IBM and Syracuse University in New York are building one of the "greenest" computer centers in operation that will use 50% less energy than a typical data center.

Meanwhile in county Wiltshire in England a small back up company has bought a former BT exchange which it hopes to transform into a storage backup unit powered through renewable energy.

Worldbackups.net said it is seeking planning permission to convert the site into a technically advanced data center where it will develop its own on-site renewable energy generation. The company recently acquired the 2,600 sq ft Site in North Wiltshire, saying it may not be the world's biggest data centre but its size is directly scalable to the services WorldBackups provides.

Over in New York, where naturally, everything is bigger. IBM is working with the University and New York State to use smarter technologies in the new data center. The project will focus on the actual infrastructure of the data center itself, not just the computer hardware and software. A key element will be an on-site electrical co-generation system that will use natural gas-fueled microturbine engines to generate all electricity for the center and provide cooling for the computer servers.

The $12.4 million, 6,000-square-foot data center will feature its own electrical tri-generation system and incorporate IBM's latest energy-efficient computers and computer-cooling technology.

The university will manage and analyze the performance of the center, as well as research and develop new data center energy efficiency analysis and modeling tools.

IBM will provide more than $5 million in equipment, design services and support, which includes supplying the electrical cogeneration equipment and servers such as IBM BladeCenter, IBM Power 575 and an IBM z10 systems. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is contributing $2 million to the project.

IBM intends to showcase the data center and its energy-efficient technologies to help clients design new data centers or improve their current operations.

"Energy use is becoming the largest single cost in operating data centers--with $2 billion per year wasted nationally due to inefficiencies," says Vijay Lund, vice president for development and manufacturing operations in IBM's Systems and Technology Group.

On site generation
The project will feature an on-site electrical tri-generation system that will use an array of natural gas-fueled microturbines to generate all the necessary electricity for the center and provide cooling for the computer servers. The data center will be able to operate completely off-grid. IBM and University will create a liquid cooling system that will use double-effect absorption chillers to convert the exhaust heat from the microturbines into chilled water to cool the data center's servers, with sufficient excess cooling to handle the needs of an adjacent building. Server racks will incorporate IBM's Rear Door Heat eXchanger "cooling doors" that use chilled water to remove heat from each rack far more efficiently than conventional room-chilling methods. Sensors will monitor server temperatures and usage to tailor the amount of cooling delivered by each Rear Door Heat eXchanger--further improving efficiency.

The project also will include the creation of a direct current (DC) power distribution system. In a typical data center, alternating current (AC) electricity is delivered by a central power plant through the local utility's electric grid and then converted to DC to power the servers. This conversion process results in power loss. By directly generating DC power on-site, transmission and conversion losses are eliminated.
Syracuse University will conduct research and analysis of the data center's power and cooling technologies and develop models and simulation tools to monitor, estimate, plan and control energy use to achieve the goal of reducing average data center energy use by 50 percent. This will include determining the optimum data center layout and cooling system, thermodynamic models to predict energy consumption, analyses of plant and chiller energy efficiency, evaluating the energy savings advantages of on-site tri-generation systems and DC power supply for data centers, and testing and measurement of the performance of water-cooled server racks. The data center is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

Back in Wiltshire things are equally ambitious but slightly less advanced 

Worldbackups intends to make use of renewable energy, by lowering demand through shutting down servers and storage arrays when not in use. The company currently provides back up services through collocation sites and wants to build its own data center which will house five 42u racks with around four terabytes of capacity on SATA discs.

The company’s managing director Roland Scott says he hopes to have the site operational by 2010 but must first navigate the planning permission process. He is also at the consultancy stage on exactly what type of renewable power he will deploy. The site has a flat roof so solar is an option though he concedes that solar power alone will not provide enough energy. Other options such as wind power are being explored.

"Pioneering technology isn't solely the preserve of Silicon Valley or hi-tech hotspots in the UK. Right here in Wiltshire, we're building a completely self-sufficient data center and proving that green investment can be good business. Our ethos is two-fold; a duty to make use of renewable and clean energy when we can, and also to be ready for the arrival of future environmental and compliance laws." World Backups is developing a system that will shut down its servers at different times throughout the day and night to preserve power.

"We intend to use renewable energy during the day and sell the excess back to a supplier of electricity that comes solely from renewable energy sources. We'll then purchase back that renewable energy if and when it's needed."

IBM says data centers in the United States consume annually more than 62 billion kilowatt hours of electricity -- equivalent to the amount used by approximately 5.8 million U.S. households -- for a total cost of about $4.5 billion. If current trends continue, that usage could double by 2011. The figures for data center power use in Wiltshire are not known.