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Is a "Net Zero" Data Center Possible?

Posted by samzenpus on from the lowering-the-power-bill dept.

miller60 writes "HP Labs is developing a concept for a 'net zero' data center — a facility that combines on-site solar power, fresh air cooling and advanced workload scheduling to operate with no net energy from the utility grid. HP is testing its ideas in a small data center in Palo Alto with a 134kW solar array and four ProLiant servers. The proof-of-concept confronts challenges often seen in solar implementations, including the array's modest capacity and a limited window of generation hours – namely, when the sun shines. HP's approach focuses on boosting server utilization, juggling critical and non-critical loads, and making the most of every hour of solar generation. Can this concept work at scale?"

13 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. How is that a test? by khasim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    HP is testing its ideas in a small data center in Palo Alto with a 134kW solar array and four ProLiant servers.

    Four servers is a nerd's basement.

    Wouldn't you need something like 4 racks full of servers? Running something like seti@home or distributed.net?

    In its own building.

    1. Re:How is that a test? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the main thing they're testing is the scheduling of workloads to to get the maximum benefit from their solar array. It doesn't matter how many servers they have. They'll still get useful data from this test.

    2. Re:How is that a test? by dbIII · · Score: 5, Funny

      Four servers is a nerd's basement.

      That's where all of HP will fit soon with their current management style.

    3. Re:How is that a test? by jakimfett · · Score: 5, Interesting

      How is that a test? Four servers is a nerd's basement.

      At the very least, they can do a cost analysis of the setup. Sure, it's only 4 servers. But if it's possible to do with four, then they can extrapolate to forty, or four hundred. Granted, there are things that don't scale perfectly...things like cooling, cost of raised floors, the building itself...but now they have hard data about how many solar panels they need to make it a net electrical drain of zero.

      --
      Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
    4. Re:How is that a test? by Sussurros · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You do know that solar panels won't work in the basement...

      I know it's a cheap joke but I'm a cheap kind of guy. My favourite basement of all time is Dean Kamen's (inventor of sedgway, half the equipment in the hospitals, and lots more - our modern day good guy Tesla and bad guy Edison all rolled into one) from his youth.

      When he was a schoolkid he snuck into a museum one night and rewired the lighting of a single section. The next day he applied for the contract to do the whole museum and got laughed out of the door because he was a kid, until he told them to look at the section he had done the previous night. He narrowly avoided arrest and got the contract instead and did an excellent job.

      With the money he earned he paid for a vacation for his parents and while they were away he had the family house removed from its blocks, a huge basement dug then filled with heavy lathes and state of the art engineerng goodies, and then had the house reseated.

      To cover the extent of the cavernous basement he had to install a new patio over the part that the house didn't cover and when his parents came home they were thrilled to see the wonderful new patio he had built for them.

      That was his last year in high school, and I'm sure that a few solar panels and clever power management wouldn't have been enough to run that particular glorious basement.

      --
      I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
    5. Re:How is that a test? by Sussurros · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's from a book by Steve Kemper that Dean Kamen tried very hard to bury:

      http://www.amazon.com/Code-Name-Ginger-Behind-Segway/dp/1578516730

      --
      I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
  2. ok.... by bhcompy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why would my datacenter want freaking banner ads all over it?

  3. 12 of these centers, spaced out evenly by DontScotty · · Score: 4, Funny

    At the equator... then you'd have some uptime!

    1. Re:12 of these centers, spaced out evenly by subreality · · Score: 4, Funny

      I must regretfully inform you that 2/3 of the surface of the planet in question is covered in water, and it's considerably more than that along the line of the equator. Please plan to install 8 or 9 of your data centers on ships.

      For the ones on land you will be choosing from Ecuador, Columbia, Brazil, Gabon, Congo, Kenya, Somalia and Indonesia. I suggest budgeting for a considerable number of guns.

      I personally think people over-A/C most data centers (computers really don't care if it gets kind of warm; they only really care about temperatures that their human slaves would object to), but in these places... well, I hope you're friends with Carrier.

      But all these problems can be overcome. I'm sure you'll do well with the abundant free sunshine!

    2. Re:12 of these centers, spaced out evenly by pLnCrZy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Efficiently evacuating the heat output is a different issue than dumping excess cold air into a room to compensate for lack of the former.

      I've been in "warm" data centers that focus on getting rid of the heat rather than overcooling the intake -- the servers were perfectly happy and their energy costs were quite reasonable.

  4. Re:No! by nzac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a net 0, No.

    You can both consume power from the grid and produce it. The extra they make during the day that someone else uses is what they use at night.

    Its a PR stunt though, if a bunch of companies got together and funded a massive solar farm it would have the same result and probably be more efficient.

  5. Re:Didn't Apple just announce this? by EvanED · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, they didn't.

    Roughly speaking, there are three levels of "greenness", for lack of a better word. "Off the grid" means you're totally self-sufficient; probably solar during the day stored to batteries for night, combined with ultra-efficient stuff. "Net zero" means you self-generate a surplus of power sometimes and a deficit others, selling your excess to the power company and buying your need. Being "fully renewable", like what Apple announced, "just" means you're buying all renewable energy. If you read the article you linked to, you'd see that Apple will only be generating 60% of its need, which means it's far from net zero.

    I'm not actually sure how much the last means in practice, considering that it's not like they have dividers that say "this electron came from solar so it goes to Apple, while this electron came from coal so it can't." So really what it turns into is Apple giving the power company more money so that hopefully they'll build more renewable sources. Not to say that I don't applaud the decision, and even 60% generation is impressive, but it is indirect.

  6. Re:Silly headline by Sique · · Score: 4, Informative

    The most of the large geothermal energy projects have been abandoned - because of the increasing number of local earthquakes. Geothermal energy obviously comes not free. The energy you withdraw from the soil seems to cause the underground to change dynamics.

    See the Basel Geothermal Project as an example.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*