Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industries, better known overseas as Foxconn, has been granted several patents which describe the design of shipping container-based data centers.

One of the patents for a modular data center power supply system features solar panels and a DC/AC converter, making it suitable for deployment virtually anywhere in the world.

Foxconn knows containers
Foxconn, founded in 1974, is the world’s largest electronics contractor manufacturer, and the third-largest IT company by revenue. It builds devices for Apple, Microsoft, Google, HP, Cisco, Sony and Dell, among others.

In June, the company announced it was going to develop containerized data centers powered by renewable energy sources. Such containers are quick to deploy, cheap to build and can be used to grow the capacity of existing facilities, by dropping them on campus and plugging into existing network, power and cooling systems.

Foxconn was granted a relevant patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in November.

The patent describes a container equipped with solar panels, power stabilizing unit, UPS, voltage convertor and sensors that monitor power and can switch to an alternative source of electricity if the panels don’t produce enough.

Foxconn was also granted two patents that describe the methods of cooling servers inside the container. Both feature traditional raised floors, but one places an air conditioning unit for every rack while the other puts a single, large CRAC unit outside.

There is currently no information on when such products could appear on sale.