Some industries are criticized for producing thermal (heat) pollution. The cooling water from power plants--especially nuclear--is often cited as an example. And while it's usually portrayed differently, urban heat islands gain part of their warmth from man's activities rather than land-use changes. Yet, the following way of dealing with heat pollution is considered green.
Enormous sheds filled with racks of computers pop up every day and everywhere, the silent power strengthening the ever-more-connected and ever-more-digital world.
But in Ark Continuity's new SQ17 server farm buried deep in the former stone mines of Corsham, is something worth noting. The facility, unveiled today, is probably the most sustainable and environmentally friendly of its kind in the world: a combination of location and design means that it uses more than a third less energy than a typical data centre.
"Between 25-40% of the cost of running a data centre would be in the electricity," says Jeffrey Thomas, chief executive of Ark Continuity. "So if we can cut that in half, we're making a significant economic saving for our occupiers, even before their CO2 reduction obligations."
IT accounts for around 2% of the UK's carbon emissions and the sector is aware of increasing impact it will have on energy and environment as it grows. "Being more efficient in the data centre is synonymous not only with saving carbon but also saving money," says Kate Craig-Wood, co-founder of the carbon-neutral ISP Memset. "So it's pretty common sense really."
I've blogged previously about companies building data centers in northerly locations here in the U.S. to save energy on cooling. From the standpoint of cost and energy utilization, taking advantage of colder climates makes great sense. Meanwhile as incandescent bulbs periodically remind us, heat pollution can be rather useful when one's cold. It's only pollution when we don't like the effects.
He acquired what is now known as Spring Park ten years ago. A hundred miles from London and with a million-square-feet hole underground, it was not immediately obvious to Thomas that the site should be used as a data centre. The facility had been an underground munitions dump and factory site during the Second World War. "In the Cold War, latterly under Macmillan and Thatcher, it became the seat of government in a time of crisis. Part of it became a nuclear bunker."
This meant the underground buildings were some of the most secure facilities in the UK, reinforced and strengthened so that they could withstand three 10-megaton nuclear strikes at the same time. And it also had interesting environmental characteristics -– being a damp mine, it was ideal at staying cool. "The sun never shines down there so there's no solar gain," says Thomas. "With the size of it and the evaporative qualities of the mine, we can dissipate 20MW of energy with adiabatic cooling with 10 litres of water a second, which is just cycled around in a fog underground."
"At our latitude and altitude, we'll get around 60-65% of the year we should achieve free air cooling -– that means the temperature of the outside of the building is cool enough to use to cool the inside of the building."
The Cold War in a cold place... But eventually--as the subway system in London has shown (previous blog here), that ground will slowly warm up.
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