Google's 38 2 MW Diesel Generators in Iowa

Data Center Knowledge pointed out due to the permiting process for Google's data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, you can see that there are 38 diesel generators permitted for the facility with a rated power of 2919 bhp (2 megawatt)

Emission Unit(s):

1430 W. South Omaha Bridge Rd.

Council Bluffs, IA 51501

200001

Equipment Location:

None

Emission Point:

Diesel Engine (EU 200001; 2,919 bhp; 137.9 gallons/hr)

Control Equipment:

Also, Data Center Knowledge has pointed out the backlogs for generators and new FCC requirements for cel networks are putting strains on the supply of generators.

"Generator lead time for a nice 2 megawatt diesel engine is now up to a year for one generator," Josh Snowhorn of Terremark said in a panel at the NANOG conference earlier this year. "So we can build all the raised floor we want, and then sit around and wait six months for a generator."

In an effort to keep phone and wireless networks online during natural disasters, the FCC is now requiring telecom and wireless companies to provide backup power for cell sites and remote telecom facilities.

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Google's Dalles Data Center

This article is a little old, but I decided to collect information about data centers from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.  June 14, 2006 the NYtimes had an article about how hard it is to hide a data center as Google seeks more power.

Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power

Melanie Conner for The New York Times

Google is building two computing centers, top and left, each the size of a football field, in The Dalles, Ore.

Published: June 14, 2006

THE DALLES, Ore., June 8 — On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky.

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The New York Times

The complex, sprawling like an information-age factory, heralds a substantial expansion of a worldwide computing network handling billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other Internet services.

And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border — at the intersection of cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking — is the backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the years ahead.

Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of its complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition.

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Google Electric Company - Core Competency?

Larry Dignan on http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7149

Wrote a blog about the issue of Google getting into the energy business. This somehow seems like it is in Google's DNA when faced with make vs buy, they favor make.  They've done this with their OS and Servers they run their platform on.  Now, they are extending out to make their own electricity.

This reminds of Microsoft's Keyboard and Mice business. Microsoft long time ago diversified into making their own keyboards and mice, and even though it has done well over the years, it never brings in the margins Microsoft gets in its software business. If Google does sell energy, it's margins are going to be effected, and shareholders will ask that the energy business be spun off.  Creating the Google Electric company.

And this green effort is taking up management time. In a statement, Page, Google president of products, said:

“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers. We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal. There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there.”

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