Microsoft joins the data center climate-matching crowd - by Doug Mohney

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Feb 3 2010)

1. 

   On the Emerald Isle – and how appropriate is that for a green IT story? – Microsoft is waxing poetically about the efficiencies it is getting because of Ireland's climate.  It's another benchmark in the latest hot green trend of building data centers in parts of the world where you can simply dump waste heat outside.

    More specifically, Microsoft's new data center near Dublin is 50 percent more efficient, reports a New York Times blog piece.  With the temperatures outdoors "ninety-five percent of the time" at the temperatures servers happen to "love," the HVAC only gets turned on 5 percent of the time, said Microsoft's chief lawyer Brad Smith.   The net result is "massive savings" on energy.

    Smith noted that locating computer equipment simply by what the outside temperature is won't work for some companies and governments.  You can't (figuratively) open up the windows in places like Italy, Greece or Spain, since typical outside temperatures aren't what servers like and governments are unlikely to outsource nationally critical data outside of their borders.

    Of course, the ultimate in data center waste heat usage can be found in very cold climates where excess.  heat is funneled into local heating networks to warm homes.  One example can be found in Helsinki, Finland, where a new data center being built by information technology services firm Academica will take its waste heat and move it to the local utility.  Estimates are that the data center's contribution to heating Helsinki is comparable to a large wind turbine and enough to heat 500 large private homes; the deal will also save around $560,000 per year from Academica's power bill.

   Bookmark or Share this article

Login to comment.

Related Articles