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Power In Scotland From Tides and Whiskey
tsamsoniw writes "Singapore-based Atlantis Resources Corporation, which brings to the table tidal-turbine technology, is partnering with Scotland-based datacenter developer Internet Villages International) to construct a tidal-powered 150MW 'Blue Datacenter,' InfoWorld reports. If all goes to plan, the facility will eventually be powered entirely by clean energy produced by tidal-current turbines in the Pentland Firth, the stretch of water between the far north Scottish mainland and Orkney. The firth's currents could generate 700 megawatts of electricity by 2020." And reader Mike writes "Here's something to raise a glass to: recently the Rothes consortium of whiskey and scotch distillers announced that they have partnered with Helius Energy to install a power plant fueled entirely by whiskey by-products. The completed plant will use biomass cogeneration to convert draff and pot ale from the distillery into 7.2 MW of electricity — enough to power 9,000 homes."
It seems that in some cases, whiskey can now be called an energy drink.
--Bud
Of course in Scotland we call it Whisky...
They will stop the moon, because everyone knoes that the Moon pushes the tides, and against these contraptions the moon will have to push harder, so it will lose speed and this giant Italian spy-satellite that we call the "moon" will crash into America and contaminate our base-ball parks and churches with its nefarious blasphemy. Obama has pledged to wage war against the terrorists, but "Barack" (his middle name is actually Giuseppe!) could be an agent of the sinister Italian infiltrators! Alert America! Alert!
That's 800W per home. That's very little. A fridge, a microwave, and you're quickly over it.
What is, actually, the average power draw of a home in Scotland?
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
Not much.
What do Scots use for heating when it's cold? A 40 watt lightbulb.
What do they do when it's very cold? Switch it on.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
fyi- if it's made in Scotland, you spell it "whisky" (no 'e'), if it's anywhere else, it's "whiskey" (with an 'e').
a couple of charlatans in other countries do spell it without an 'e', but we've sent our finest drunken brawlers to deal with them asap.
Scotland's First Minister came and gave a speech at National Geographic Headquarters a few months ago in which he announced a $15M prize for whomever could come up with a way to harness the sea's energy around Scotland. I'm wondering if this will be one of the entries. Either way, Scotland seems to be located in a prime spot to be leading the charge with this type of renewable energy.
This guy's the limit!
Powered by Glaswegian headbutts, and horrendous hangovers.
The Scottish tidal power project actually involves two huge data center projects. Atlantis is working with Morgan Stanley on a large data center near its planned tidal power generation site in the Pentland Firth. Internet Villages is planning a large data center campus near Dumfries that could eventually include 3 million SF of data center facilities. The alliance will split the responsibiltiies, with Atlantis handling power generation at its own site and a second location nearer the Dumfires project, while IVI will handles the marketing and be responsible for finding customers for both facilities.
No wonder if you're a Scot. We travelled Edinburgh a few years ago in early May and as soon as the sun came out, the locals were donning shorts, T-shirts, Kilts and the lassies in short skirts... all at around 5 degs Celsius, brrr ;-)
Ever wondered whats wrong with the world? http://www.ishmael.org/
but we have these in new york city in the east river, and one effect of tidal turbines is they increase silting because they slow the tides, possibly requiring the city to dredge at some point
not that the pentland firth is as shallow or has as many ships as the east river, but what it does have that the east river doesn't (because we killed it) is an ecosystem. slower water speeds changes the balance of natural flora and fauna that depend upon the tides to work at a speed they have worked for eons (filtration, transport, reproductive timing, etc.)
point being: there is no such thing as truly green energy. any energy source has a negative impact on the environment in one way or another
there is no such thing as a free lunch
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
New Belgium, the best large scale beer producer in North America, produced a substantial fraction of its operating electricity through methane collection (and burning) from its waste products. They have a few other nifty energy tricks, too. For instance, most of the time they don't run interior lighting because instead they have reflective light pipes bringing in sunlight from the roof through all the floors of their buildings.
If you know their flagship beer, it also shouldn't surprise you that a lot of the employees bike to work. Thanks to being in Colorado, that's comfortable more than 300 days a year.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)