Global manufacturing firm Emerson launched its high-profile data center in St Louis, Missouri, to much attention.
Jack Pouchet, director of energy-efficiency initiatives at Emerson, says his firm came a little late to data center consolidation. “We have more than 100 data centers out there and it was something we had to get our arms around.”
Emerson’s St Louis data center has been noted for its 7,800 sq ft solar roof, but it wasn’t undertaken as a PR exercise.
“Looking at the output of the array in day, week and monthly terms, we are getting the power out of it that we thought it would generate – about 100kW. And for the visitors it is quite a statement,” he says.
Combining the solar generation with efficient design (“we have no mechanical equipment in the data halls”) means the site is targeting a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.6. “We are not yet fully loaded,” Pouchet explains. “Our model shows we will have a PUE of about 1.6 – which will include power going to generators – plus a separate communications system which uses dry coolers,” he says.
“Within the building there are two raised floor spaces. We have only built one out. The other space is pre-built with all the necessary infrastructure and plumbing. Inside the raised floor we are achieving high power and cooling densities, and we have the ability to go to cold aisle containment [once the load calls for it].”
Emerson predicts Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, having originally targeted Silver. “We realised during construction that we could pick up a point here and there,” says Pouchet.
While achieving LEED certification for building projects has become common practice in the US construction industry, LEED-certified data centers are rare.
Architectural firm Fox Architects is a pioneer in the area, having designed one of the few data centers that picked up a LEED Silver in September 2008.
The firm’s designer, John Berendzen, said he was confident that Fox’s design for Emerson would achieve Gold-level certification. Berendzen shared with DatacenterDynamics basic steps of the certification process.
It is best to start planning for LEED certification from a project’s inception. The planning process should involve the entire design and construction team. “Everyone on the team has a role to play,” says Berendzen.
GETTING STARTED
The first step is to complete a credit scorecard. The document defines the areas of sustainable building where the team plans to earn credits toward the certificate.
Once the project design is complete, the team should submit a design application to the US Green Building Council. The application is one of two the council will use to evaluate the project’s LEED worthiness. The other is the construction application.
Berendzen recommends that organisations submit the design application before construction begins. There are only two points in the process when applicants get feedback on the project from the council – design application and construction application – so it is good to get an evaluation of work done earlier in the process. The council’s response is likely to cause adjustments to be made to the plan to gain more credits. Each of the two applications generates points that go toward the final certification judgment.
While the Green Building Council does not send representatives to verify information submitted in the application process, Berendzen says the amount of information the council requires to submit along with the applications serves to ensure their veracity.
From Berendzen’s perspective, the value of getting a project LEED-certified is in the process that forces designers and builders to take into account certain sustainability and efficiency measures.
The process does not substantially increase the amount of time it takes to complete a project, and the cost (most of it in collecting the necessary documentation) is recovered by savings generated by the building’s efficient use of resources.
This article first appeared in DatacenterDynamicsFOCUSRelated Event:
Jack Pouchet present at sit on a renewable energy panel at DatacenterDynamics London 10th, 11th November 2009Related News:
Emerson buys Avocent for $1.2 billion
Keywords: Emerson, LEED, energy, solar, roof, panel, architects, coolers, , raised, floor, coolers, gold, design, construction, green, data center |
