Data Centers and Sustainability
Robert Menard, Certified Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant, Certified Green Purchasing Professional
Readers may recall the controversy raised in a November 2010 post on this blog entitled “Which is More Sustainable: Print or Digital Media?” It stirred up a small haboub amongst faux environmentalists because it dared challenge the baseless assertion that electronic media was “obviously” more sustainable than paper. The indisputable fact is that electricity, the least efficient form of energy amongst the major sources, is overwhelmingly created by coal all across the planet. And coal is the bane of the so called environmentalist extreme left movement.
Some voices of reason are now pitching heavy duty data that provide reason into this dispute. In a cover story of its September 10, 2012 edition, ENR Engineering News Record, a McGraw-Hill publication and the leading business magazine of the construction/engineering industry, has this headline. “GREENING THE ENERGY GLUTTONS” and this subtitle, “Data-center owners are trying to control skyrocketing utility costs by reducing water and electricity use in their resource-thirsty facilities”
ENR is a subscription source so I will summarize some of the most salient points. Many of us are familiar with the great amounts of cold air required to cool servers that exhaust huge amounts of waste heat. It states that water conservation has not been of great interest to “data-center owners”. According to Kevin O’Brien of Gilbane Building Company, one of the largest general contractors in the US, “Going forward, water will remain the largest challenge to data centers”.
Green Purchasing and Sustainability
The story asserts that “…the data center sector is the fastest growing user of the public power grid.” Recall however, that almost nothing is ever clear or scientifically provable in the sometimes shadowy world of sustainability. Data center operators claim (no proof is offered in the story) that online banking and shopping reduce car trips. That sounds reasonable but without facts, data, and quantities, anyone can speculate in any fashion that suits his or her cause.
This story is a fascinating and illuminating peek into the data center controversy. The waste of energy put into cooling air and water as utilized by old technologies is highlighted by the story authored by Nadine M. Post. There is scant little criticism of EPA regulations which have a heavy handed affect on penalizing and promoting undesired behavior.
While respect for copyrights restrict revealing much more detail, perhaps you are a subscriber to ENR or a sustainability expert. In any event, please accept my invitation to comment on this blog post More importantly, if data centers are permanent structures on the sustainability landscape and energy consumption will only grow, isn’t it well past time to use clean coal, shale oil, and natural gas solutions so abundant in North America?