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You Can't Power Your Data Center Only with Renewables

11 points by WaitWaitWha 4y ago

jvanderbot 4y ago
These are some very tired arguments around the high low cycles of solar and wind. I don't think anyone really believes that a zero - storage solution is viable for anything let alone data centers. And hopefully in 20 years we're generating fuel from atmospheric carbon, using nuclear more intelligently, and have sane medium term storage options. But that's the better point of TFA that they missed: trying to clean up data center energy use will spur those advances.
- Valgrim 4y ago
  It can makes sense if your end product can be stored by itself, like desalinated water or hydrogen or ammonia or even heat.
  - cultofmetatron 4y ago
    porche is making sythetic gasoline. put it somewhere where electricity is dirt cheap cough iceland cough and you could easily fuel all the shipping containers with this new e-fuel. its gasoline so it stores like gasoline
greeny7373 4y ago
The Autor doesn't mention googles announcement from a few years ago to go renewable 24/7. So, what's the value of this 'analysis'? More holistic would have been to mention this, also compute following the sun, data center energy values (forgot the term for this), storage calculation for the needed amount. In my opinion there is nothing easier than making a data center green and DCs already ha e a huge CO2 savings aspect. It's so much better to do banking business online than driving to a bank. I'm annoyed by mention DC becoming green. It wastes energy for the real CO2 sources.
foxyv 4y ago
The full title of the article is: Why You Can't Power Your Data Center Only With Renewables – But Should Try Anyway I know in states like Texas, you can only power your DC with renewables at certain times. They have recently had to curtail wind energy due to overproduction and lack of transmission capacity. We can't provision grid scale storage or transmission lines fast enough to keep up with wind production. However, data centers and other critical infrastructure are excellent places to start adding storage and direct consumption of renewable power.
oceanplexian 4y ago
Funny how Nuclear is never counted as renewable. The sun literally runs on nuclear fuel, with a finite amount of hydrogen and helium. Put up a widely inefficient solar panel in front of the enormous ball of energy and that's considered renewable energy. But split atoms in a reactor using an energy source that could last us millions of years with no carbon emissions, and you might as well be burning coal.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  LWRs are not renewable because the quantity of economically accessible U235 inferred to be in the world (not even the stuff discovered) is about enough to power the world for 10 years. Breeders do not exist.
  - egberts1 4y ago
    Ummm, about those breeder reactors ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Fast_breeder_reactor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Fast_breeder...
    - Schroedingersat 4y ago
      Now give me the list of ones that don't run on U235 or on a once through cycle (or a quantity of Pu greater than they produce which is the same thing with extra steps). Just because you name something a unicorn doesn't make it shit rainbows.
yellowapple 4y ago
The headline (even the full version) is incorrect. My personal web and mail servers, for example, are VPSs on 1984.hosting, which at least claims to be powered entirely by renewables (specifically: geothermal). That said, the article's analysis is correct: solar/wind power require some way to store surplus power (and enough storage capacity to withstand changing weather conditions), and geothermal is geography-dependent and entails much higher upfront expenses. The article's conclusion is also correct: even if going 100% renewable is infeasible, there's no sense in letting perfect be the enemy of good, and any degree of renewables in a datacenter's energy mix is better than nothing.

11 points by WaitWaitWha 4y ago

These are some very tired arguments around the high low cycles of solar and wind. I don't think anyone really believes that a zero - storage solution is viable for anything let alone data centers. And hopefully in 20 years we're generating fuel from atmospheric carbon, using nuclear more intelligently, and have sane medium term storage options. But that's the better point of TFA that they missed: trying to clean up data center energy use will spur those advances.

Valgrim 4y ago
It can makes sense if your end product can be stored by itself, like desalinated water or hydrogen or ammonia or even heat.
- cultofmetatron 4y ago
  porche is making sythetic gasoline. put it somewhere where electricity is dirt cheap cough iceland cough and you could easily fuel all the shipping containers with this new e-fuel. its gasoline so it stores like gasoline

greeny7373 4y ago

The Autor doesn't mention googles announcement from a few years ago to go renewable 24/7. So, what's the value of this 'analysis'? More holistic would have been to mention this, also compute following the sun, data center energy values (forgot the term for this), storage calculation for the needed amount. In my opinion there is nothing easier than making a data center green and DCs already ha e a huge CO2 savings aspect. It's so much better to do banking business online than driving to a bank. I'm annoyed by mention DC becoming green. It wastes energy for the real CO2 sources.

foxyv 4y ago

The full title of the article is: Why You Can't Power Your Data Center Only With Renewables – But Should Try Anyway I know in states like Texas, you can only power your DC with renewables at certain times. They have recently had to curtail wind energy due to overproduction and lack of transmission capacity. We can't provision grid scale storage or transmission lines fast enough to keep up with wind production. However, data centers and other critical infrastructure are excellent places to start adding storage and direct consumption of renewable power.

oceanplexian 4y ago

Funny how Nuclear is never counted as renewable. The sun literally runs on nuclear fuel, with a finite amount of hydrogen and helium. Put up a widely inefficient solar panel in front of the enormous ball of energy and that's considered renewable energy. But split atoms in a reactor using an energy source that could last us millions of years with no carbon emissions, and you might as well be burning coal.

Schroedingersat 4y ago
LWRs are not renewable because the quantity of economically accessible U235 inferred to be in the world (not even the stuff discovered) is about enough to power the world for 10 years. Breeders do not exist.
- egberts1 4y ago
  Ummm, about those breeder reactors ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Fast_breeder_reactor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Fast_breeder...
  - Schroedingersat 4y ago
    Now give me the list of ones that don't run on U235 or on a once through cycle (or a quantity of Pu greater than they produce which is the same thing with extra steps). Just because you name something a unicorn doesn't make it shit rainbows.

yellowapple 4y ago

The headline (even the full version) is incorrect. My personal web and mail servers, for example, are VPSs on 1984.hosting, which at least claims to be powered entirely by renewables (specifically: geothermal). That said, the article's analysis is correct: solar/wind power require some way to store surplus power (and enough storage capacity to withstand changing weather conditions), and geothermal is geography-dependent and entails much higher upfront expenses. The article's conclusion is also correct: even if going 100% renewable is infeasible, there's no sense in letting perfect be the enemy of good, and any degree of renewables in a datacenter's energy mix is better than nothing.