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Hyperscale tech companies, like Apple, Google and Microsoft are validating renewable energy data center desings, with the expectation that customers will eventually follow in their tracks.<\/p>\nThe relationship between green energy and the data centers is in an early stage, but there has been a growing interest in using renewables in the data centers.<\/p>\n
Hyperscale tech companies, like Apple, Google and Microsoft are validating renewable energy data center desings, with the expectation that customers will eventually follow in their tracks.<\/p>\n
The Apple<\/strong> data center in Maiden, North California, relies entirely on renewable power as part of a multifaceted renewable energy project. The company built a 100-acre, 20-megawatt plant that will produce 42 megawatts of energy annually. In addition, Apple is partnering with NC GreenPower – an independent, nonprofit organization – to increase renewable energy production throughout the state. Apple and NC GreenPower are using a local landfill (located just three miles from the Maiden data center) to generate electricity from waste materials’ methane gas.<\/p>\n When it was completed in 2013, the London Array was the largest offshore wind farm in the world, designed to produce a gigawatt of electricity. In April of that year, Google<\/strong> announced that it had contracted for that much renewable energy over the course of seven different purchase agreements since 2011, so Google has committed over $1 billion to renewable energy projects such as large-scale wind systems and rooftop solar panels, uses renewable energy to power more than 30% of its operations. Google\u2019s goal is to power all of its operations with 100 percent renewable energy. Some of its data centers are powered by wind energy. In Finland it uses seawater from the Bay of Finland to cool its servers, storage systems and network devices — another green initiative that saves rather than generates energy.<\/p>\n Microsoft<\/strong> is experimenting with powering a data center via biogas from a wastewater treatment facility. This 200 kW Microsoft data center project requires collaboration with more institutions.<\/p>\n But renewables are not a perfect fit for the data center. Google notes that locations with the best renewable power potential are not generally the same places where a data center would ideally operate. Data centers are usually stationed in large, metropolitan areas with abundant electricity and telecommunications lines. Renewable energy generation often occurs in remote areas; moving the energy from these locations onto the electric grid has been an ongoing challenge for utilities.<\/p>\n Solar and wind power rely on energy from nature, so their output is often quite unpredictable. If clouds move in or the wind dies down, little to no energy is produced. Contrary to this intermittent power production, large data centers are constant energy consumers, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The limitations of capricious weather mean that renewables are often a supplemental – not primary – energy source.<\/p>\n Furthermore, renewable energy typically relies on direct current, whereas data center equipment works on alternating current electricity. Converters drive up costs and reduce the renewables’ benefits.<\/p>\n Beside the above mentioned facts, renewable energy seems like a natural solution for data centers, which are notoriously electricity hungry, the purchase of large contracts and certificates by big tech companies to green their images is driving a new wave of interest in renewable energy. But will utilities need to significantly expand their capacity to meet this demand?<\/p>\n Data centers accounted for 1.3 percent of global energy consumption in 2010, according to a research. Between 2000 and 2005, energy use by data centers worldwide doubled, but from 2005 to 2010 energy use increased by only 56 percent worldwide, which is probably because a lower than anticipated rate of server installations.<\/p>\n Enterprise data centers are the biggest part of the issue (of excess energy use): between 80 and 85 percent are in companies whose primary business is not computing. The Facebooks, the Apples, the Googles are the most efficient of all the data centers, and they\u2019re the ones getting all of the attention, according to the research, which shows that Google\u2019s data centers\u2019 electricity use comprises less than one percent of all data center energy use globally. As a result , demand from the companies with the most pressure to switch to renewable energy is tempered by their improvements in data center energy efficiency.<\/p>\n These are customer-facing companies, and the customers care about this issue. Assuaging customers\u2019 energy concerns has benefits for the companies in addition to benefits for the environment. These companies also have very high margins. Data centers are highly profitable. That means that they\u2019re willing to pay a little bit extra to get green energy kudos.<\/p>\n In 2013 Facebook<\/strong> purchased renewable energy certificates from a wind farm being developed by MidAmerican Energy to cover 100 percent of the anticipated energy consumption for a new data center in Altoona, Iowa. Facebook has also committed to a goal of 25 percent renewable energy for all of its global data centers by the end of 2015. It already has one data center, in Lulea, Sweden, powered entirely by hydroelectric energy.<\/p>\n According to the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) national ranking list, Intel<\/strong> uses 3.1 billion kilowatt hours of green power annually. This constitutes the entirety of the company\u2019s electricity use, making Intel the top-ranked EPA green power partner. Microsoft ranks third, using 1.4 billion kilowatt hours of green power, which is 50 percent of the company\u2019s total electricity use.<\/p>\n Even with these substantial agreements taking place, renewable energy capacity is growing at a far faster rate. Most contracts with major tech companies involve wind power, production of which grew almost 20 percent between 2012 and 2013 in the U.S., totaling 467 million megawatt hours last year. Meanwhile, wind energy consumption for the commercial sector has remained steady at around 293,071 megawatt hours since 2012, so steady demand isn\u2019t likely to stress the market.<\/p>\n Source: www.greendatacenternews.org<\/span><\/a><\/span>, www.searchdatacenter.techtarget.com<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The relationship between green energy and the data centers is in an early stage, but there has been a growing interest in using renewables in the data centers. Hyperscale tech companies, like Apple, Google and Microsoft are validating renewable energy … Continue reading