Five eco friendly data centers designed to save energy

Many activities associated with the Information Technology industry have a Data centre as their backbone. A data center is the centralized repository maintained in a big facility, which can be virtual or tangible. The purpose of a data center is the maintenance, storage and retrieval of data. Every company maintains its own data center. For example, the picture shown above is the Yahoo's Data Center in Lockport, New York. It tracks the server activities and provides all the resources requested by millions of users.

Much of the area of the data centers are occupied by various cables. The remaining space is reserved for super computers and the backup power source. Air-conditioning units are used in the data centers to keep the equipment cool. The air conditioners also requires power for its operation, putting more demand on the power requirement of the plant. Its been found by a detailed study that data centers contribute about 2% of the total global warming.

With rising environmental concern, stress is being put to reduce the damage being done to nature by data centers. Here are 5 eco-friendly data centers that are designed to save energy:

1. Yahoo Data Center This is the concept being developed for Yahoo Group. This data center is located in Lockport, New York, near Buffalo. It will house 7500 servers and not have any air-conditioning units. The strategy is to make efficient use of the cold air flowing through that area. So all the cooling requirements will be met by the ambient air. Thus, the power consumption will drop from 1.92 to 1.08. This is accomplished due to the relatively cold climate of New York. Also, a innovative design called Yahoo Chicken Coop design will enable the proper circulation of air, thus cooling the complete facility. Thus, if their proposed plan works well, they will succeed in saving about 40% of electricity.
2. Limestone Cave Data Center
   

   Limestone Cave Data Center
   This one seems to be the oddest technology ever. The use of extreme cold temperature inside the limestone caves. Limestone caves can filter out 1.5 BTU (British Thermal Units) of heat per square feet. They are proposing to build a complete data center inside the cave, to make use of this natural cooling. The technique is to cover the server racks with perforated ceiling tiles that are attached to the cave walls, which then will absorb the heat. Thus this concept also tries to reduce the air-conditioning cost. Also the cave further eliminates the need to build a huge facility to house the complete system. This will reduce the land requirement and other pollution that will result from building a full-fledged plant.
3. Lockerbie Data Center
   

   Lockerbie Data Center
   Scotland is another place known for having cold climate most of the year. Microsoft Technology partner Alchemy Plus, has proposed to build 20000 square feet data center at the cost of 20 million pound. They envisage that this project will not only answer the cooling costs, but also will open job avenues to thousands of Scottish citizens. This is another of the proposed data center that will make use natural effects.
4. Syracuse University Data Center
   

   Syracuse University Green Data Center
   Syracuse University along with IBM Corp. have envisaged to build a data center worth $12.4 million, which they claim to be eco-friendly. The data center will be occupied by 12 micro turbines and 8-foot tall generators that run on natural gas, which will run on direct current (DC), instead of alternating current (AC). Each generator will produce 65 megawatts power. Thus the loss due to transmission and rectification is absent. They also plan to use water to cool the server units. If the design is successful, then they will not have to depend on the grids for power requirement.
5. Fluid-submerged Data Center
   

   Fluid-submerged data-center
   The Fluid-submerged data center is being developed by Green Revolution Cooling. The technique is to submerge the servers inside a non-conducting, non-toxic, odorless and transparent liquid, having such a high thermal conductivity that it can absorb 90- 95 % of the heat generated, without the use of electrical power. So, this concept also aims at reducing power consumption.

We have seen the promising technologies which are a result of dedicated endeavor by many companies. It is now the time that will decide which technology and at what point of time will act as a savior for the increasingly polluted earth.