Best Green Building Project
Facebook spent two years designing and constructing its first custom-built data center from the ground up—building servers, power supplies, server chassis and electrical systems.
The Facebook Prineville Data Center, located in the open high desert of central Oregon, is a large, prominent building. In concept it is a nearly featureless, warm-colored concrete wall that matches colors and tones of the surrounding rocky landscape.
One of the goals for the project team was to build the most energy-efficient data center in the world. To reach that end, it was critical that the applications, servers, racks, systems and the entire building operate together.
At the conclusion of testing, the facility realized a PUE of 1.07, the world's leading energy-efficient data center to date (by measurement), according to the social networking firm. Facebook system utilization, on a kW/MIP or kW/TB IT metric, also leads the industry.
The project was awarded LEED-Gold and Energy Star certification. The structure has a solar panel array that is expected to produce an estimated 204,000 kilowatt hours annually.
Facebook said its energy consumption per unit of computing power has declined by 38% using the Prineville center compared with leased facilities.
Key Players
Owner: Facebook, Palo Alto
General Contractor/Construction Management: DPR Construction, Redwood City
Architect: Sheehan Partners, Chicago
Civil Engineer: WH Pacific, Bend, Ore.
Structural Engineer: Peoples Associates, Milpitas
MEP Engineer: Alfatech, San Jose
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