Very interesting article on Google's new data center in Finland, cooled as you can, from ocean waters...no refrigeration, no compressors. Here's the link: http://www.ecogeek.org/geothermal-power/3510.
And some of the article:
"Google has opened a new data center in Finland where all of the cooling is done with sea water rather than compressors and refrigerants. The building, which was originally built as a paper mill, is located on the Gulf of Finland and using cool sea water is a way to save money while keeping the building cooled with a readily available resource.
Cooling is one of the biggest expenses for data centers. Servers, especially when many of them are stacked close together, generate a great amount of heat, and that heat must be dissipated to keep the equipment running. The Google data center brings in sea water through granite tunnels and into heat exchangers where the water absorbs the heat to keep the equipment cool.
The heated water is further tempered with cool sea water in a separate building before it is returned to the ocean to minimize the impact the heated water might have on the natural environment."
This last paragraph is most critical as, I'm sure, everyone's first thought is, what is the environmental impact of heated water dumping back into the ocean? We know military ships cycle water back into the ocean, but that is on a much smaller scale. There is clearly benefit to the environment in not using energy to run cooling systems, but it would be great to see the final economic benefit and ecological benefit or lost.
Does anyone have experience on a project like this? We will reach out to Google on a future show to get their comments on this installation. You have to believe their energy savings are fanstastic.
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