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I mean yeah, that would check out. Seems like a lot of these facilities are sitting on a bit of a real estate goldmine in which installation of solar panels and

I mean yeah, that would check out. Seems like a lot of these facilities are sitting on a bit of a real estate goldmine in which installation of solar panels and storage batteries could offset a lot of that consumption (in addition to being nicely synergistic with emergency power needs when grid power is interrupted).

jlmorton 2y ago
Solar panels across the entire roof of a data center can't generate much more than 1-2% of the total power usage of the data center. Would need a solar farm with about 50x-100x the land area.
danpalmer 2y ago
I think you might be over-estimating solar or under estimating data center power usage. A quick search suggests that a data center consumes between 150W and 750W per square foot of building space. Solar is roughly 20W per square foot. Even if you assume 1 floor and a roof covered entirely in solar and the lower end of the power estimate, that's only covering 13% of the power requirements. If you look at the higher end of power estimates and assume a 3 storey data center with 50% of the roof covered, a more realistic set of numbers for a hyperscaler, that's only 0.4%. As for being synergistic for emergency power, batteries would help here, but peak power usage is probably around dusk when solar won't be that useful but when power is most likely to be disrupted.
- phil21 2y ago
  Those solar production numbers are exceedingly exaggerated. You need to add capacity factor to the solar install. Multiply your solar production by 0.2 to 0.3 or so and you’ll be in a better ballpark range. Peak power usage for large scale facilities is not much different than off peak. Most megawatt plus builds I’ve been part of have less than 10% difference between peak and valley in terms of watts used. Perhaps the hyperscalers see a much larger difference but I have my doubts.
tourmalinetaco 2y ago
If you want to see exactly the type of solar panels needed for a data center (and why they’re impractical in even ideal situations) then check out this mockup of a proposed space data center ran off solar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YcVLq98Ew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YcVLq98Ew
rapsey 2y ago
Oracle is literally planning a datacenter powered by modular nuclear reactors. The power requirements especially for AI are extreme.
- boilingmacrto 2y ago
  [dead]
- soco 2y ago
  Good luck getting that past NIMBY...

jlmorton 2y ago

Solar panels across the entire roof of a data center can't generate much more than 1-2% of the total power usage of the data center. Would need a solar farm with about 50x-100x the land area.

danpalmer 2y ago

I think you might be over-estimating solar or under estimating data center power usage. A quick search suggests that a data center consumes between 150W and 750W per square foot of building space. Solar is roughly 20W per square foot. Even if you assume 1 floor and a roof covered entirely in solar and the lower end of the power estimate, that's only covering 13% of the power requirements. If you look at the higher end of power estimates and assume a 3 storey data center with 50% of the roof covered, a more realistic set of numbers for a hyperscaler, that's only 0.4%. As for being synergistic for emergency power, batteries would help here, but peak power usage is probably around dusk when solar won't be that useful but when power is most likely to be disrupted.

phil21 2y ago
Those solar production numbers are exceedingly exaggerated. You need to add capacity factor to the solar install. Multiply your solar production by 0.2 to 0.3 or so and you’ll be in a better ballpark range. Peak power usage for large scale facilities is not much different than off peak. Most megawatt plus builds I’ve been part of have less than 10% difference between peak and valley in terms of watts used. Perhaps the hyperscalers see a much larger difference but I have my doubts.

tourmalinetaco 2y ago

If you want to see exactly the type of solar panels needed for a data center (and why they’re impractical in even ideal situations) then check out this mockup of a proposed space data center ran off solar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YcVLq98Ew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YcVLq98Ew

rapsey 2y ago

Oracle is literally planning a datacenter powered by modular nuclear reactors. The power requirements especially for AI are extreme.

boilingmacrto 2y ago
[dead]
soco 2y ago
Good luck getting that past NIMBY...