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Using the Sea To Cool Your Data Center
1sockchuck writes "We haven't yet seen signs of the Google Navy of seagoing data centers that use the ocean for power and cooling. But data center developers are planning to use sea water air conditioning in a new project on the island nation of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Cold water from deep-sea currents would be piped ashore to be used in a heat exchanger for the data center facility. A similar system has been used to replace the chillers at Cornell University, which draws cold water from Lake Cayuga. The Cornell system cost $50 million, but has slashed cooling-related energy usage by 86 percent."
Toronto already uses cold water cooling for air-conditioning many of its office towers in the downtown core and has for many years. (see: http://www.enwave.com/dlwc.php). Unless winter never visits Canada again, this is cold body is self-replenishing.
You keep the saltwater on one side of a heat exchanger; it minimizes the vulnerable piping, and helps a lot. Heck, you could build the big seawater pipes out of concrete.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Then the RIAA would pay the U.S. Navy to "accidentally" drop anchor on the pipe before sniping the datacenter's operators.
Then the American public would be told some daring tale about how the heroic navy again thwarted those evil "pirates" and they wouldn't know the difference!
"Welcome, humans! I am ready for you! Fish, plankton, sea greens and cooling from the sea. Fresh as harvest day. Overwhelming, am I not? Are you, too, startled? Am I too removed from your kin?"
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
They manage well in the Sydey Opera House. They keep the salt water out of their system and heat exchange to fresh water which they circulate.
To keep the corrosion low, they use sacricicial anodes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrificial_anode . These are also used on ships, oil rigs and pipelines - probably more things too. This is nothing new. I believe the opera house was finished in 1974 so they are using well tested technology here.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
This sounds a lot like the arguments about microwave radiation from radio towers and microwave ovens: it seems to overlook the massive amounts of energy arriving from the sun.
Every square inch of ocean (minus those under clouds at a given moment) is constantly absorbing radiation. The fact that there are even oceanic currents- huge, fast-moving masses of water, moving for thousands of miles, is a testament to the kind of energy the ocean deals with all the time. If there's ever a problem with humans overheating a patch of water, it's because they're not spreading the heat far enough, or placing it somewhere where currents can move it off. When it comes to energy, "human scale" and "planetary scale" are still quite different from one another.
Somewhat related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_thermal_energy_conversion
If deep, cold water is pumped up, you could actually achieve a local net cooling, if you wanted.
The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.
Slightly offtopic, but still geeky.
The enwave tunnels were being extended even as late as mid last year (I'm assuming it's either finished, or close to it).
I managed to get in and pay them a visit while construction was stopped for the winter. It was a fascinating peek into their system - the tunnels are placed in overlapping crosses from as far North as Bay and Elizabeth, as far south as Lakeside. I assume the cross pattern is to give as much coverage as possible.
For the intruiged, here are a few snaps.
http://www.ninjito.com/2008-02-29a/qx-to-2.jpg [bottom of entry shaft, entry point for TBM]
http://www.ninjito.com/2008-02-29a/qx-to-3.jpg [Inside an unformed tunnel - the cooling pipes are laid in the bottom, then covered with concrete, leaving the top semicircle as walk access]
http://www.ninjito.com/2008-02-29a/qx-to-1.jpg
http://www.ninjito.com/2008-02-18/qx-to-3.jpg [close up of the trains they used for construction]
The electricity company in Barbados has been doing this for as long as I can remember. They use sea water to cool their equipment. There equipment seems to last. Most of their intake pipes are fiberglass. The place where they pump the water back out to see is a favourite bathing spot for locals. I wonder about the long-term environmental impact of this. The water there smells funny but it feels really good.
You can keep pool water sterile/inhospitable with other methods
o3 as used in pools should be ideal here- it disappears from the system very quickly.
chlorine (bleach) does tend to sit around in the water and react longer, o3 is very toxic to life, but tends to obliviate itself
a giant corona discharge wire on the inlet-- no?
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