Technology & Infrastructure / California
Solar for New Data Center Construction
No rooftop array will power a data hall, and nobody serious claims it can. Solar on a data center campus offsets office, cooling-support, and site loads, carries corporate sustainability commitments, and uses roof and parking area that would otherwise sit idle. The design work is in coordinating it with critical power systems that cannot be disturbed and with utility studies that run long.
Eventure's Role
Eventure works with data center developers, operators, and their engineers to plan solar and storage that fit the campus without touching the critical power path.
We bring solar into the project at schematic design, size the Energy Code requirement, coordinate the roof, structure, electrical rooms, and battery location with your architect and engineers, and carry the system through permitting, utility interconnection, inspection, commissioning, and closeout.
Title 24 treatment
Data halls are generally regulated as covered processes under the Energy Code. Office and support occupancies on a data center campus are evaluated under Section 140.10, and the 80% floor-area rule determines whether the PV and storage requirements apply to each building.
Design Considerations
What is different about data centers.
- Honest load analysisData hall loads dwarf what a roof can produce. We size solar against the office, amenity, and site loads it can realistically serve and present the offset plainly.
- Separation from critical powerSolar and storage are designed on the normal power side with protection settings coordinated with the electrical engineer of record, keeping the UPS and generator systems untouched.
- Carports and campus parkingEmployee parking and support building roofs offer capacity that does not compete with rooftop mechanical equipment.
- Classification under the Energy CodeData halls are generally regulated as covered processes rather than as listed Table 140.10-A occupancies. Whether PV is prescriptively required depends on the office and support share of the building, which we confirm during design.
Keep Solar Off the Critical Path
Don't let solar be the last thing standing between your project and its Certificate of Occupancy.
On data centers projects, as on every California building, the Energy Code requirement, the fire authority's review of the battery, the utility's interconnection timeline, and the building's final inspection all depend on the solar scope being designed, permitted, installed, and documented in sequence. We treat it as a scheduled trade from day one.
Solar and the Certificate of Occupancy
Questions
Data Centers solar, answered.
Can solar power a data center?
Not from the roof. A data hall's load far exceeds what rooftop or carport arrays produce. Solar on the campus offsets office, support, and site loads and supports sustainability reporting; it is not a substitute for utility supply or backup generation.
Will solar interfere with the data center's critical power?
Not when it is designed on the normal power side with protection coordinated by the electrical engineer of record. We treat separation from the critical path as a design requirement.
Related
More technology & infrastructure building types.
All technology & infrastructure · All building types · Where we work
Discuss Your Project
Planning data centers in California?
Send us the drawings at any stage. We will size the Title 24 requirement, review the roof and electrical approach, and map the path to a Certificate of Occupancy that does not wait on solar.