California Green Building Codes to Affect New Data Center Construction
ABSTRACT
Establishing and maintaining environmentally friendly operation of data centers can be good both for a company’s image and for the environment. Companies in California are receiving the most government pressure to this end, as the state implements progressively more stringent environmental (“green building”) standards for new commercial (as well as residential) construction.
FULL DOCUMENT
Establishing and maintaining environmentally friendly operation of data centers can be good both for a company’s image and for the environment. Companies in California are receiving the most government pressure to this end, as the state implements progressively more stringent environmental (“green building”) standards for new commercial (as well as residential) construction.
Data centers do not (by themselves) produce carbon emissions or toxic wastes, but they do use large amounts of power for running computer equipment and water to aid in cooling it. A data center can, for instance, easily use hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day for cooling, in addition to megawatts of power. Thus, data center operators in California are increasingly coming under pressure from the state government as legislators and regulators seek to mandate building practices that reduce energy and water consumption.
The process of implementing green building standards for commercial construction in California began with the establishment of benchmarks for evaluating a building’s performance. These benchmarks consider such characteristics as energy consumption per square foot of building space. Naturally, the establishment of a system of measuring the performance of a building in terms of environmental considerations has led to government regulations that mandate compliance with certain minimum standards. The new standards, which were adopted by the California Building Standards Commission, are set to go into effect on January 1, 2011.
According to a press release from the Office of the Governor of California, the new standards will mandate in newly constructed buildings such standards as a 20% reduction in water consumption (although the press release did not make clear what constitutes the water consumption that is to be reduced) and recycling of at least 50% of construction waste. Commercial buildings over 10,000 square feet will also be subject to inspections of their energy systems, including heating, air conditioning, and mechanical equipment, to ensure operating efficiency.
To be sure, increasing building efficiency is a desirable goal, since doing so can reduce operating costs and can also be beneficial to the environment. But, as with any situation where higher efficiency is desirable, there is a point of diminishing returns, where the financial cost outweighs the benefits received. In the case of California’s new green building standards, whether the increased efficiency will pay sufficient returns over time to cover the initial investment (and possibly continuing investment by way of inspection fees and related government levies, as well as maintenance of higher-efficiency equipment).
Data center designers will no doubt need to take California’s new standards into account when planning new construction. Given a typical data center’s water needs, the water efficiency standards alone could be a sore blow to either the budget or the capacity of newly constructed facilities.
For companies that want to avoid the burdens of these standards, relying on existing facilities and outsourcing some amount of resources to a cloud computing provider may be a better choice financially and logistically. In addition, given that 49 other states in the union generally have less stringent building codes, constructing a facility in a state other than California is another possibility. In fact, building facilities in colder areas of the country can be beneficial from the perspective of cooling requirements.
In cases where a new facility is needed, some benefit can be derived from the latest trend of increasing data center temperatures. Data center operators are finding that cooler is not always better, and in many cases, equipment can be operated with the same efficiency and life expectancy at higher temperatures than were considered possible. As such, data center designers may be able to help their cause by simply not relying as heavily on cooling technology. At some times of the year (depending on geographic location), outside air may provide sufficient cooling for certain data centers.
The exact effect that the new California green building standards will have on the financial cost of building new data centers and other commercial facilities, as well as the benefit to the environment, remains to be seen. Since legislation and regulation in California tends to be a harbinger of the future for other states, outsourcing facilities to avoid these standards may only be a temporary fix. Furthermore, the future also holds the distinct possibility of retrofitting standards, which could have an effect on existing facilities.
Written by Jeffrey Clark / Wednesday, 03 February 2010