The U.S. Green Building Council is drafting its first set of standards for data-center projects as the growing sector has struggled to meet energy-efficiency benchmarks.
The U.S. data-center construction market increased to about $15 billion today from about $5 billion in 2000. According to a study commissioned by computer software giant Microsoft, that number is expected to increase to $20 billion by 2020. But the amount of energy and uptime required to power the facilities has made it difficult for data centers to achieve LEED certification.