Scotland’s new energies to run server farms – and Google’s into Pelamis
published this on 9:15 am, Tuesday, 19th May, 2009Business| News| Renewable Energy | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
Scotland’s keeping top company these days through its growing recognition as a world class player in the renewable energy market.
Major power users in today’s focus on internet delivered services are server hosting businesses, with great banks of secure servers – known as server farms or data centres – carrying data in and out of massive information exchanges.
The power needs of these vital businesses – doubling every 5-8 years – are now being linked into renewable energy developments to make them self-sustaining instead of a drain on energy resources.
The first development in Scotland was the announcement by Atlantis Resources Corporation with bankers Morgan Stanley that they are to build such a data centre near the castle of Mey in Caithness, powered by energy from the Pentland Firth and planned to be in operation by 2011. The Atlantis project was recently strengthened by investment from Norwegian firm, Statkraft.
Now a Microsoft partner, Alchemy Plus, plans a major data centre in Inverness where the prevailing low temperatures can be deployed to advantage in lowering the costs of cooling systems. These server farms run hot.
A further substantial development by Lockerbie Data Centres plans a major centre there powered by wind and biomass.
The IT industry is waking up to the possibilities of deplyong renewables and perhaps the biggest name of all is getting involved.
Google – whose server farm requirements are unimaginable – has developed plans for a ship crammed full of servers and powered by nearby Pelamis wave generators. – under development in Scotland and pictured above. It has filed a patent for such ships in the USA.
The Google vision is a fleet of these ships stationed offshore, using sea water as coolant and Scotland’s Pleamis wave energy generators bobbing nearby on the waves, supplying their power needs. Google has said that its plans are not imminent and the patent is protective but its advanced planning shows the directions in which the indistry is moving.
The fact that it is looking to Scotland’s Pelamis devices shows too that, with the Welcon Towers development in Kintyre in Argyll, the manufacturing base this country needs to recover may be on the horizon with renewable energy.
The photograph above – of one of the Leith-based Pelamis wave generators breaking water at Agucadoura off Portugal in one of its succcessful trial installations – is by copyright holder P123 and is in the public domain.
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May 19th, 2009 at 10:18 am
This is great — maybe a google farm off the coast of Kintyre will mean that Argyll finally gets fit for purpose telecommunications as well as a power grid able to take the massive renewable energy we’ll be generating!
May 19th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
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