Using the Sea To Cool Your Data Center 194
1sockchuck writes "We haven't yet seen signs of the Google Navy of seagoing data centers that use the ocean for power and cooling. But data center developers are planning to use sea water air conditioning in a new project on the island nation of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Cold water from deep-sea currents would be piped ashore to be used in a heat exchanger for the data center facility. A similar system has been used to replace the chillers at Cornell University, which draws cold water from Lake Cayuga. The Cornell system cost $50 million, but has slashed cooling-related energy usage by 86 percent."
interest prospect (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't image Saltwater not eating the hell out of all the piping.
Environmental impact, anyone? (Score:1, Insightful)
So Cornell transfers heat from its datacenters into Lake Cayuga. This is understandably good for the datacenters, but what's the impact on Lake Cayuga?
The Mauritius system sounds interesting, though, because the heat gain in the water seems less likely to have an impact on ocean temperatures, even on a very localized scale. For minimal environmental impact, use large, deep bodies of water with good currents. Take note, Cornell!
Re:So could... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:interest prospect (Score:5, Insightful)
seawater is the lifeblood of every naval nuclear power plant, and as someone who was in the navy and in charge of the heat exchangers attached to a naval nuclear power plant, i can assure you it is a big deal and a LOT of time and maintenance is put into preventing corrosion and the associated leakage in piping that a heat exchanger utilizes.
In order to have efficient heat exchange between two moving fluids, you need a very thin wall and you need it to be clear of any and all corrosion. This means a lot of time and effort, not too mention chemicals are used.
For a mobile naval vessel, there is no other option, so the cost isn't an issue.
For a land based cooling system, it is an issue because there very well may be less expensive alternatives.
Not too mention the possible ramifications (good and bad) of discharging all of the heated water back into the marine ecology.
Re:global warming anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Although it uses less electricity, not "green" (Score:3, Insightful)
Although this solution is certainly "low power" by no means should it be considered to be entirely green. I work as an engineer on many projects that involve sea water, and when you're using it for a cooling source you typically need to inject some sort of chemical to sterilize the water to keep growths off your heat exchangers (barnacles are sort of a pain in the ass in your exchangers). As a result, using sea water for large scale cooling operations is prohibited in large regions of the United States (specifically the gulf coast) mostly over concerns that the large amounts of warm bleached water will damage the ecosystem. Although, that issue aside, using the ocean as a cooling medium is a great idea, and has been used reliably by power plants for many years.
So maybe it would be more environmentally sound to run a closed loop out to the current to cool the water and bring it back? Salt water is nasty, evil shit.
Environmental Concerns (Score:2, Insightful)
But, of course, just one place in the ocean using this method isn't going to have that much effect. It's if and when this cooling strategy starts to catch on that we have to worry about affecting our environment, and weigh the consequences of air conditioning (fossil fuel emissions) versus heat pollution.
Re:So could... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not really. There is no real escape from national laws with respect to the internet. The reason is simple - everyone is connected! Google has a physical presence in the US, so the company can be penalized in the US for actions of the company abroad.
Hypothetically, say you have a ship in the middle of the ocean. You, nor your company have no physical presence anywhere other than the ship. You still need peering from someone on the internet. Whether that be joe blow or AT&T, you need peering. So you decide to host the pirate bay on your ship. RIAA sues your peering provider to terminate your internet access. Your peering provider is in the US. Your peering provider loses the copyright battle(assuming, in this fairy tale land they actually fought it) and shuts off your internet access. Ok, that's fine and good, you can just move the ship and find another peering provider. Repeat ad nauseum. Eventaully, you run out of people willing to peer with you.
You need to get peering from someone with sufficient political clout that THEIR peering provider isn't willing to cut them off, AND is willing to stand up to international pressure to terminate your access. I think there's a reason a lot of nefarious activity on the internet comes from Russia. Nobody has the clout to take russia offline and russia doesn't mind having all the crooks using their tubes.
Re:Wait, back that up, reverse it. (Score:3, Insightful)
The heat certainly doesn't disappear, but you're just pumping heat into cold water with this system. The transfer of heat from a warm to a cold substance is a process which increases entropy, which means it's a spontaneous process (it doesn't take any energy to do it).
Air-conditioning, on the other hand, transfers heat from a cold to a warm substance (the cooled air inside becomes cooler, the warm air outside becomes warmer), which is not a spontaneous process, meaning you're using extra energy. This extra energy is ultimately wasted as extra heat in the warm substance.
Also, the extra energy which A/C uses generally comes from burning fossil fuels at relatively low efficiencies, emitting even more heat into the atmosphere.
All in all, you're putting a LOT less energy (heat) into the earth if you're using a spontaneous process to cool your stuff.
not a thermal insulator and heat tax (Score:5, Insightful)
Other than a set up for your gag, I don't see why you call paint a thermal insulator. It does not have to be so. many kinds of coating promote thermal coupling.
One thing that does bother me is dumping waste heat in someone elses backyard for free promotes the inefficient use of energy. that is, I can decrease my cooling costs by using more efficient but more expensive computers which incidentally produce less waste heat, or I could use less expensive inefficient computers and take advantage of public domain cooling, like cayuga lake.
Is Cornell paying a tax to use Cayuga lake as a heat dump? that would help internalize the economic externalities that drive them to consume more electricity because the cooling is free.
likewise for sea water cooling.
This might seem like worry much about a small thing: isn't the cooling resevoir comparatively infinite? the answer is surprising no, not only is it not infinite, it's never going to grow, and we have already saturated it in much or the US and Europe. For example the big limit on Nuclear power plant growth is now availability of cooling. SOme rivers in Tenesee are known to heat up to 80 degrees when the power plants operate a full power in summer.
thus this needs to be publicly regulated now.
Re:Dealing with growth (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Environmental Concerns (Score:3, Insightful)
I knew the environment would come up. Of course, pretty much anything humans do is going to be deleterious to the environment. But put things in perspective. It's more thermodynamically efficient to transfer heat to the ocean directly, rather than burn fuel to create electricity to power a heat pump which is used to transfer heat into the air. The power plant also needs to be cooled, either by evaporating large amounts of water in cooling towers, or by transferring heat to an ocean or lake. Which do you think is better for the environment?
Re:not a thermal insulator and heat tax (Score:4, Insightful)