The Niobrara Energy Park has shown promising international data center performance metrics, according to a recent CH2M HILL (News - Alert) research.

CH2M HILL has said that its science and technology architectural firm, IDC (News - Alert) Architects, has identified carbon, power and water usage benchmarks “significantly” below the U.S. benchmarks on the Niobrara project.

A strategically located project in Northern Colorado, the Niobrara Energy Park aims to become the nation's first hybrid natural gas/renewable energy data center park. It is expected to combine clean fossil fuels, alternative energy, Microgrid, energy storage and cloud computing data centers.

Recently, Pike Research’s (News - Alert) reports showed the Niobrara Energy Park as the largest planned grid-backed Microgrid in the world. “Our project is unique and an opportunity for a developer to be an international trendsetter as they develop the nation's first hybrid natural gas/renewable energy data center park,” said Craig Harrison, founder of the park.

Once completely built, the project is expected to feature 1.5 million square foot of data centers, a 200-megawatt clean natural gas plant, a 20-megawatt solar farm and a utility-scale fuel cell farm all valued near $2.4 billion. Plus, the cloud data centers could house upward of $4 billion in computers.

In January, 2012, Harrison and IDC Architects developed a comprehensive master plan book to showcase the park. And, after six more months of concentrated research and design, CH2M HILL released the updated ‘Blue Book’ that emphasizes the site’s energy-efficiency potential of 60 percent lower carbon usage (CUE), 70 percent lower water usage (WUE) and 40 percent lower power usage (PUE) than US average benchmarks.

Additionally, Niobrara's value proposition is expected to be further supported by a comprehensive economic comparison of the Niobrara site with popular data center markets in 10 U.S. states, scheduled to be released in mid-November.

“In both short-term and long-term scenarios, Niobrara's economic and energy-efficiency attractiveness compares very favorably with the numerous sites we compared,” Harrison said, adding that the recent flurry of sizeable "green" data center investments by industry leaders is a further validation of the Niobrara concept.

Earlier, CH2M HILL delivered a June 13 presentation on sustainable design strategies for latest-generation data center facilities at the Seminar of Green Data Center Construction and Sustainable Development organized by the Shanghai Economy and the Information Committee.