More Energy Efficient Data Centers
The cool Nordic climate give the Nordic data centers a head start on energy efficiency, as half of the energy used in traditional data centers traditionally is used to cool the centre down. In addition, the cool climate means that there is good use for the excess heat that is generated.
Data centres produce a lot of heat, and cooling them down requires large amounts of energy. (Photo: Istockphoto)
In order to further reduce the energy use in data centers, one must make use of techniques for smarter data management that reduces the amount of data as well as smarter use of the hardware through techniques such as consolidation and virtualization.
Smarter cooling of data centres
On average, data centres use half of the energy consumed to cool the machines, and the remaining half to run the machines. The cool Scandinavian weather allows for smarter and more energy efficient cooling techniques. It also makes the reuse of the excess heat viable.
In Lillehammer Norway, the company Ikomm (link in Norwegian) has opened Norway’s first green data centre. A system based on cool air from deep wells uses minimal energy to cool the data centre. About 5 per cent of the total energy used by the data centre is used on cooling, resulting in a PuE (power usage effectiveness) of less than 1,1 (normal is 2-2,5). The excess heat is then reused to warm up the office building above the data centre.
A rock hard disk. Business professionals from a range of different industries have joined forces to explore the feasibility of establishing one of the world’s largest, most secure and most environmentally friendly data centres in Lefdal mine, in the Norwegian region of Sogn og Fjordane (Photo: Lefdalmine.com)
Mountains of data
At Måløy, a glycol-based solution travels in a closed loop to the bottom of a cool fjord and reemerges to cool the data centre. This system is also the basis for a publically funded pilot for a green data centre in a mine in the western Norway. The mine in Lefdal is the world’s largest underground olivine mine. It is located in the region Sogn og Fjordane between Måløy and Nordfjordeid. The mine is situated by a deep, cold fjord with a stable and ample supply of CO2-neutral energy (hydroelectric and wind). The mine is invisible from land and air, and buildings built in future will also be located underground where the security level is high and the possibilities of expansion are good. The pilot project will look at all factors relevant to use of the mine for data handling on a large scale.
Smarter data management in data centres
The amount of data in the world doubles every 18 months. It is necessary not only to handle this data as efficiently as possible, but also to reduce the amount of data. The Swedish bank Nordea uses a system for categorizing and storing data in order to minimize the amount of data stored. Danish company Lector implemented Data LifeCycle Management at Nordea Markets, which resulted in a more optimized and streamlined handling of data. This also reduced CO2 emissions than 10 tons per year. DLCM is a standard product, which means that it can easily be utilized by any industry wanting to improve the effectiveness of their databases. In other words, the possibilities for reducing CO2 emissions through the use of DLCM are very significant.
