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Sun to Create Underground Japanese Datacenter
Kurtz'sKompund writes with word of a Sun project in Japan, one that's taking a somewhat non-standard approach to data center construction. To save on power, heating, and water costs, the consortium is going to be building their center in an abandoned coal mine. The outpost will be created by lowering Blackbox systems into the ground; estimates on savings run to $9 million annually in electricity alone.
Sun to Create Japanese Datacenter where the Sun don't shine.
The Blackbox containers are robust enough to withstand earthquakes, being capable of withstanding a quake of magnitude 6.7 on the Richter scale.
I don't know, but placing servers 100m underground in a place that routinely is hit by large earthquakes seems a dubious idea. The containers themselves may survive a quake, but what happens when the disused coal mine collapses onto and around them? Even if the containers and servers survive, will the power and data cables? If the tunnels collapse how will you get to and from the servers for maintenance?
Three Squirrels
Since this is a basement dweller's dream job come true, Sun won't have to pay too much for labor.
The temperature in a cave means nothing, unless you take into account the cave's ability to dissipate heat somewhere (water or air moving through the cave). If you go inside a cave that's been at constant 55F for a thousand years and you suddenly heat it with 50 kilowatts of power from your data center the temperature will settle at 255F in a hurry. About the only advantage you get from a cave is a constant supply of really cold water (if sufficient rain that year). Ambient air temperature is irrelevant since usually you don't have a strong draft in a deep cave and static air will heat up pretty quickly.
has been reading Cryptonomicon.
By what name do you wish to be mourned?
Sun to create datacenter in the land of the rising Sun.
A couple of examples come to mind.
The Government of Canada marijuana farm is located in an old copper mine in Manitoba. You can't beat the security, which is something mentioned in tfa. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2001/08/02/marijuana_010802.html
A solar neutrino observatory is installed in an old mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canads. It has the advantage of being impervious to almost all kinds of radiation, except of course for neutrinos. http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/
As I look at the other posts, I see lots of naysayers. Well there are at least a couple of cases where old mines have been used successfully for other things.
Whoa. Coincidentally, that's the optimum incubation temperature for Mothra larvae.
For the sake of humanity, let's hope that Sun is factoring this into their cooling calculations.
Does not the air conditioning cycle in these black boxes also remove humidity ? I worked at Sun and got to play with these containers. They remove the humidity from in coming air and are cooled with water.
It seems like the idea is to use the mines water to cool the containers and dump it back into the mine to be cooled and reused. They also have dehumidifiers built into the Black box to prevent condensating moisture inside.
I worked on wiring one with a couple cohorts and even sweating in these things is a joke , it's pretty much sucked up in about 5 minutes of being sediment in the box.
This package Does Not Contain a Winner