental goals," adds Ranga Jayaraman, chief information officer, NVIDIA. "Digital Realty Trust's leadership in building and operating highly energy efficient data centers will enable us to better track the performance of our operations and drive continuous improvements to more quickly achieve our environmental goals."
Digital Realty Trust also earned LEED-CI Gold certification for its 1500 Space Park property in Santa Clara in June, and has numerous additional projects in process for LEED certification. The latest NVIDIA facility is the first LEED Platinum certified data center in Silicon Valley. Digital Realty Trust worked with local utilities to receive LEED rebates and incentives during for the development of this property.
On the Web:
www.usgbc.org/LEED