Green Data Center and Central Plant

The data centers are distributed throughout the first, second, and third floors of the three buildings. By using best practices in data center design, Sun was able to cut its utility bill by more than 60 percent at the Santa Clara campus. Three different cooling methodologies were employed in the mechanical design to successfully accomplish these upgrades, which will allow Sun Microsystems customers to compare energy efficient cooling strategies. Additional remodeled spaces include offices, conference rooms, lobbies and support areas. Central plant mechanical systems include four 1,000 ton chillers to be installed in three project phases. A primary chilled water pumping system was designed to serve the three buildings. For the critical data center areas in buildings 11 and 12, extreme density cooling systems were designed for a total of 600 tons of cooling.

The remodeled data centers and server labs were designed to use a variety of cooling methodologies including Liebert extreme density overhead systems (Freon based), APC closely coupled systems (chilled water based), and conventional data center raised floor systems (CRACs). Central plant electrical systems include three 3000kVA 12kV to 480V substations and two 1500kW generators to serve both the central plant and critical data center loads. The electrical design includes upgrading the existing service to the buildings from the utility with new dual 12kV service. Two 800 kVA static UPS systems were installed, one each in Buildings 11 and 12. The data centers power usage was approximately 250 watts/sf. The design also includes lighting, conduit/raceway, cable tray for IT/data, and low voltage power for access control and fire alarm. Upgrades in Building 14 include power and lighting to the Thermal Lab, Mechanical Shop, Machine Shop, and Temp Chamber Room.

Project Information

Building Owner:

Sun Microsystems

Building Location:

Santa Clara, California UNITED STATES

Project Type:

New Construction,Renovation

Project Timeline

Aug 2007	Completion
Last known status: Completed

Building Information

Project Includes:

Central Power Plant
Data Center

Total GSF:

180,000

Project Team

Architect

Nelson

Consultant - Project Management

Jones Lang LaSalle

Contractor

Devcon Construction

Engineer - MEP

Greene Engineers

Profile Created 10/01/2008

Last Updated 10/10/2008

Fig. 1

Interior

Fig. 2

Server Room