Monday, April 21, 2008

Wind Powered Data Centers

Last week we learned about Microsoft data center containers being "100% wind-powered" through offsets purchased from the Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy. I had to laugh when I first read this --- at the airport on the trip home from Data Center World I was joking around with my boss that you could take a container, fill it with servers and then stick a wind mill on top to power it! All joking aside I think you will see wind power become a pretty popular green energy source for data center operations.

A developer, planning to build a data center south of Boston will install two large wind turbines to help generate electricity. The company, Granite Rock Global Data Center, will build a 120,000 square foot facility that is expected to have a utility bill in excess of $1 million a month. I don't quite follow the math for a facility that size costing over $1 million in utility bills, but then again the per kWh cost in Massachusetts is higher than a lot of places. The two wind turbines could reduce that monthly bill by 20%.

Check out the ComputerWorld article here.

The growing project list for wind powered energy is pretty exciting. Check out this page to view the American Wind Energy Association's data on U.S. wind energy projects.

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