Remote Data Centers as a Consistent Load for Renewable Energy

Interesting snippet from a datacenterknowledge article on a data center powered by 100% wind power from an onsite turbine:

Microsoft has tapped into a major advantage of containers: they can easily be placed near renewable energy sources, allowing companies to chase green power to meet carbon reduction goals.

This made me think about recent projects trying to get approval for large transmission lines to bring renewable energy from less populated areas where renewable energy can be generated cost effectively (Good Article here from colorado).  Some of these transmission lines are being planned through parks or other natural spaces and are creating controversy in that respect.  It’s an interesting idea to locate data centers (whether containerized or otherwise) in areas to take advantage of these renewable power sources and to potentially limit the environmental damage required to build large transmission lines to pipe alternative energy around the country.  These remote data centers still need access to fiber to pipe in and out the information they’re processing and storing, but perhaps that’s more efficient then redirecting renewable elsewhere.  My gut reaction is that it would be.

Many developers have utilized the cheap electricity from plentiful hydro power in Eastern Washington State.  They’ve moved large data centers to the area and have taken up a lot of that excess capacity, limiting the need to use transmission lines to pump that cheap hydro power to other parts of the country.

However, unlike hydro, the challenge with wind and solar is the variable output depending on conditions.  Data centers provide a very consistent 24×7 load, so until more cost effective energy storage is developed this may be difficult to implement.  But once it is, having a consistent load from data centers could be ideal for renewable energy with a storage buffer, rather than trying to service a highly variable (and less predictable) load.

Utilities, Data Centers, and Social Media

I found this interesting post today on Triplepundit.  I was amazed at the combination of themes covered in this post as I kick off this blog.  Here are some of the themes:

• Cyber shopping for the holiday season
• The growth of consumer electronics sales
• Upcoming challenges facing utilities
• The use of social media to communicate ideas

There’s a lot here, but it can be distilled down to a couple key points relevant to this blog.

1. The growth in use of the internet, consumer electronics (which increasingly drive internet use) and online social networking tools, which are the things that increasingly drive the growth of data centers and their energy usage.
2. The need for utilities to use these tools to connect with customers for better customer service and energy saving opportunities.

The thing that makes this interesting is it really illustrates the idea that not only are data centers driving increased electricity use, but they’re also providing us tools to enable energy savings and help spread information on energy saving opportunities (like this blog!).

The author drives home the point that utilities should be dynamic in their thinking to take advantage of these trends, saying “The evidence appears compelling that if an electric utility does not engage its customers in a communal, customer-centric, process then the customers will use new media paths to find non-utility sourced solutions, such as the emergence of iPhone apps that enable enterprise or home scale energy management solutions, including interfacing to onsite solar and battery systems.”

From what I’ve seen, this really seems applicable to the data center industry, as you have an advanced, high-tech industry looking to utilities for support and guidance on opportunities for energy savings. The more utilities can get in this role of gathering and disseminating opportunities for energy savings to data center customers, and possibly offering financial incentives where they make sense, the more they can help lead this industry to save energy and keep the electricity growth in this industry from rising as quickly as the growth in demand for digital services. Helping limit the rapid growth of data center energy use will help utilities be able to meet future capacity needs.

The irony is that the some of the very data centers which offer utilities opportunities for substantial energy savings give us the tools to help influence the energy market and realize these savings.

Welcome to the EMI Data Center Blog!

Thanks for visiting the new Energy Market Innovations (EMI) data center blog. Over the years EMI has worked with clients to increase the effectiveness of energy efficiency programs through strategic consulting and evaluation.  Since joining EMI in July, I’ve been excited by the prospect of using my expertise to apply this focus to the growing industry of data centers and information technology (IT) equipment.

Various estimates indicate that data centers are currently responsible for 1.5 to 3.0% of the total electricity use in the US, and that energy use from these facilities is projected to continue at double digit yearly growth rates for the foreseeable future. Regardless of which estimates you believe, it is apparent that the energy use of these facilities is significant and continues to grow with the increased demand for digital services. Over the last few years many experts have collected lists of best practices and many vendors have released more efficient equipment, but more work has to be done to ensure that these practices and technologies are embraced and adopted throughout the industry.

This blog intends to provide a resource for professionals interested in energy efficiency in the data center market, with a focus on how to continue to develop intelligent and effective initiatives for increasing the market penetration of best practices and efficient technologies. This blog will initially focus on utility sponsored initiatives and endeavors to create a bridge of information between the electrical utility and data center industries.  Through this blog, we’ll be keeping you up to date with current news and trends with up to date commentary on how current happenings are applicable to the world of utility sponsored data center energy efficiency initiatives.

Enjoy.  And, of course, being a blog focused on innovation in the digital economy, we’d be remiss to not take advantage of the latest social networking tools.  So please join us via RSS Feeds, Twitter and LinkedIn.