This photo was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
Simon LawWhile computing power consumption is not at the top of the list of the most egregious energy drains, it is a large enough source on the grid that it warrants creative thinking, especially in the context of server farms. Not only are server clusters a more concentrated power draw than individual computers, but the energy needed to house and cool them is a significant source in and of itself. Two new ideas—one in theory and one in practice—aim to address these questions with novel solutions.
Server centers need constant cooling to keep processors from overheating. Usually the resulting heat is vented outdoors and wasted. The first idea, in practice at a new IBM data center in Switzerland, captures the hot exhaust produced by the air conditioning system and routes it through exchangers to warm water for a nearby town pool. While the city helped pay for the system, it will get to use the heat for free.
The second idea comes from Andy Hopper, a Cambridge University computing professor. His idea is to physically relocate server farms close to sources of alternative energy. While subscribing to wind or solar power decreases reliance on fossil fuels, a lot of that energy is lost as it is moved throughout the power grid. By concentrating high-consumption computing clusters near the source, they'll most efficiently take advantage of the clean power.
Neither solution is massive or mind-blowing, but they're small enough to actually be implementable and both demonstrate a promising sort of innovation. Hit up the comments if you've got a like solution.
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
Check out the best of what's new here.
from Shelburne, NH
How about they relocate sever farms to the north were it is nice and cold. Then build alternative energy farm to power it. Then the heat created by the servers can be used in turbines to create energy or heat the service complex used to facilitate the staff.
Baaaah stupid story why do you have to click the link to get to the punchline
address these questions with novel solutions.... click to read the stupid ideas. You could easily fit the data in with the headline or are your getting payed by the click?
If you are serous about making your server farm more efficient you'd switch to liquid cooling at the server and have a centralized ac to dc power supply instead of individual ones. We have a good power grid, moving your location next to a wind farm is useless. If you want to subsidies alternative energy all it takes is mailing them a check once a month.