A plan to combine cloud computing, fast broadband and renewable energy could reduce the demand data centers place on the electrical grid and save companies money on power costs. Data centers’ ability to suck up inordinate amounts of electricity is turning them into the Hummers of the computing world. And much like Hummers, their power-guzzling ways means they are becoming increasingly costly to run. To read about the plan being worked on by Andrew Hopper, head of the Cambridge University Computing Lab, head over to Earth2Tech.
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2 comments so far
6:35 PM PT
i guess data centers that follow the sun/wind makes sense in high level theory but how about simple conservation instead like less logging in? including myself… :-)
1:45 PM PT
The Cambridge University Computing Lab project in West Texas sounds promising.
That said, I recall reading that Microsoft is building a traditional style data center that will consume huge amounts of city power and water (for cooling) in the suburbs of San Antonio, Texas.
The Microsoft facility is in excess of 500,000 square feet, and they’re building a similar facility — with the same type of demands on local resources — in the suburbs of Chicago.
Apparently, meaningful progress with “green” data centers is slow to materialize. Companies are still “talking” about their energy efficiency policies while continuing to build these Hummer-like monstrosities.