Is Green computing real or just fashionable?
Green – or environmentally sustainable computing –addresses the issues of energy consumption, the use of environmentally-benign components and environmentally sustainable disposal of redundant equipment. In South Africa, with the recent 25% hike in electricity tariffs, energy efficiency is taking centre stage.
With Greenpeace’s projection that data centres could consume up to 1-million MW per hour of power by 2020 and with the telecom sector another 950 000 MW hours, these are the main areas of focus.
Speaking to Gys Geyser, head of operations at Teraco, a company that operates two neutral data centres, we touched on the subject of how to make legacy data centres more “green” Geyser’s opinion is that it is very difficult, if not almost impossible. He gave the example of changing the air-conditioning system fans or coolers for new, more energy-efficient units, where the data centre would have to be closed down – which is not an option. It could be done by transferring all the data to another data centre while upgrading and then moving it back. Besides that it would be extremely costly, and there is the danger that data is lost or corrupted in the process.
“Is the cost worth it? We need to consider all aspects of data centre operation – not just green but all possible operational efficiencies. For example if you require only 40% from a UPS why run it at full capacity?”
Geyser says that there is a huge difference between operating a data centre and a computer room. “A computer room is purpose-built, but with a data centre you do not know what will come in. A computer room is a like a formula F1 racing track, you know exactly where the corners are and you can plan. A data centre is the opposite, it is like a rally driver, you don’t know what is around the next corner!
“We built our data centre for efficiency. It is important for us to have a power usage effectiveness of between 1,5 and 2.”
Is Teraco green? “Yes we are as far as we can. We apply green air-conditioning principles; we use “green” gasses for fire protection. What is important for us is that as we expand we learn from previous experiences and apply lessons learned in future projects. We are evaluating free cooling for our next phase.”
Free cooling is expensive and is not always economical but as energy costs escalate it may well become viable in terms of cost. The Telkom Bellville Data Centre was one of the first data centres in South Africa to use free cooling.
When Telkom launched Cybernest, Althon Beukes of Telkom Data Centre operations said that they had incorporated free air cooling which is the latest trend in data centres and considerably shrinks the carbon footprint. “In legacy data centres the standard air conditioning system is a water-based chiller plant. We have incorporated two plants: the conventional chiller cooling and a free air cooling system. When the ambient outside temperature is less than
24°C cool outside air is filtered in while hot air is vented out. We estimate the savings to be in the order of 4,7-million kWh per annum, contributing to a substantial reduction in carbon emission.
“We have also opted for hot aisle, cold aisle containment. This means that we don’t chill the entire room to uncomfortable freezing temperatures but only cool those components that need cooling. Using the principle that hot air rises and cold air sinks we have alternating hot and cold aisles with each cold aisle blowing cool air upwards and a hot aisle above sucking warm air out through the ceiling and expelling it outside the building.”
Beukes said that in the design emphasis was on being able to measure what every resource consumes and then calculating the associated cost. If you don’t know what you are consuming and where the costs are, you cannot calculate what impact you are making on the environment.
This is becoming the trend. Schneider Electric CEO, Carl Kleynhans shares these sentiments. He said “the starting point in any savings campaign is measurement. It is imperative to undertake a consumption audit and pinpoint the power guzzlers in your buildings and facility.”
UPSs – which one to choose?
There are UPSs and UPSs. The older ones were not energy-efficient, but there have been major developments in this field. There is still much debate about transformer-based and transformer-less UPS systems. Jack Ward of Powermode says that there is a place for both but it is like deciding between a car and a motorcycle for urban transport. Transformer based systems are more reliable and robust and have been proven in tough environments, making industrial applications up to 1 MVA possible. The load is completely isolated from the utility power which facilitates protection against harmful spikes.
Why not power a laptop direct?
A question I have often asked UPS suppliers is why there is not a unit on the market that can directly power a laptop or notebook. Why take power from the mains to charge the UPS battery and use an inverter to take it back to 220 V to power the laptop power unit which reduces the voltage to 19 V or whatever voltage a laptop requires? The same is true for desktops. A large amount of energy is wasted as heat, (Mind you, keeping your laptop power unit at your feet is quite comfortable in winter!!)
Power efficient computers
With every new model, manufacturers claim better power utilisation. It is true that the uptake of technologies such as laptops is becoming preferable to desktops, not only due to the fact that portability makes them a great companion on the go, but they use far less energy right from the start. In fact, according to a National Geographic article, a laptop will give you annual computer-related energy savings of as much as 50% over a desktop. This is a massive energy saving!
Manufacturers of all technologies are looking for several ways to make even laptops less of a burden on the environment. So to meet their needs, what should consumers be demanding from the products they buy in terms of materials for a longer life span – from packaging to energy efficiency – in order to leave behind a green footprint?
Phillip Henning of Samsung said that today’s notebooks incorporate smart technologies that will adjust the screen luminance to the level required, with processor speed adjusted to the performance needed by an application. Facilities not in use are powered down. So only when a CD is inserted will the CD drive power-up. All this adds up to a more energy-efficient machine. There also another bonus, battery consumption is much lower so longer operating time. “In our latest Samsung range we can offer between 9 and 12 operations on a fully charged built-in battery”, Henning said.
The debate will continue. At the end of March 2011 technology experts from around the world met at Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland to explore new ways to make computers more efficient and greener. Statistics indicate that computing consumes more than 3% of the global electricity consumption and performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle.
The Applied Reconfigurable Computing Conference discussed the challenges in delivering the next generation internet. Prof. Roger Woods from Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) at Queen’s University said: “The problem of computing electricity inefficiency is getting worse as computers pervade our lives.”
Green computing << Do you think it is real?
Source: EngineerIT
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