These should be built into the outflow of hydro stations to counteract the unnatural cooling of the downstream river water.
How do hydroelectric plants unnaturally cool water going through them?
Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
201–210 of 386 posts
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's faulty. Solar installations change the albedo of the planet. That's not a problem if the fraction is a very small one and it is spread out. But if it is concentrated or relatively large it certainly could have an effect.
> Solar installations change the albedo of the planet They do. And so does every single thing we build that's exposed to the outside - bulding, cars, even you when you are out and about. The effect is minuscule unless we are turning the planet into Coruscant or this is a gray goo scenario.
>The effect is miniscule //
The effect of a human on the planet is miniscule, but we're still in the bad state we are.
We're looking at covering the planet in solar panels, worth considering how the albedo changes will effect things on a planetary scale.
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#203Why heat the oceans indirectly when you can just place the heatsource directly in them? Much less chance of losing precious ergs. Seriously though, what is the direct ecological impact of doing this at scale, would the local increase in temperature have an immediate effect on the life around it? If so how much of an impact? What about the effect on surface life and life in intermediary layers of the water? After all,…
The orders of magnitude are wildly different, even at large server farm scale. According to some estimates, capturing merely ~0.3% of the available energy from the Gulf Stream would be enough to supply all of Florida with electricity [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_current_power#Energy_po...
I'm curious as to whether we'll ever have wind/ocean current energy capture that's sufficient to disturb things enough to cause detrimental (or maybe beneficial) effects.
Supposedly, the recent - apparent - changes in UK climate are due to changes in trade winds through global climate change. There might be small perturbations that we make that inadvertently make for large changes in major wind/current systems?
I'd guess someone has tried to model these things.
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> is it significant or is it insignificant Then a study (ideally multiple studies) should be commissioned to find this out. We shouldn't just do it because we can, and because armchair physicists are pretty sure that it's insignificant. Because, that's what Microsoft (and their partner) did. They did it because they could. Remember when we, as a global society, believed that CFCs would have an insignificant impact on…
I doubt these would add more heat than a single new volcano does, but I’m all ears. According to research[1] tectonic activity adds about 3 cubic km of magma/lava each year to the oceans (that’s 100 times the annual production by mauna loa.) [1] http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/book/export/html/138
Sounds like a good ~2050 startup, a company that plugs volcanoes to sell green credits for underwater server farms ;)
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#205Why heat the oceans indirectly when you can just place the heatsource directly in them? Much less chance of losing precious ergs. Seriously though, what is the direct ecological impact of doing this at scale, would the local increase in temperature have an immediate effect on the life around it? If so how much of an impact? What about the effect on surface life and life in intermediary layers of the water? After all,…
I feel like this is the logical conclusion of any energy conversation.
So what if we make a breakthrough with fusion power? We will all die from heat exhaustion caused by the arse end of AC units bringing about the heat death of the Earth.
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#206Perhaps they can be paired with seaweed farms to improve growth rate; feed the seaweed to cattle to reduce methane.
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#207These should be built into the outflow of hydro stations to counteract the unnatural cooling of the downstream river water.
How do hydroelectric plants unnaturally cool water going through them?
My reasoning would be that hydroelectric plants dam up the water and the water at the lower levels of the reservoir is that which spins the turbines (and is released). I would imagine the "original" depth of the water being discharged has a non-trivial impact on downstream river temperatures - though I lack any and all qualifications necessary to say this with any degree of certainty.
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
"All of Orkney's electricity comes from wind and solar power"
If they patented it in 2017, I'm guessing it probably didn't make it in to this one, but the assumption is that the next version may have that technology.
That's a good enough reason to pull it out, replace/upgrade the equip, and drop it back in with the new setup (new sources of energy), and if they get the whole thing to transmit wireless-ly with a 1% failures per 2 years (8 out of the 855 servers) then it's a truly set-and-forget thing. And they can be bringing them up every 2-5-10 years to replace/upgrade the HW and drop it back in.
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt these would add more heat than a single new volcano does, but I’m all ears. According to research[1] tectonic activity adds about 3 cubic km of magma/lava each year to the oceans (that’s 100 times the annual production by mauna loa.) [1] http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/book/export/html/138
Sounds like a good ~2050 startup, a company that plugs volcanoes to sell green credits for underwater server farms ;)
Unfortunately for their scheme magma would find a weakness in the crust somewhere...
Re: Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years
#210>The team is speculating that the greater reliability may be connected to the fact that there were no humans on board, and that nitrogen rather than oxygen was pumped into the capsule.
So, nothing to do with it being underwater?