moving data centers out of the city- part 2- for some it's a must - by Doug Mohney

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Aug 31 2011)

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   Last week, I discussed the factors involved in moving data centers out of major metro areas. In some areas around the world, this discussion is not an intellectual “what if” exercise.  California, Japan, and Germany have to be tops on the “We have to consider moving the data center” short list.

   California is pushing renewable energy at a rapid clip, working with everything from upgraded wind and solar power plants to the first hydrogen fuel plant to tap into sewer methane for power and hydrogen generation.  But building new power plants – green or otherwise – costs money, with a higher upfront capital cost for renewable sources.

   And there’s no such thing as a free green lunch. Wind and solar are gaining renewed attention for their impact on the environment.  Windmills kill nearly half a million birds a year, according to a Fish and Wildlife estimate – something you don’t hear Greenpeace grousing about. The American Bird Conservancy thinks that number could double in 20 years if plans for wind energy increase.  Building large-scale solar plants – thermal concentrators or farms of photovoltaic panels – takes up large tracts of untouched desert land, something that doesn’t sit well with conservationists.  Topping it all off is cost, up to 40 percent above “dirty” coal and natural gas sources when the smoke clears.

   While Silicon Valley loves its high-tech companies, the reality is there are too many data centers sucking down expensive electricity on a 24x7 basis.  Having a data center in Los Angeles, San Diego, and/or San Francisco used to be a status symbol, but now it’s evolving into a liability due to power and water consumption.  

   Japan and German have similar problems, but with different roots.  Japan’s energy crunch was triggered by the triple whammy of quake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis, damaging the country’s electrical grid and removing gigawatts of power from the country’s generating capacity. The country could face a power shortage over 9 percent next summer, according to a Reuters report.  It’s an estimate that is based on a shutdown of all 54 nuclear reactors in the country due to “stress test” safety inspections and doesn’t include a combination of voluntary power savings and mandatory power cuts.

   Being able to relocate server farms into “the cloud” and out of the country has to be a long-term option.  Data center operators managed to get an exemption from nationwide power caps this time around, arguing they are critical infrastructure.  Further, servers and storage have been relocated out of Tokyo offices to more remote data centers because of power shortages in the city, reports PC World. 

   Germany is currently importing electricity from France after shutting down 8 old nuclear plants (Yes, there’s a bizarre aspect here because France generates most of its electricity from nuclear power), but the government wants to keep nuclear out of the picture after the Fukushima disaster.  Renewables are expected to pick up the slack, but you can’t simply snap your fingers to turn up more wind and solar power overnight. 

   Ultimately, Germany plans to retire its 9 remaining nuclear plants, but for now the country is bracing for “significant” blackouts, writes the New York Times. Until it turned off its old reactors, Germany was Europe’s leading exporter with a total of 133 gigawatts of installed generating capacity at the start of the year.

   The perfect storm of less nuclear, more mandatory renewable energy, and stop-gap coal and natural gas will translate to the relocation of some data centers outside of Germany to neighboring countries with more abundant power, both for cost and to free up capacity within national boundaries.

    

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