It seems that every new data center that opens its doors these days is billed as green, doesn’t it? The $12.4 million, 12,000-square-foot building from IBM and Syracuse University is no different. However, this is one green data center with some serious innovations that back up those green claims.

It’s a given that you’ll find energy-efficient servers, targeted cooling, and an energy monitoring and management platform, but it’s the on-site, “tri-generation” system that really helps set the data center apart. Powered by natural gas, microturbines provide all of the facility’s electricity and cooling (and heat, hence tri-generation). Waste heat from the microturbines is used to chill water using double-effect absorption chillers, which in turn is used to siphon heat from server racks with cooling doors.

Further efficiencies come from a direct current (DC) power distribution system, which eliminates the alternating current (AC) to DC conversion tax. All told, the data center will consume half the power of a traditional computing facility.

Read more about the new green data center here. You can also watch a YouTube video with some on-site footage after the break.