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Oregon is becoming a hotbed for data centers, and a new pathway to green building certification may lead to future energy-hogging facilities being less power hungry.

Each photo upload on Facebook and each Google search requires energy to process. With many people relying on the Internet for minute-to-minute activities, more computer-packed facilities are needed to meet the constant demand for data. Oregon has attracted the aforementioned companies, as well as Amazon, Apple and many others because of the state’s relatively low energy costs, attractive tax structure and ideal climate.

The resulting energy demand is enormous; usage of 25 large data centers equals the usage of the entire city of Portland 鈥� including residential, commercial and industrial. But in 2012, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system will for the first time include guidelines specific to data centers, which experts predict will lead to broader and greater strides toward efficiency.

鈥淲e’ve gone from a (LEED) version with no guidance for data centers to one that has quite a bit; I’m very impressed that (the U.S. Green Building Council) has taken it on in such a significant way,鈥� said Josh Hatch, director of sustainability analytics at . The Portland-based consulting company is providing green building program management and incentives research for Facebook’s data centers in Prineville.

When the USGBC implements the new version of the rating system later this year, Hatch and others expect more data center owners to strive for LEED recognition because energy-efficiency design elements will be recognized within the system.

and will require each building to have two systems modeled to demonstrate overall effectiveness: one for the building’s energy costs from lighting, hot water and other mechanical systems; and one for the servers and other data center equipment, which account for the extraordinarily high energy usage in the facilities.

Combined, the building and IT energy use must be 10 percent below the current 90.1-2010 baseline. Because the servers use a lot more energy than the rest of the building, but also have fewer opportunities for energy reductions, basing the requirement on aggregated savings will allow more data centers to be involved in the program.

鈥淎 data center uses so much electricity and so much cooling that it’s hard to say it’s a sustainable facility if it’s measured against a regular office building,鈥� said John Fithian, project manager for California-based , which has built more than 20 data centers in Oregon.

鈥淥wners are recognizing the value in sustainable construction, but there were constraints in the old system that held a lot of data centers from pursuing LEED certification; it was just too cost prohibitive,鈥� he said.

But Fithian contends that LEED 2012 overcomes many of those challenges by creating a comparison more like apples to apples. The guidelines will create a path for data centers to earn recognition for what’s doable given their massive energy loads.

鈥淚t’s just good it’s being recognized,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t will open the door for more developers and owners to look into participation in LEED.鈥�

The rating system will not be watered down, however. The additional guidance is likely to encourage better practices, according to Mike Barbera, vice president of . PMA oversaw the design and construction of the BendBroadband Vault, a $15.7 million adaptive reuse data center project that received a LEED gold rating.

鈥淚 think people are going to focus on how to implement new technology into data centers even more so now,鈥� Barbera said. 鈥淣ow they can see that they can truly reap the reward of making it more energy efficient.鈥�

But the guidelines are still not perfect, according to Hatch, who said 鈥渢he devil is in the details鈥� when it comes to LEED 2012.

The changes do not take into account that the vast majority of the environmental impacts that data centers make come from extreme energy use, according to Hatch; data centers will have the same number of LEED points allocated for energy efficiency as other building types. In contrast, Hatch cited a European green building rating system that assigns a higher percentage of points to energy performance for data centers relative to 鈥渘ormal鈥� buildings.

Nevertheless, most people seem to agree that the pathway created for data centers will raise the bar for sustainability efforts.

鈥淚t’s not just a copy and paste upgrade to add data centers into the existing program; there is some robust technical guidance in there,鈥� Hatch said. 鈥淏ut until data centers come through the new system, it’s hard to say.鈥�