Twin LEED data centers break ground in Silicon Valley despite availability crunch
On January 26, global data center developer, owner and operator EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure (Denver) broke ground in Santa Clara, California on the first of two strategically-located, sustainably designed data centers, engineered to meet current and future customer requirements.
Upon completion, the new LEED-designed campus will support 72 MW of critical load across 540,000 square feet of space.
Availability
Utility power will be available at the site through Silicon Valley Power beginning in Q1 2024.
As noted by Edgecore, Silicon Valley is one of the largest and most vital data center markets in the United States -- but recent inventory and power constraints have made it difficult for cloud and technology companies to source scalable multi-megawatt capacity in the area.
In an Edgecore press release, Stefanie Williams, senior research analyst at 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, observes:
"The Silicon Valley market was built on demand primarily from IT services, but demand from cloud services providers, especially hyperscalers, has dominated the market in the past few years. Finding space to build in Silicon Valley is increasingly difficult, however, because land there is often earmarked for residential or commercial use rather than for industrial buildings such as data centers. Power can also be difficult to access in large quantities."1
Sustainability
According to a press release, EdgeCore's new high-performance Silicon Valley data center campus will be sustainably designed to achieve the following criteria:
- LEED BD+C Silver certification
- Energy Star certification
- Water Utilization Effectiveness (WUE) of .01
- Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of <1.30
- The availability of carbon-neutral electricity
In designing to the above targets, EdgeCore stated that it will provide customers the ability to meet their sustainability commitments, while also offering the security, scalability, and reliability required to fulfill stringent performance specifications.
Company profile
As stated by the company, EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure serves the world's largest cloud, internet, and technology companies with both ready-for-occupancy and build-to-suit data center capacity supported by best-in-class service-delivery capabilities. Privately held and supported by committed equity to fund an initial aggregate amount of over USD $4 billion in development, EdgeCore supports customer requirements by proactively investing in land, power, and vertical development in key data center locations, with building designs that meet key performance specifications and sustainability objectives.
EdgeCore has four markets with power and shovel ready campuses, operational data center buildings, and the ability to expand investment into new US and European markets.
In November 2022, EdgeCore was acquired by Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, acting on behalf of its clients. Partners Group said it will invest up to USD $1.2 billion to fund the acquisition and buildout of existing and future data center sites.
This month's announcement of new construction in capacity and power-constrained Santa Clara is the first of several development projects EdgeCore has slated to begin in 2023.
Jeff Dorr, president and chief financial officer, EdgeCore, commented:
"EdgeCore entered 2023 poised for rapid growth and today's announcement of our Silicon Valley campus groundbreaking is the exciting start to a busy year of development. To ensure the exacting standards of our customers are exceeded, EdgeCore's commitment to infusing sustainable building and operational practices in each high-performance, ready-for-occupancy data center we construct continues with this Santa Clara facility."
For more information, visit www.edgecore.com.
1 - 451 Research, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, Northern California: Leased Datacenter Market, January 13 2023
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