5 ms·

Video: Google's New Sea-Cooled Data Center

59 points by 1SockChuck 15y ago

xutopia 15y ago
This could not happen in Canada due to its geography. Most of our inhabitants are sitting right by the border with the USA yet in the North we could easily cool buildings for free with our weather and water.
binarycheese 15y ago
"It used to be a paper mill". Now its a data center. Great to see factories evolving
sudonim 15y ago
Remember when the craze was to build water cooled gaming systems? I have a feeling some of those people ended up working on this project at google.
- iwwr 15y ago
  You can also use water for a quiet(er) PC rather than strictly an overclocked one. It's not that expensive nor labor-intensive to convert a regular system to a watercooled one.
dstein 15y ago
Or Datacenter-Heated Sea, depending on your perspective.
- splish 15y ago
  There is a tempering station that dissipates the heat from the water before it is released back into the sea.
  - ZoFreX 15y ago
    Then what advantage is there to sea water over a loop?
    - wooster 15y ago
      The heated water is tempered with cold sea water so it's closer to the temperature of the gulf when returned. This prevents a hot water plume at the outlet, which can cause environmental problems.
- pasbesoin 15y ago
  Somehow, "boil all the oceans" takes on renewed, if still speculative/imaginative, significance.
JonnieCache 15y ago
Who remembers google's patent from a couple of years ago for floating data centers? Using the sea to cool it was a big part of that idea, alongside tidal power. I'm kinda disappointed to see that this isn't the complete realisation of that stuff, but its still a move in the right direction. Original patent link: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220080209234%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080209234&RS=DN/20080209234 http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Se... I wonder if you could start a tropical reef around the outlets?
- b_emery 15y ago
  If it's anything like power plants in the US, then there are restrictions on the allowed deltaT above ambient, and for good reason. For example in California, the San Onofre Nuclear plant was found to significantly impact the local fisheries by killing fish larvae and damaging kelp forests, and I believe the deltaT is less than 2 degrees C. (Though I'm not sure if this is at the heat exchanger or at the diffuser head). At Morro Bay (also in California) there is a power plant built long before such restrictions existed and it dumps cooling water straight into the surf zone. Apparently, intertidal species (muscles, snails, etc) can be found there that are typically found much further south. I can personally report that it makes the surfing much more pleasant, but the heated water is generally considered a form of pollution due to the negative impacts on native species.
- splish 15y ago
  The idea of theif floating data centers was well planned, and I'm assuming has not fallen completely off the table when factoring in their, already in place, shipping container server configurations. This plant for water cooling has been in planning since 2009, at the time of purchase. So the flotilla of servers is entirely still possible. I would not be surprised to see it come out down the road. ref: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html
- koski 15y ago
  There's this too: http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7525207.html http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7525207.html
rbranson 15y ago
Is there any reason this isn't more common? Why aren't more US datacenters in the Chicago metro area where the air is dry and cool, and trillions of gallons of frigid water is available? The geography is mild and natural disasters that effect datacenters are basically unheard of. It seems silly that so many datacenters are in central Texas, where not only are tornados and tropical storms fairly common, but it's hot and humid for 7 months out of the year.
- joebadmo 15y ago
  I imagine real estate prices and tax policies have a lot to do with it.
  - rbranson 15y ago
    Either way, there is a ton of land in many states along the great lakes. It seems like HVAC is a large component of energy expenditures at datacenters, but perhaps the savings don't justify it?
- phlux 15y ago
  Money. As a technical designer - where I do datacenter design - we have been talking about this for years. The problem is cost. Google has a trifecta perfecta with this facility's location. Google specifically picked this site for this reason -- but in the end, the reason that Google is able to do this is that they have a ton of money, they were given a good price for agreeing to preserve the historic site, they gave back part of the Mill's land for the erection of the wind-mills, which are not directly Google's. The tunnel to the sea was already there as a part of the cooling plant for the mill. So, this is a straightforward -- fiberglass pipe to prevent corrosion and then the sea water pours over the heat exchangers. The issue with doing this in san francisco is the environmentalists would kill you, the cost of tunneling would be prohibitive and the concern of the piping being seismically sound would cause difficulty. So, it's really a matter of money and politics. The design is great and simple. I would prefer we take the mothball fleet in Benicia and turn them into a huge floating DC. DISCLAIMER: my firm worked on this DC -- but the cable plant -- not the MEP.
- 15y ago
VladRussian 15y ago
it also seemed to be a great idea to use outside cool water for "free" cooling of nuclear power plants. Happens to be not such a good idea after many years of that [ab]use. While on the global scale the datacenters itself don't have the impact yet, it will definitely affect the water ecosystem local to the datacenter. There is no free lunch. Though Googlers may be under impression that there is.
mcorrientes 15y ago
The video looks a little bit like the open compute project video from facebook . Isn't pumping so much water through the pipes less efficient compared to facebooks method of cooling air down by spraying the water ? See fb method at http://livestre.am/wBjp http://livestre.am/wBjp
- devicenull 15y ago
  That only works if the air you are cooling down is very dry. It then adds a bunch of humidity to the air, so it couldn't really go back to the DC.

59 points by 1SockChuck 15y ago

This could not happen in Canada due to its geography. Most of our inhabitants are sitting right by the border with the USA yet in the North we could easily cool buildings for free with our weather and water.

binarycheese 15y ago

"It used to be a paper mill". Now its a data center. Great to see factories evolving

sudonim 15y ago

Remember when the craze was to build water cooled gaming systems? I have a feeling some of those people ended up working on this project at google.

iwwr 15y ago
You can also use water for a quiet(er) PC rather than strictly an overclocked one. It's not that expensive nor labor-intensive to convert a regular system to a watercooled one.

dstein 15y ago

Or Datacenter-Heated Sea, depending on your perspective.

splish 15y ago
There is a tempering station that dissipates the heat from the water before it is released back into the sea.
- ZoFreX 15y ago
  Then what advantage is there to sea water over a loop?
  - wooster 15y ago
    The heated water is tempered with cold sea water so it's closer to the temperature of the gulf when returned. This prevents a hot water plume at the outlet, which can cause environmental problems.
pasbesoin 15y ago
Somehow, "boil all the oceans" takes on renewed, if still speculative/imaginative, significance.

JonnieCache 15y ago

Who remembers google's patent from a couple of years ago for floating data centers? Using the sea to cool it was a big part of that idea, alongside tidal power. I'm kinda disappointed to see that this isn't the complete realisation of that stuff, but its still a move in the right direction. Original patent link: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220080209234%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080209234&RS=DN/20080209234 http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Se... I wonder if you could start a tropical reef around the outlets?

b_emery 15y ago
If it's anything like power plants in the US, then there are restrictions on the allowed deltaT above ambient, and for good reason. For example in California, the San Onofre Nuclear plant was found to significantly impact the local fisheries by killing fish larvae and damaging kelp forests, and I believe the deltaT is less than 2 degrees C. (Though I'm not sure if this is at the heat exchanger or at the diffuser head). At Morro Bay (also in California) there is a power plant built long before such restrictions existed and it dumps cooling water straight into the surf zone. Apparently, intertidal species (muscles, snails, etc) can be found there that are typically found much further south. I can personally report that it makes the surfing much more pleasant, but the heated water is generally considered a form of pollution due to the negative impacts on native species.
splish 15y ago
The idea of theif floating data centers was well planned, and I'm assuming has not fallen completely off the table when factoring in their, already in place, shipping container server configurations. This plant for water cooling has been in planning since 2009, at the time of purchase. So the flotilla of servers is entirely still possible. I would not be surprised to see it come out down the road. ref: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html
koski 15y ago
There's this too: http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7525207.html http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7525207.html

rbranson 15y ago

Is there any reason this isn't more common? Why aren't more US datacenters in the Chicago metro area where the air is dry and cool, and trillions of gallons of frigid water is available? The geography is mild and natural disasters that effect datacenters are basically unheard of. It seems silly that so many datacenters are in central Texas, where not only are tornados and tropical storms fairly common, but it's hot and humid for 7 months out of the year.

joebadmo 15y ago
I imagine real estate prices and tax policies have a lot to do with it.
- rbranson 15y ago
  Either way, there is a ton of land in many states along the great lakes. It seems like HVAC is a large component of energy expenditures at datacenters, but perhaps the savings don't justify it?
phlux 15y ago
Money. As a technical designer - where I do datacenter design - we have been talking about this for years. The problem is cost. Google has a trifecta perfecta with this facility's location. Google specifically picked this site for this reason -- but in the end, the reason that Google is able to do this is that they have a ton of money, they were given a good price for agreeing to preserve the historic site, they gave back part of the Mill's land for the erection of the wind-mills, which are not directly Google's. The tunnel to the sea was already there as a part of the cooling plant for the mill. So, this is a straightforward -- fiberglass pipe to prevent corrosion and then the sea water pours over the heat exchangers. The issue with doing this in san francisco is the environmentalists would kill you, the cost of tunneling would be prohibitive and the concern of the piping being seismically sound would cause difficulty. So, it's really a matter of money and politics. The design is great and simple. I would prefer we take the mothball fleet in Benicia and turn them into a huge floating DC. DISCLAIMER: my firm worked on this DC -- but the cable plant -- not the MEP.
15y ago

VladRussian 15y ago

it also seemed to be a great idea to use outside cool water for "free" cooling of nuclear power plants. Happens to be not such a good idea after many years of that [ab]use. While on the global scale the datacenters itself don't have the impact yet, it will definitely affect the water ecosystem local to the datacenter. There is no free lunch. Though Googlers may be under impression that there is.

mcorrientes 15y ago

The video looks a little bit like the open compute project video from facebook . Isn't pumping so much water through the pipes less efficient compared to facebooks method of cooling air down by spraying the water ? See fb method at http://livestre.am/wBjp http://livestre.am/wBjp

devicenull 15y ago
That only works if the air you are cooling down is very dry. It then adds a bunch of humidity to the air, so it couldn't really go back to the DC.