Are all renewable energy forms created equal? by Carol Wilson

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Jun 29 2009) Carbon Footprint , Solar

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   Each form of renewable energy – solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and even biomass – has its advantages, but when it comes to powering data centers, not every renewable energy source has equal value.

   Until very recently, solar power was considered too expensive to adequately power data centers and it remains impractical except in areas where sunny days vastly outnumber cloudy ones. Just this week, i/o Data Centers made headlines by announcing its plans to put solar panels on the 11-acre roof of its new 538,000-square foot Phoenix ONE data center. The company said the photovoltaic panels will generate up to 4.5 megawatts of power to supplement the energy needs of its data center, which ultimately will require 80 megawatts of power capacity. But i/o is also combining solar energy with a thermal storage facility that will be used to store electricity at night, when power rates go down, for use in cooling the data center during the daytime, when rates are higher. The combination of solar power and thermal storage is expected to save i/o Data Centers about 50% of the cost of buying electrical power.

   That saves money, for sure, and reduces the carbon footprint of the massive data facility, but there are other data center options that go farther to both save money and reduce the carbon footprint. And i/o’s solution is still costly – its solar power costs 18 cents per kilowatt hour versus the 7 cents the company would pay to buy the power commercially.

   In future blogs, we’ll explore the other renewable options. 

   
   

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