TelecityGroup, a European data center services provider, is installing a cooling system that will use natural groundwater for free-cooling capacity at its Amsterdam data center. The Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) will push water warmed by excess heat from the data center floor to the natural underground wells. There it will be chilled in the winter and used in the summer to cool the data center. “TelecityGroup is dedicated to driving innovation in the industry and maximizing the energy efficiency of our operations by developing solutions that complement regional conditions,” said Alexandra Schless, Telecity’s managing director for the Netherlands.

Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology and green computing, launches the FatTwin(TM), a high-capacity powerful new server platform based on Supermicro's highly successful Twin Architecture. This landmark product offers a new, flexible, high-density computing solution for Data Center, Cloud Computing, Enterprise IT, Big Data and HPC applications delivering the highest performance with the most energy efficient technologies and cooling designs available on the market.

The budget is an important tool in the build out of the data center, but it’s common to either overspend or under-spend when it comes to capacity planning. In either case, the risk of hazards increases. You either don’t have enough capacity to adequately handle enterprise IT needs in the future, or you have to manage excess capacity, unused equipment and other wasted expenditures. If the under-spending includes an elimination of environmental monitoring tools, risks increase exponentially.

The quest for data center power efficiency continues as data center managers all over are under the gun from their supervisors to find cost savings and shortcuts wherever possible. And with data centers consuming more and more power than ever before, the challenge to find a way to curb the data center’s appetite has become exponentially harder. Along those lines, Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s national power company, has joined the ranks of those searching for solutions to the data center power surge as the company announced its commitment to powering one percent of the European data center industry with renewable energy, generated by hydro-electric and geothermal plants, by 2020. Landsvirkjun officials feel this goal is feasible thanks to Iceland’s plentiful development opportunities for renewable power and strong investment by the data center industry the country has been enjoying recently.

Maybe alternating current (AC) generators have been used more because they are of simpler construction than direct current (DC) generators, but whatever the rationale may be DC is making a comeback. In data centers, at least.

Servers, landline telephone systems, several electric motors, batteries, ships and airplanes all run on DC. Facebook (News - Alert) adopted DC architecture for its Prineville, Ore. data center, ABB bought a controlling interest in Validus DC systems, which specializes in DC data center equipment, and General Electric bought Lineage Power, producer of DC equipment.