Saturday, March 08, 2008

Data Center Links: The Green Issue

Data Center Links: The Green Issue

There - now I have it out of my system! :) The data center industry is absolutely inundated with stories on renewable energy and ways that companies are saving energy or building energy efficient facilities. If it weren't so important I would say enough already on the hype cycle -- but power is obvious paramount to a data center and saving money and being environmentally friendly at the same time is equally important.

Let's start with the Google search results -- perhaps meaningless, but interesting:

Wind Energy: 6,490,000 results
Solar Energy: 12,400,000 results
Hydroelectric: 3,060,000 results

Below is a collection of items that have come across my virtual desk in the past few weeks; but first I thought I would link to several 'green' blogs that I have added to my regular surfing schedule.
Other miscellaneous links to interesting stories:
  • Solar
    • An email from my dad led me to the company WorldWater & Solar Technologies Corp. Just this last week they announced a ground breaking of a 2 Megawatt solar system at the Denver International Airport. "The solar installation will supply 3.5 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually for the airport and is valued at over $13 million." Check out complete details here.
    • Courtesy of the TreeHugger blog, there is a story on the Solar Market Outlook - unveiled in New York City.
    • Here is a story in Business Week about Florida power companies buying back solar energy from their customers. I imagine you will see this story in a lot of other cities throughout 2008.
    • This one was just too funny -- The Seattle Times reports that a man filed charges against his neighbor because their redwoods blocked sunlight to his backyard solar panels. A judge recently ordered the neighbor to cut down 2 of its 8 redwood trees, citing an obscure state law that protects a homeowner's right to sunlight. This is so silly that I'm speechless...
  • Managed hosting provider EasyStreet is building a new 10,000 square foot data center. They put a lot of green design into it, partnering with Intel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and others. Check out the Portland Business Journal article here.
  • An article on the IT@Intel blog mentions a twist on energy conservation - energy reuse. Anyone that has worked or been in a data center has felt how hot the hot aisle is. This article discusses using that heat waste for good in areas outside of the data center. Intel is putting this to use in Israel - one of its 8 global hub data centers. An estimated $235,000 will be saved annually with heat recycling and this facility will hopefully become Intel's first LEED certified green building. After the 2007/2008 winter I have endured, I could benefit from this technology! Their white paper on the technology can be found here.
  • Both Intel and Google have nice R&D web sites about their renewable energy initiatives.
The End (for now)

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