Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Data Centers and Green IT

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by

James A. Bacon
in , ,

If Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is serious about addressing global warming, one problem area he might want to focus on is the growing demand for electricity — especially in Northern Virginia. It turns out that one of NoVa’s hottest industry segments right now is data centers. Kendra Marr with the Washington Post ran a story Monday about the data-center boom. Although she had no estimate of the number of data centers coming on line, I’ve heard the figure for NoVa could be as high as 20 to 25 in the near future.

From an economic development perspective, data centers are wonderful: They cost tens of millions of dollars to build and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in municipal taxes. Also, they require relatively few employees to operate, which means they don’t strain the capacity of municipal governments to provide roads, infrastructure and public services.

From an environmental perspective, data centers are bad news: They’re energy hogs. Those endless racks of computers consume electricity and give off a lot of heat, which must be offset by air conditioning that guzzles even more electricity. Indeed, the proliferation of data centers is a driving force behind the surge in NoVa electric consumption and Dominion’s warnings that the region could experience brownouts as early as 2011. As big consumers of electricity, data centers acount for an increasing share of Dominion’s greenhouse gas emissions.

What’s the solution? Green IT. Technology companies see great potential to conserve energy, save money and cut greenhouse gas emissions in one swoop. This movement, which started in California, is spreading east. We may be hearing more from Virginia companies in the not-too-distant future. It’s a trend that Gov. Kaine certainly will want to encourage.

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9 responses to “Data Centers and Green IT”

  1. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    the usual Devil’s Advocate question.

    If .. it is a “good” thing to switch an auto from gasoline to electricity for fuel..

    … is it not a even better thing to trade 50 miles worth of electric “fuel” for commuting – for 50 miles worth of moving information to/from a human at home – rather than moving that person 50 miles to where the data is?

    Iused to have a boss.. many years ago who expressed alarm at the advant of computers…

    he said ” good gosh.. if this keeps on.. every single person is going to have a computer” and we just cannot afford that.

    To this day.. there are STILL folks who will argue that computers actually cost more than they return…in value… and that we were better off without them.

    … so .. here’s a shocking headline:

    “Computers and Data Centers determined to be the primary cause of Global Warming”..

    read it and weep.. ;-}

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “To this day.. there are STILL folks who will argue that computers actually cost more than they return…in value… and that we were better off without them.”

    And they might be right. We can remember when a presentation took a few iterations at most, becuase producing the changes were so hard.

    Now, the same presentation may go through dozens of changes and take longer to produce – without being significantly better.

    Computers allow us to do more and do it faster, but that doesn’t mean it is worth doing in the first place.

    RH

  3. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    The answer is always settlement pattern.

    Put the data center in the Zentrum of the Alpha Village near the MIUS (Modular Integrated Utitliy System – to get cheap energy in off peak hours – store it in batteries and use the waste heat to heat and cool the Jobs / Housing / Services / Recreation / Amenity functions of the Zentrum.

    You are welcome.

    EMR

  4. Lyle Solla-Yates Avatar
    Lyle Solla-Yates

    EMR-

    Ha! I love it. “Where do you get your hot water?” “Oh, the server farm next door.”

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Don’t laugh so hard. this is exactly the idea behind co-generation whihc has the most potential for real economic uses.

    GE now offers a refrigerator that gives both hot and cold water. The hot water is provided by waste heat from the compressor.

    There are already household co-generting plants that make electricity and heat and cool with the waste heat from the engine. Distributed, and very efficient.

    If the server farm next door lowers your property value more than it saves you in heat, it might not be so attractive.

    RH

  6. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    re: If the server farm next door lowers your property value more than it saves you in heat, it might not be so attractive.”

    Now RH.. how would you know?

    Someone could have 20 computers in their basement and they would have absolutely no impact on your property values.

    The only thing with less impact would be a 10,000 card baseball card collection…

    Now.. you would be in trouble is that guy wanted to power his server farm with GREEN methane gas from Blue Plains Sludge.. that he would have trucked in to this backyard every day.

    Naw.. that wouldn’t work.. those Nazi Planners would never allow it.

  7. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    You Luddites are killing me with the “Are computers a net positive or net negative chatter?”. You are actually posting this question via a computer over the internet to the site of a guy you have probably never met. I guess without computers you could have written your thoughts on parchment and tacked them to the door of the local church.

    The next time you take a flight I’d like you to think about computers again. Think about the quality of the engines that power the plane. Advances in computing and CAD/CAM had a lot to do with that. Think about the technology required to track 4,000 simultaneous commercial flights over the United States. Would you really prefer that the air traffic controllers write flight paths on “desk maps” like in the old World War II movies?

    When you land – get in your car. It probably has vastly more computing power than the Apollo 11 command module did in 1969.

    Want some music? Tune in XM.

    Running late? Call your wife on your cell phone.

    Your wife sound so sexy that your heart races? Don’t worry – you have a difibillator that will get it back to normal.

    Difibillator going off cause you to crash the car? Don’t worry – the local hospital has an MRI machine.

    If Rolls Royces had improved in price/performance as fast as computers you could afford to drive them to the beach and abandon them as sand erosion devices.

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    If, Larry, I said if, I didn’t say that it would, or that I know one way or another.

    What I was thinking of was that giant windowless cement cubicle along side 66 that sat vacant for years.

    I actually agree with Groveton on the value of computers. But, most of my experience has been solving problems or making work arounds for inadequate software, so I get to see the dark side.

    Computers and Cars have this in common: a lot of power is wasted, but over all we come out way ahead.

    RH

  9. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    Well.. there IS a reason why they call them Luddites. 🙂

    Some think when you say computer that it means something that sits on a desk that the owner uses to play “hearts” and that most computers function as worthlessly.

    They have no clue what a marvelous computing system they have in their hand when they whip out their cell phone…

    or any of other dozens of devices that in reality – computers – masquerading as something else including their cars.

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