Solar powering your data center is good for the environment, but Jimmy Ray Purser has an even more compelling reason to do it: It'll save your smaller business money -- no matter where it is located
After my fourth straight day of subzero weather here on the third moon of Hoth, called WisCONsin by the locals, I am starting to question two things: Is the good fishing up here really worth this? And what does the sun actually look like? I'm glad I don't have solar panels for heat or a data center. Now I find myself in quite a pickle -- or wait, this is Wisconsin, so, I mean, I find myself in a quite a frozen bratwurst. (Doesn't ring the same, does it?)
Anyway, what does a green-conscience kinda engineer do about data center design in parts of the world where the sun shines about seven minutes a year?
Engineering a data center with virtualization and Energy Star compliance is a good start for sure, and it can save some cash. I don't see that as "green," just a good engineering design principle to reduce heat. Truthfully, when I think of "green," I'm thinking out-of-the-box to do things differently to save some money and the environment as well. Now I have a vested interest in the environment: the fish. Mainly the bass that run away from my fishing lures like I do from my mother-in-law's cooking. In green data center design, I'm looking toward the sun -- not directly, of course.
Data Centers Burn Lots of Energy
I finished reading the 133-page snoozer that the Environmental Protection Agency presented to Congress back in August 2007 on data center efficiency (Public Law 109-431), and it included a very alarming statistic. According to the report, data center energy consumption is skyrocketing. In 2006, data centers in the United States burned an estimated 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, more than double the amount consumed in 2000, at a cost of some $4.5 billion. The EPA predicts that data power consumption could double again by 2011, at a cost of nearly $7.5 billion. Statistically speaking, doubling the energy used in 2000 took six years. Doubling the energy used in 2006 is estimated to take five years.
As an engineer, I look at statistics like this with a designer's eye. When increasing desktop LAN speeds from 100 MB to 1 GB, I increased productivity and broadened my applications, and I could tie that back to money saved; after a quick equipment payoff time, the choice was obvious. Now we're looking at powering a data center. We could fly a "green" banner and argue the environmental benefits of being green, but really, being green is a secondary benefit.
For example, I hear folks all the time talk about greenhouse gases and how they affect the environment by raising the temperature. I am sitting here in subzero weather (-40 wind chill), and I am ready to run outside and start spraying every aerosol can I can find. Know your audience. When we look at greenhouse gases, the biggest producers are no surprise: coal at 900 grams per hour of CO2 per kWh, followed a close second by oil at 850 grams per hour of CO2 per kWh. The lowest is wind at 11 grams per hour of CO2 per kWh, followed by nuclear at 24 grams per hour of CO2 per kWh. Solar is actually third lowest at 37 grams per hour of CO2 per kWh.
Next Page: It's Payback Time: Solar Powering the Data Center
