Data Centers

Leading CEOs and executives of U.S. companies, universities, school districts, multifamily organizations, and state and local government are taking the Better Buildings Challenge to reduce energy use across their building portfolios by 20 percent in 10 years.

Read how the Better Buildings Challenge a voluntary leadership initiative is bringing together leading CEOs and executives of U.S. companies, universities, school districts, multifamily residential organizations, and state and local government to make a public commitment to energy efficiency. 

This guide intends to help data center owners and operators implement a metering system that allows their organizations to gather the necessary data for effective decision-making and energy-efficiency improvements.

Presentation slides from Data Centers: Key Considerations presentation given at the NASA Net-Zero Energy workshop June 5-6, 2012.

To achieve and maintain lasting operational efficiency at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed a sophisticated data analytics (ODA) system – Operations Monitoring and Notification Infrastructure (OMNI) to provide key operational insights about the data centers performance and energy efficiency.

This session highlighted Better Buildings & Better Plants partner successes in improving the infrastructure of small data centers embedded within larger multi-use buildings, or, when that is not possible, the process of decommissioning them and consolidating the IT resources to larger facilities.

This session showcased owner and manager building construction and retrofit experiences while experts from DOE's Envelope Research Team highlighted the newest, promising energy-saving technologies, including dynamic windows, liquid flashing and primer-less air sealants, and integrated wall systems.

As organizations continue to invest in more powerful IT equipment, data center server racks are packing in ever-higher electrical loads. Liquid cooling is a way to handle these higher loads more efficiently. This session explored the possibilities for liquid cooling in the data center industry. Better Buildings & Better Plants partners shared their insights on implementing liquid cooling in their data centers.

Attendees learned about Better Buildings & Better Plants partners' successes in consolidating their data centers and finding savings.

This training introduced federal, state, and local participants to the highlights of eProject Builder, DOE's national database for recording and managing Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) projects.

This presentation addresses the challenges encountered while implementing energy efficiency improvements in existing data centers within multi-use buildings. 

This session highlighted projects that have been able to achieve significant energy and water savings through technologies and innovative strategies.

In this presentation, DOE provided an overview of PUE baselining strategies that address various challenges reported by Better Buildings Challenge and Better Buildings & Better Plants Accelerator partners.

Participants learned how DOE's 50001 Ready and Superior Energy Performance 50001 programs can help them achieve their long-term energy management goals.

Learn how industry leaders are driving energy and cost savings through a range of solutions. Presentations include summaries of specific technological changes and/or improvements through consolidation and the tangible financial and environmental benefits they produced.

This session featured strategies for aligning goals and activities to enable action around energy efficiency among multiple actors, including property management teams with their real estate clients and landlords with their commercial and federal tenants.

This presentation addresses the barriers associated with challenging a business-as-usual approach where energy efficiency often takes a back seat to concerns about reliability.

IT equipment can be a significant driver for energy use in data centers. This presentation describes new trends and advancements in IT energy efficiency that can help data center managers cut energy costs.

Data center managers are increasingly looking to renewable forms of energy to power their operations. This presentation gives an overview of types of renewable energy, avenues for assistance in developing renewable projects, and ways to evaluate the financial feasibility of renewable energy projects.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) boasts the most energy efficient data center in the world. This presentation describes the data center, its energy efficient features, and how it was built.

Intelligent metering is a prerequisite to effectively managing energy use in data centers. This presentation details metering options for different data center configurations to help facilities managers calculate their data centers' power usage effectiveness.

This session highlighted success stories from Better Buildings & Better Plants partners that have reduced operating costs in their data centers by taking advantage of on-site and off-site renewable energy opportunities.

This session focused on cutting edge HVAC solutions Better Buildings partners have implemented in data centers that may be applicable in other building types as well.

This session showcased Better Buildings & Better Plants partners who are pushing the boundaries of environmental conditioning in data centers.

The purpose of this brief guide is to present opportunities for small data center owners and operators that generally make sense and do not need expensive assessment and analysis to justify. 

This report documents the methodology used to procure, construct, and operate an energy-efficient data center suitable for a net-zero-energy-use building - NREL's Research Support Facility.
 

This report explores air management best practices in small data centers under 5,000 square feet. Good air management in data centers is not only imperative for energy efficiency but also for managing the thermal environment and ensuring equipment reliability.

As part of Sprint's Network Vision Plan, efficiency upgrades at this Kansas City building included HVAC variable frequency drive upgrades, a lighting management system and external LED lighting improvements, and DC rectifier upgrades.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) completed the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), a new 182,000-square-foot LEED Platinum research facility that includes high bay and laboratory space, office space for about 220 staff, and an ultra-efficient high performance computing (HPC) data center.

Located in Northern Virginia, this 1 MW capacity data center is operated by an agency within the Department of Justice. Various HVAC and chiller setting adjustments didn't come with a cost but brought 46% savings in PUE-1.

Intuit undertook steps to reduce the energy intensity at the Quincy data center, including adjusting set points on the chilled water and implementing "chimneys" to better control the flow of air around the server racks. These measures found a 21% savings in energy.

By requiring customers to utilize hot aisle containment and by installing variable and efficient infrastructure, Sabey achieved a perfect ENERGY STAR® score of 100 and a 57% reduction in energy use.

Schneider Electric sought a 30-50% reduction in data center operations costs attributed to energy consumption, so it consolidated one primary legacy data center and multiple distributed data centers into a modern facility that offered greater reliability and energy efficiency.

In order to maintain the facility's net-zero energy status, NREL improved the efficiency of the Research Support Facility's data center by upgrading outdated IT equipment, consolidating blade centers, and improving the metering system among other best practices. As a result, the data center achieved an 84% reduction in PUE.

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory outgrew its former data center space and underwent a retro-commissioning process to meet the data center's growing needs.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) enterprise data center used for in-house needs and scientific computing, was rebuilt in the mid-1990s and has continued to undergo a series of transitions and energy efficiency upgrades to meet increased demand.

Sabey Data Centers partnered with Big Bend Community College to develop a Data Center Training Program that prepares students for the Information Technology and facility management jobs critical to successfully maintaining data centers.

This toolkit addresses specific barriers and solutions for energy management in 5 primary data center types, including real-world examples for each. It collects guidance, factsheets, best practices, and other resources based on the work of DOE's Better Buildings Data Center Accelerator.

Energy efficiency elevator pitch with Dave Breland of Intuit

Watch this webinar to learn how Better Buildings Challenge and Accelerator partners have formed partnerships within their organizations and implemented measures to dramatically reduce data center energy usage.

This webinar explained why small data centers shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to energy efficiency, and how low-cost, high-win strategies can reduce energy demand.

This webinar featured state, local, and commercial sector partners sharing best practices on energy data management, and also introduced DOE's Energy Data Management Guide.

This webinar focused on how small data centers can develop air management best practices and see a reduction in infrastructure energy costs.