In another sign that building “green” has gone mainstream, power-hungry data centers are seeking the nation’s seal of green approval.
At least two Bay Area data center operators – 365 Main of San Francisco and Saratoga-based Pelio & Associates – have registered projects in Newark and Santa Clara, respectively, with the U.S. Green Building Council. Both are seeking certification under the program called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED for short.
Only two other data centers in the country have earned LEED certification, according to Marc Heisterkamp, manager of corporate and investment real estate for the Green Building Council. One is an 87,000-square-foot center in Pennsylvania that earned certification in 2006, and the other is a 220,000-square-foot facility in Maryland, certified in 2005.
“It is a formidable challenge because of the data center’s profile of energy use,” said Dick Scott of Pelio & Associations. “But the potential savings is very large.”
Data centers are the buildings that house the gear that drives the Web. As the thirst for technology grows, so does the need for data centers, which consume huge amounts of electricity, operating around the clock, seven days a week. Also, the centers’ servers, which generate heat, must be kept cool so they don’t overheat.
365 Main is seeking the green stamp of approval for its newly purchased data center in Newark, a 136,000-square-foot facility on Eureka Drive.
Miles Kelly, vice president of corporate strategy, said the Newark data center is the company’s third in the Bay Area and seventh in the country, but it’s the first to go green. It won’t, however, be the last.
The reason? Power usage has shot up, Kelly said.
“In the late 1990’s, the typical rack, about 23 square feet, used one to two kilowatt hours of electricity. Today, the same rack uses eight kilowatt hours of electricity, or quadruple the amount of power from the data center,” he said in an e-mail.
Kelly said the fact that going green also means spending more money on energy-efficient equipment won’t dissuade his company from pursuing certification.
“We expect it to add 5 to 10 percent of the build-out costs,” he said. “It will probably add $10 million to the construction bill. But we will save $500,000 a year in operational costs with more efficient lighting controls and air conditioning.
Those costs, he said, will not be passed on to the customers.
“They will not have to pay a premium to be green,” he said. “We’re making such an investment here because the Bay Area is one of the tightest markets for data center real estate. The demand outstrips the supply.”
Pelio is aware of the demand. The company, which started building data centers about 10 years ago, is constructing the first phase of its 343,000-square-foot center on Space Park Drive in Santa Clara. Pelio, too, has registered to achieve LEED certification.
“These are pretty big stakes,” Scott said. “Data centers are power hogs, so how can something like that be green? But if you concentrate on the largest users, that’s where you can save the largest amount of power, and the relevance of green is even higher.”
Heisterkamp, of the Green Building Council, said rising energy prices are forcing companies to find ways to reduce usage.
Or as Jerry Inguagiato, a broker with CB Richard Ellis who specializes in data centers, put it: “All the developers in the this game need to be at the forefront because we’re in the middle of a war over fossil fuels,” he said. “The fact that these folks are showing leadership is a great thing.”
Barracuda moves to Campbell
Barracuda Networks is moving its headquarters from Mountain View to Winchester Boulevard in Campbell sometime this month.
The former home of PCOM Networks has been renovated by Toeniskoetter & Breeding Development. Jay Phillips of Cornish & Carey Commercial represented Barracuda, and Bob Shepherd of Colliers International represented TBI Development.
Contact Katherine Conrad at kconrad@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5073.
