Computer hardware giant Intel Corporation received LEED® Gold certification, the internationally recognized stamp of approval from the U.S. Green Building Council, for its design/data center – IDC 9 – in Haifa, Israel. The facility is Intel’s first LEED-certified green facility, as well as the first building in Israel to receive LEED Gold certification. Additionally, the 259,000-square-foot facility is noted for housing a 6,500-square-foot high-performance data center.

The energy needed to power and cool today’s high-tech design/data centers has radically increased in recent years. Factor in the reality of rising energy costs, and it’s easy to understand the substantial impact these types of facilities can have on an organization’s operational costs. With this in mind, Intel saw the design and construction of their IDC 9 facility as not only an opportunity to progress their “next generation” initiative of corporate citizenship and sustainability, but also as a potential target for significant cost savings. Thus, the mission defined the scope for a LEED-certified facility.

Certification became possible by leveraging an integrated design approach and mobilizing a “Green Building” team in the early stages of the building’s design. An important player on that green team was Tempmaster Israel®, a local energy management firm and a KMC Controls authorized representative. Understanding that a high-efficiency HVAC and building automation system would play the largest role towards not only energy conservation, but indoor air quality and occupant comfort, the team came to rely heavily on Tempmaster.

“Their expertise, knowledge, and professional presence were exceptional,” said Tzach Namer, the Mechanical/Electrical Project Manager at Intel. “Our systems at IDC 9 are highly complex, and Tempmaster succeeded in keeping things simple. We are fully operational with a very reliable system.”

Utilizing KMC’s digital controls, Tempmaster integrated with the Schneider Electric® programmable logic controllers and GE® SCADA systems to give Intel engineers precise control over their air handling systems. KMC’s room temperature sensors installed throughout the employee office area are connected to the inputs of approximately 400 KMC BACnet Advanced Application Controllers mounted on VAV terminal units serving those spaces.

Also, IDC 9 measures carbon dioxide levels for improved air quality, captures and recycles condensate water from the AC system and uses it for irrigation, and heats itself using dissipated heat from ACs and data center computers.

“When we went into the project, Intel had trepidations over problems that could arise from the tight integration required between the BACnet controls, OPC servers, GE Cimplicity SCADA and their own in-house, individual employee, control application,” said Charles Marcus, owner of Tempmaster Israel. “The confidence we had in KMC’s product won us the go-ahead.”

Although there are some other noteworthy elements of sustainability that contributed to the facility’s LEED Gold certification – rooftop gardens, processor-based data center, chimney racks, daylighting – the advanced HVAC and building automation systems will have the greatest impact on ROI potential. The sustainable design of IDC 9 results in a net 17 percent reduction in total building energy use, with projected annual savings of 750,000 NIS (about $200,000 USD). Because of Tempmaster, KMC, and the rest of the green team, IDC 9 is hailed as one of the greenest design centers in the world and has set a new standard for Intel R&D buildings.