A recent study has demonstrated that small-scale wind turbines can generate electricity from wasted wind produced by chilling machines, after a trial at a data center in Colombia.
In the paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, Isabel Gil-García, Ana Fernández-Guillamón, and Álvaro Montes-Torres set out a methodology for the capture of energy wasted by a range of technologies, including data center cooling technology.
To illustrate their methodology, the research team identified a potential wind source from the cooling systems that prevent computers at a Colombian data center from overheating. The facility had three chillers, each with eight fans, which operated at 480volts and 900rpm.
"HVAC systems use fans to expel the warm air from indoor environments to the outdoors," the study said. "This expelled air represents a consistent and potentially untapped wind resource for electricity conversion."
The researchers selected Tesup V7 vertical wind turbines to harness the wasted wind due to their compact and lightweight design. They installed six of the small turbines above the fans, generating 513.82MWh per year. After accounting for the energy used by the fans, the turbines resulted in a net reduction of 467.6MWh annually, avoiding the emission of 300 metric tons of CO2.
The researchers were from the Universidad a Distancia de Madrid, (the Distance University of Madrid) and Colombian firm Grupo ZFB.
The study is part of a broader effort by the sector to increase the efficiency of its operations. For example, firms have begun to invest heavily in waste heat recovery to optimize the byproduct of data processing.
For example, in October, Beyond.pl partnered with Veolia Energia Poznan on a project to recover waste heat generated by the former's campus in Poznan, Poland.
Subsequently, deploying small-scale wind turbine solutions could offer another way for data centers to improve their overall efficiency while supporting net-zero targets.