Use of renewable energy sources in data centers: pue= Total facilities Power/IT equipment power

Earlier this year, social networking giant Facebook ended the construction of the latest data center at the Oregon State faction Pineville. Facebook executives said at a news conference that the new facility created new standards for Environmental responsibility in data center design and operations. These standards incorporate renewable energy strategies, including rainwater reuse, solar energy and heat recirculation.

So far, the energy-saving advantages of the IT industry's environmental efforts are obvious, although some companies do not always take these practices. As electricity prices rise, even symbolic efforts can significantly save costs.

But it is clear that energy conservation will become more important over the next few years. As it horsepower increases, so does the datacenter. So what's the next best step for efficient data center operations? In the current data center equation, is there a location for renewable energy such as solar and wind?

A common metric for measuring the energy efficiency of data centers is simple: PUE (power usage efficiency) = Total facilities power supply/IT device power. The ideal Pue number is 1.0, which is used to drive the energy of IT equipment and the proportion of the total energy consumed in the data center 1:1. Unfortunately, according to industry sources, most data center Pue is the best case of about 2.0.

This is why some manufacturers advertise the pue of their green computing technology. HP, for example, says its pue of the pod (performance-optimized data center) system is 1.2. "Energy efficiency comes mainly from the innovative cooling technology used by the system," said Jon Mormile, director of HP's pod product marketing, Joen Mormiller. A computer server that keeps hot running while the server is running cool is a major factor in the Pue difference.

Facebook said it was designing a data center in the Pineville data center designed Pue 1.07. It exposes this design to support its "open Computing project". Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technology operations at Facebook, said in a statement that Google's data center design was strictly confidential, unlike its web 2.0 rival, Jonathan Heiliger, and Facebook unveiled its "open source" The data center project will share our design and collaboration with anyone interested in efficient servers and data centers.

However, this impressive efficiency figure does not include the energy generated by Facebook using its solar panel array. According to Facebook, the energy is used to power the office area that supports the data center.

Jack Pu (Jack Pouchet), head of energy program at Emerson Receptacle Power, a multinational company Emerson Tepco, is not surprised by the results. Because data centers are energy-intensive, they are not entirely suitable for solar energy, he said. Emerson called himself the "green Man" of the company. Renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines do not normally generate the power needed to fully supply the data center. Renewable energy has its own limitations. This includes the need for a large number of solar and wind requirements and the space to install these devices.

Given that Emerson receptacle power is one of the few companies in the United States that uses solar energy for its data centers, the conservative view is somewhat unexpected. Emerson has applied 7800 square feet of rooftop solar arrays as part of its new global data center at Saint Louis's corporate headquarters. However, the solar energy generated by these photovoltaic panels accounts for only 16% of the power requirements of the Emerson Data Center.

A good way to use alternative power generation is to have this complementary energy, whether it's powering the data center directly or powering the support system around the data center, he said. He points out that the sun and wind are not the only renewable alternative sources of energy. Biomass can also generate energy when burning, as well as naturally occurring geothermal energy. Both of these energies can be used to drive the steam engine. Just because the federal government cannot immediately build another Hoover Dam does not mean that there is no hydroelectric power available. There are many ways to achieve renewable energy or alternative energy chains in most places.

There is a data center that relies entirely on solar power in the United States. The datacenter, which was run by affordable Internet Services Online (aiso.net), was created by the company's chief technology officer, Fille Ners (Phil Nail), in 1997. We were very small at first, says Neil. Our first client was a Mexican restaurant.

Aiso.net's data center is located in Temecula, California, an hour's drive from northern San Diego. It is mainly because of the ability to use solar energy. It also helps the data center use energy efficiently from top to bottom, from rainwater cooling equipment to solar fluorescent tubes. The air conditioner fan-driven wind turbines power the thin client used by the office. "We have been using solar energy completely since 2001," Neil added. We're out of the grid.

Another key element of Aiso.net's success in energy efficiency is server virtualization. Neil says everyone who finds us allows us to virtualize their physical servers. This helps explain why a relatively small data center with only about 15 server racks can support thousands of customers worldwide. These clients include the San Diego Conference and Tourism Bureau, the crisp Cream donut Company and the Indianapolis Zoo. These customers use solar energy.

This may be an extreme example. However, aiso.net points out that this is an important lesson: when it comes to data center design and operations, it must be dedicated to significant and meaningful energy saving. It's not a whim or a matter of hindsight. ' You can't do it piecemeal, ' says Neil.

Many organizations support energy efficiency programs, and more and more programs are targeted at data centers such as the "Green Grid" (www.thegreengrid.org). Facebook's Open Computing program is backed by companies such as AMD, Dell, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

Energy efficiency and the use of renewables are not just a good idea, but also a real-world benefit from federal taxes and state tax incentive schemes. These incentives can be found in the U.S. national database on incentives for renewable energy and efficiency (www.dsireusa.org).

However, insiders say IT management usually takes a "not my job" approach to data bus energy efficiency. It depends on who is responsible for the budget, says Tony Cooper, head of IT products at Rittal. I talked to IT managers who don't care about their power usage. Their performance is not measured by power usage. That's not their budget. When it comes to energy, it's a bad policy.

(Responsible editor: admin)