Google plans use of thermal storage for Taiwan Data Center

Google's Asia Pacific president, Daniel Alegre says that Google plans on using thermal storage to reduce cooling costs.

Google center to adopt green solution amid energy price hike concerns
2012/04/03 22:01:37
Taipei, April 3 (CNA) Google Inc. said Tuesday it will incorporate energy-saving solutions into the design of its new data center in Taiwan, amid local concerns over a possible increase in electricity rates. 

"We've taken that into account, into our investment in this data center, which is actually one of the reasons why we are very committed to a green solution to minimize our energy consumption," Daniel Alegre, president of Google's Asia-Pacific division, said at the groundbreakin

A bit more details are shared.


One way that Google will increase energy efficiency at its new facility is to adopt a nighttime cooling and thermal energy storage system, according to the company.

The world's largest Internet search engine explained that the data center will cool large quantities of water at night while temperatures are low and power is more plentiful, storing it in insulated tanks where it will retain its temperature.

During the day, especially in the summers when Taiwan heats up and power is more expensive to produce, Google will circulate that cold water throughout the facility to keep it cool.

Google Taiwan Managing Director Chien Lee-feng said the nighttime cooling system, the first of its kind to be used at any Google data center, will enable the Taiwan center to use 50 percent less energy than typical facilities.

The new facility in Changhua will be one of the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly data centers in Asia, with each element

If you are not familiar with thermal storage here is an Intel paper.

NewImage

5 parts of a Successful Team, ideas to think about in your data center project

There are a few enlightened individuals who have focused on building better data centers teams to transform their IT services.  I found this presentation that articulates an approach that I think some of these people use.

The above link has a video with this framework.


1. The team is a Real Team

-       Clearly bounded task and everyone on the team has a clear idea of who the team members are
-       Team member have the authority to manage their own work
-       Stable membership
-       Clear model of working with their task structure (shared, independent or interdependent)

2. There is an Enabling Structure for task achievement

-       Task design that supports completion of work and is intrinsically motivating and meaningful to team members
-       Team members have strong task related skills
-       Team members have adequate interpersonal skills
-       Team is the right ‘size’ for the task
-       At the group level the team has a good balance in terms of heterogeneity and homogeneity
-       Team norms to shape and support behaviour

3. The team has a Compelling Direction for task achievement

-       Clarity in terms of the task or outcome of team work
-       The outcome or direction is both challenging and consequential
-       The task objective is clear
-       Means of achieving the task is self-directed or managed by the team
-       Clear measures of success

4. There is a Supportive Organizational Context that ensures team success

-       Team identity reinforced by the organisation e.g. rewarding and reinforcing excellent team performance (pay, benefits)
-       Information system that makes data required to plan team work easily accessible to the team members
-       Educational system that provides training [interpersonal and technical expertise] when required
-       Team is provided with sufficient material resources to do their work

5. That Expert Coaching is available and delivered by both the team leader and peers to:-

-       Improve group process
-       Reinforce individual behaviour
-       Improve interpersonal relationships
-       Eliminate unhelpful interventions

Whether you are a team leader, coach or consultant we can offer you expert supervision so you can learn how to set up and use the TDS. You will then be able to implement successful team interventions using the TDS Team Report as the foundation of your own team feedback process.

Is Apple becoming the greenest data center operator? Fuel Cell added to Solar

A friend tipped me off on Apple's fuel cell projects on Saturday, but I've been busy and couldn't get to the post until today.

There is news on the fuel cells following Apple's news on solar powering 20MW.

ArsTechnica has a post pointing to other information.

Apple building fuel cells to help power N. Carolina data center

By  | Published about 2 hours ago

Apple plans to build a massive fuel cell facility in North Carolina to accompany the data center that powers iCloud. The company revealed its plans as part of a filing with the North Carolina Utilities Commission and was first reported by the Greensboro News & Observer, which noted over the weekend that the project will be the "national's largest such project not built by an electric utility company."

If you look at the official filing you can see a bit more details.

NewImage

GigaOm's Katie Fehrenbacher speculates that the fuel cells are Bloom Energy.

Apple didn’t name the fuel cell supplier in the filing, but the fact that it will use 200 kW fuel cells points the finger even more solidly at the Valley’s Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy sells both 100 kW (ES-5400) and 200 kW (the ES-5700) fuel cells. UTC, another fuel cell maker, only sells a 400 kW fuel cell.

I wrote last month that it looked like Bloom Energy is the supplier for Apple’s fuel cells. This local report states that Bloom Energy is indeed the supplier for Apple’s fuel cell farm, but doesn’t say where it got that info. That local report also says that Apple “will extract hydrogen from natural gas supplied by Piedmont Natural Gas,” and then “will arrange to produce landfill methane gas or some other biogas to offset its natural gas use.”

 

Do you have a Power Hog in your Data Center? AOL saves the bacon moving to the cloud

I wrote about Mike Manos's post on Attacking the Cruft and how the best part I liked was the Power Hogs.

What I like is the the Power Hog part.

Power Hog – An effort to audit our data center facilities, equipment, and the like looking for inefficient servers, installations, and /or technology and migrating them to new more efficient platforms or our AOL Cloud infrastructure.  You knew you were in trouble when you had a trophy of a bronze pig appear on your desk or office and that you were marked.

I took a picture from Pike Place Market's infamous brass pig and put it in my post as a placeholder.

Within 30 minutes Mike sent me a picture of the "AOL Power Hog"  With the call to action "The Cloud is Calling…Help Save Our Bacon."

Photo 3

Do you have a Power Hog in your data center?  One way to get them to move on to a diet is give them this trophy.

Maybe data centers need a the wall of shame.  The top 10 power hogs.

Who would you nominate?  Your HR system? The latest acquisition? The executive pet project that has grown and grown?