The Two 1st of-its-kind Fuel-cel Powered Data Centers? 1999 FNB Omaha & 2013 eBay

I was at 7x24 Exchange and there was keynote by eBay on Quantitative Comparison of Critical Facility Electrical System Architectures.  In this presentation eBay said they are the first Fuel-cel powered data center.  My immediate thought was, “hey didn’t we have someone else say they had the first fuel cel powered center present at 7x24?”  I checked the 7x24 Exchange conference program and yep one year ago was the presentation by First National Bank of Omaha.

Then I was thinking maybe I misheard what was said.  eBay hit the news with its fuel-cel powered data center and found Sept 2013 so its not anything new that eBay has the 1st fuel-cel powered data center in the news

eBay turns on first-of-its-kind fuel cell-powered data center

SUMMARY:

The world’s first data center powered primarily with fuel cells has finally been switched on in Utah by its owner, eBay. Its an unusual test bed which will give eBay insight into cleaner power and distributed energy.

Digging further I found on the official eBay site that the eBay data center is the first Bloom Energy Servers used as primary power for a data center.

Our newest data center is the first in the world to use Bloom Energy Servers™ as the primary, on-site power source, instead of the traditional electric utility grid.

So eBay is the first data center powered by Bloom Energy Fuel cels, not the first data center powered by fuel cels.  Maybe I did mishear the presentation, and eBay said this is the first bloom energy fuel cels used as primary power for a data center.

Here is the 7x24 Exchange video of FNB discussing the lifecycle issues of running fuel cels for 14 years.  It was quite informative.

7x24 Exchange Conference Spring, ending with the best conversations

7x24 Exchange Spring Conference ended yesterday and after 4 years and 7 conferences I’ve learned a lot by making great friends.  The closing of a conference is a race to the airport for almost everyone.  One of the things I tried a few years ago was to book my return flight in the evening and go to the resort pool to enjoy the facilities.  Yesterday by the pool I ended with some of the best conversations with friends at the conference who also choose to enjoy the facilities.

Chatting after the close of the event is so much more relaxing and many times you talk about other things.  I’ve already booked my travel to Phoenix with a 6p return flight.  I can always get on an earlier flight, but my hope is David Schirmacher and I will keep our regular catch up lunch after the conference.  David is the person who convinced me to attend 7x24 Exchange for the first time 4 years ago, and now that I think about I should count him as my 1st 7x24 Exchange friend in a long line of many other friends I see at 7x24 Exchange.  See many of you at Fall 2014 event.

Fall 2014
October 26-29, 2014
JW Marriott Desert Ridge
Phoenix, AZ
Scaling to the Future

Is it time to get out of the Modular Data Center Business with Foxconn's Arrival?

DCD reports on Foxconn’s efforts in low-pue modular data centers.

A Foxconn senior VP, Fuming Fu, said: “We look forward to bringing our many years of technology development and manufacturing experience to the [data center] industry.”

Foxconn also makes servers, storage arrays and networking equipment for IT vendors, and runs a factory in the Czech Republic that produces HP’s modular performance optimized data centers.

IO data centers has been trying to iPO, but looks like the market is not ready as I haven’t heard or seen with IO data centers will IPO.

IO Data Centers Could Launch IPO in December <2013>

With Foxconn’s arrival it could be a tough next year to be in the modular data center business.

7x24 Exchange a Conference Focusing on Data Centers

I go to too many data center conferences.  And, I go to a lot of other technology conferences.  What has been interesting is the movement by many of the data center events and publications to add subjects like Cloud, Big Data, DevOps which on the surface can seem like a good idea as there is a relationship.  The problem is the # of people who focus on the relationship between data centers and these other technologies is not that big.

Spending the last couple of days at 7x24 Exchange it has been a pleasure to focus on data centers - designing, building, and operating data centers.

Attendance is as good as ever at 7x24 Exchange.  If you have an interest in data centers and want an event that focuses on data centers, then 7x24 Exchange may be the right event for you.  If you want to learn about Cloud, Big Data, Mobile, I head to Gigaom Structure where I’ll be speaking and other industry leaders attend. http://events.gigaom.com/structure-2014/  For Devops I’ll head to PuppetConf, http://2014.puppetconf.com 

Is Newark's Data Center LLC project a Green Data Center?

The Green Data Center aspect is being debated as many focus on the environmental impact.

Newark City Council reviews report on data center’s environmental impact

By Ben Szmidt

June 2, 2014

Newark Mayor Polly Sierer and City Council presented a report on the potential environmental impact of the proposed data center and its adjoining power plant on the University of Delaware’s STAR campus during a special meeting on Monday night.

The report, produced by Liberty Environmental, concludes The Data Centers’ project is relatively clean, but it’s use of combustion engines and non-renewable fossil fuels in a 279 megawatt, gas-turbine power plant does not make it green.

Here is a post that makes the statement this data center is not green.

City's environmental consultant deems TDC project 'not green'

...

Biebuyck presented Liberty's findings to city council during a special meeting held Monday night in council chambers where he shared several “concerns” regarding TDC's air permit, deeming some of the company's claims “questionable,” “incorrect” and “misleading.”

“This project is to some extent clean but it's certainly not green,” he said.