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A Server Farm Powered By a Wind Farm
1sockchuck writes "A Texas startup called Baryonyx plans to build data centers powered entirely by renewable energy. Its first project will be a wind-powered server farm powered by 100 wind turbines in the Texas panhandle. The company has also leased 38,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico, where it hopes to build hundreds of 300-foot wind turbines that can each generate up to 5 megawatts of power to support additional facilities. Baryonyx plans to sell excess capacity to the local utility, which it will use as a backup when the wind dies down."
I've built a car that runs on a wind farm. Only problem is that it only works in the water. 100% green though!
*Hundreds* of 300ft wind farms to power a data center? Holy sustainability problems Batman!
The current version has coal-fired blowers feeding into the wind farm.
Future versions promise to remove the coal-fired blowers.
"A Texas startup called Baryonyx plans to build data centers powered entirely by renewable energy. [... ] it will use [the local utility] as a backup when the wind dies down."
If it's powered of the grid when it isn't windy out, and it's powered entirely by renewable energy, wouldn't it be powered entirely by renewable energy if it used the grid all the time?
Or are they just trying to say that it's net-positive? Or what? The linked article doesn't seem to claim that the data center will be "powered entirely by renewable energy", so it isn't much help.
-Peter
missing the transmission lines.
T. Boone Pickens says the lines won't be available until 2013.
Yours Electrostatically,
Kilgore Trout
I'm still chuckling about those 300 foot tall towers that will be standing on the 450 acres of ocean they've leased. For extra credit, calculate the wind load of a turbine extracting 3.5 MW of power from the wind when it's at the top of a 300 foot tower. For extra credit, determine the size and number of supports it would take to keep this thing standing. Remember, it's standing in the Gulf of Mexico so be sure to design for the storms that blow through there from time to time and a long life standing in seawater.
It's an interesting story - but if you're approached about investing in this project you might want to keep your wallet in your pocket.
...thats a pun this time, right? right? get it? vaporware? (prepares to dodge flying food)
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your politician, and hitting them?"
can someone explain to me why server farms and wind farms are "farms"? last time i checked, an X farm is where you grow X. do whey grow little servers in server farms (aka servlets)? do they grow wind in a wind farm? what the hell is up with naming conventions these days?
weinersmith
We need more nuclear power.
Wind turbines are great and all, except for the fact they need tons of copper, aluminum, fiberglass and other resources which require a heck of a lot of energy to mine and produce.
All those resources are best used elsewhere, where it is more efficient.
Nothing beats nuclear power at providing base generating capacity.
Let's get some hydro in there too, hydro is a dirty word nowadays, which is insane. It's more green than all the "fashionable green technologies".
Give me an all of above approach please!!!
And don't forget we need to return to the moon and start mining Helium 3 now();
I herd u liek farms so we powered yo farm with a farm so u can farm while you farm!
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
dunno about the rest of ya but for me...every time I hear wind power generation, it reminds me of Dune....specifically, the Dune PC games...where the main source of power were these wind turbines.
(yea, the old DOS based game...Dune II...man...classic...)
but dang...300ft turbines? imagine the number of migratory birds, insects (notably monarch butterflies from mexico), and numerous PETA/Greenpeace boats would be destroyed....
I guess the downside is just the animals that would be sacrificed for the greater good.
c'est la vie
Does anyone else get the image of a wind tunnel data centre with passive coolers dissipating directly into gale-force winds? Not that the idea's bad, exactly. I just wonder how much power they're consuming for AC when the wind-powered notion could probably be taken more directly for a significant portion of the running costs (ie cooling).
They may need add a 404-w for sever down do to lack of wind.
I would rather see these companies spend money on geo-thermal or Solar Thermal. Both of these can serve as base-load power.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
59 square miles of land to generate a theoretical maximum of 1500 megawatts (300 turbines x 5 MW each). But the reality is even with all 300 turbines running, assuming they all get built, the actual power output much of the time will be well below their rated maximum output. A nuclear power plant, in particular, those containing multiple reactor units, can easily produce well in excess of 1500 MW on a much smaller foot print than 59 square miles, and more consistently.
In my view, wind power is a fad. I'd wager in 20 years there will be a booming business in wind turbine demolition as it becomes painfully clear, even to many wind power advocates, that their efficiency is lousy and the ongoing maintenance, especially as the turbines age, far larger than inticipated; many will be glad to see the eyesores turn down. To digress, right now, wind turbines, in most places, are still a novelty and seem neat, but once they're everywhere, and especially as they age, aren't going to seem so nice anymore.
Solar, especially home and business installations on roofs, which basically unused space now, shows much promise - won't eliminate the need for the grid, but will reduce demand somewhat while saving people money.
Ron
Not to be overly cynical, but is there any reason why anyone hasn't bought cheap land and/or politicians in Mexico to get around those pesky NIMBY people and environmental laws? Granted you would need to spend money on infrastructure to get the power to the Southern US, but you would think it would still be more economical than wasting time in the US.
"Baryonyx plans to sell excess capacity to the local utility, which it will use as a backup when the wind dies down."
Translation: the local utility will need to build/buy additional generating capacity to cover the lack of base-load power from the wind farm.
This is a gimmick that isn't near as 'green' as they want you to believe.
- Necron69
Cause at $1.5-2.0 Million per mile for 30 miles of transmission line, they are looking at around $45-60 Million for 115KV transmission out there. Add another $10 Million to add to the 138KV sub in Dalheart, at least another $15 million for their own substation near the wind farm, plus another $10 Million for interconnections between wind turbines and the wind substation. Settling any right of way issues, better budget at least $5 million. And add in 10% for miscellaneous changes and unforeseen consequences. Plus another 10% for the program management....
We're talking $100-115 million dollars being spent on transmission line construction, and this all before this project makes any money. Plus, THREE YEARS? I know you are marketing to the venture capitalists, but I don't think so, try 5 years minimum.
And this is BEFORE costs per wind turbine, which run in the $2-3 Million per turbine due to them being in high demand right now. So that's another $200-300 Million on top of that. Tax credits will shave off almost 70-80% of the purchase price of the turbines over 10 years though. Didn't know we taxpayers were subsidizing this construction, didya?
WANTED: Investors with serious balls. Require big brass ones, with money to spend in a shite economy. Will not receive return on investment for at least 5 years if ever. This is Texas, Wussies, Pussies, and Wimps need not apply...
~Sticky
If it's powered of the grid when it isn't windy out, and it's powered entirely by renewable energy, wouldn't it be powered entirely by renewable energy if it used the grid all the time?
Sounds like they have excess generation capacity. They sell the power to the grid when the wind is high and buy it from the grid when the wind is too low to supply the local loads. If they buy less than they sell they can honestly say the load is (at least on the average) powered entirely by renewable resources.
It's not even a cheat: Peak wind power usually occurs when the peak demand on the grid is occurring. The wind farm doesn't just displace more fuel-burning at peak times than the data center causes at offpeak time. It displaces more costly fuels - both in money and pollution potential.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
can someone explain to me why server farms and wind farms are "farms"?
Probably by analogy with "antenna farm" - an old radio term for a site with a number and usually a variety of antennas. (These were typically a radio amateur running on many bands but some commercial and military "farms" also existed.) It was a joking reference to the crowded cluster of antennas "growing up" from the plot of land like a crop of trees or other cultivated plants in a farm or garden.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I love these folks that think that if they sell some power to the "grid" and then use the "grid" power later that somehow they are using 100% renewable resources. No, sorry, you are using wind power when you are drawing from the wind, and grid power (using whatever technology the grid there uses to generate) when you are drawing from the grid. The "grid" isn't some sort of battery. Come talk to me when you're storing your excess wind power yourself and drawing off of that when the wind dies.
A: It blows.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Naaah. Then I don't want it! Not shitty enough.
P.S.: How about using the "output" of all those cows for energy generation trough "biogas" and burning(?) "biomass"?
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Wind generators are required to have (usually gasoline or diesel) motor backups when the "wind dies down" because they are required to maintain a certain amount of power at all times... they have to keep producing electricity whether the wind is spinning the blades or whether the motor is.
Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
Wind power is very expensive to produce. Just add up the numbers for investment. Sticky Widgets numbers are ok, if a tad low: So about 500 million for these turbines. So in order to get any kind of ecomic return - which better be on the order of 20% per year given the political uncertainty with wind, means that you need to charge about 100 million per year for the electricity. How much juice? Easy. 100 turbines x 365*24*1.5MW * 30% of the time its windy, means $253 per megawatt hour. Or 25c per kwh. This is about 5x the price for nuclear or coal, and nuclear and coal can be called up on demand. The 'real' price is higher still, as you need a 450MW (likely gas fired) plant built to cover the times when no wind is blowing.
Right now in Ontario, power is selling for a spot price of about 1/12 that - $17 US /Mwh. Wind energy needs to be priced at the spot market value, since it is not predictable. (Unless you also build the 450 MW gas plant, and add that to the cost). http://www.theimo.com/imoweb/marketdata/marketToday.asp
Wind power is a run for your wallet arranged by big business, demanded by the populace (who can't add) and approved by the government who gets elected by city people who don't have to live with it.
Say hello to tripling your elecric bill, while not measurably lowering carbon output.
Now we can blanket the planet with them to power everyone else!!!
Nuclear Power for the win.
Wind is inexpensive if you can get financing and that requires a contract with a utility to buy the power. An example of a 1.8MW turbine using a ballpark reasonable estimate of $2,300 per kW yields an annual payment of $201,000 at 7% for 30 years. This turbine will put out 5,200 annual megawatthours of electricity at a 33% capacity factor in a year. If you divide the annual payment by the annual output, the average cost is $39/MWH. The current market referent (cost of running a natural gas fired combustion turbine including capital costs) price for renewable energy in Calif is $113/MWH. There is a hell of a profit to be made since taxpayers are paying capital costs with tax credits. Market prices have been low this year ($50 average) but last year averaged ~$80-90.
The predicted capacity factor was to be close to 33% and it has been close to that. Energy output has varied significantly by hour from hours with zero to maximum production, but averaging 33%. Now if you wanted predictable, firmed up wind is available from the Northwest using hydro to firm the wind. You just have to pay to crank the hydro generators up and down plus the added transmission cost (~$9/MWH).
Birds on the large turbines are not a problem because they turn slow and lattice towers are no longer used. Cows graze under the towers because they are spaced far apart. See:
http://www.iberdrolarenewables.us/cs_hw.html
Maintenance is similar to other generation and gearboxes (of all things) have been a problematic maintenance issue.
Nuclear isn't an option because it is way too expensive (read about Duke's proposed plants in Georgia) even though it has a 97% capacity factor. Coal will no longer be a cheap source as a carbon tax or cap&trade come into play. Solar PV and solar thermal are slowly dropping in price but wind will be cheaper for a long time.
Finally, there is former oil company that is using undersea oil towers to hold up wind turbines off the coast of Scotland or the North Sea. I believe construction has started.
To reiterate someone elses point - the fuel is free.
The hot air produced by bankers, consultants and the current government alone must be able to power a few datacentres..
Insert
Bah.
This is nothing new. Host Gator's server farms have been powered by "Texas wind energy" for some time now.
The problem with building ANYTHING in the Panhandle is the same problem that T Boone Pickens had with building wind farms there. There's no infrastructure out there.
Pickens' problem was no transmission lines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/business/energy-environment/08wind.html
Exactly what data lines are they going to connect to their server farm?
AG
Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro
so far everything seems to be working GREA NO CARRIER
If you look at an X farm as being a place where you harvest X, it makes perfect sense. You're harvesting wind and you're harvesting data.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel