31–40 of 397 posts
In reality of course connectivity would be a major problem and energy price differences are probably not large enough to make it viable.
Is there a benefit over just putting it in a boat/coastal building and using water (perhaps pumped from some depth) for cooling?
The closest thing I remember is Google taking over an old paper mill in Finland that used a condenser sunk into a canal connected to the Baltic sea. https://www.wired.com/2012/01/google-finland/ there should be a video with the details here.
> Additionally because there are no people, we can take all the oxygen and most of the water vapour out of the atmosphere which reduces corrosion, which is a significant problem in data centres First time I hear corrosion is a problem in datacentres. I never noticed any corrosion on any machine at home or work. Does it have to do with the cooling of datacentres?
It's probably the "sea" environment that would pose corrosion issues.
> Additionally because there are no people, we can take all the oxygen and most of the water vapour out of the atmosphere which reduces corrosion, which is a significant problem in data centres First time I hear corrosion is a problem in datacentres. I never noticed any corrosion on any machine at home or work. Does it have to do with the cooling of datacentres?
> "You just end up with a warmer sea and bigger fish," he says.
> And 90% of Europe's data centres are in big cities such as London and Madrid because that is where they are needed.
> Microsoft's Ben Cutler insists the warming effect will be minimal - "the water just metres downstream would get a few thousandths of a degree warmer at most" - and the overall environmental impact of the Orkney data centre will be positive.
Both of these opinions feel like exaggerations but I don't know enough about thermodynamics to know what the true answer is. I have a feeling that the Microsoft opinion is much closer to the truth, can anyone help me understand how I'd walk through the numbers?
Imagine a future where whenever the energy price drops in a region suddenly companies show up with a bunch of such tubes drop them in the ocean. Do some batch processing and once the energy price rises they pull it out and move on. In reality of course connectivity would be a major problem and energy price differences are probably not large enough to make it viable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...
> Additionally because there are no people, we can take all the oxygen and most of the water vapour out of the atmosphere which reduces corrosion, which is a significant problem in data centres First time I hear corrosion is a problem in datacentres. I never noticed any corrosion on any machine at home or work. Does it have to do with the cooling of datacentres?
http://computer.expressbpd.com/news/ctrls-shows-how-data-cen...
tldr: gaseous contaminants corrode silver/copper components of circuitry