Moving to Locally Generated Renewable Power
There are multiple strategies being deployed by data center operators to meet their emissions objectives, including purchasing renewable energy credits and migrating loads to cloud or colocation facilities that have made the commitment to net zero operation. Some operators are now seeking to move beyond those measures and exploring the feasibility of powering data centers with locally generated renewable power.
As Gartner points out in The Road to a Net Zero Data Center1, “Data centers running on carbon-intensive electricity grids, with little provision for renewable energy, could become a stranded asset or will carry a financial liability if they are subject to carbon taxes or pricing.”
Integrated renewable energy solutions are already being used to support telecommunications network access sites, and locally generated renewable energy could present a long-term solution for data centers seeking net- zero operations.
The continued advancement of fuel cell technology has the potential to make the transition to locally generated renewable power possible. In the short-term, fuel cells could create the opportunity to replace carbon-fueled generators as a source of backup power. Proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells have excellent power density and can start quickly even in low temperatures, making them ideal for backup power applications.
The key obstacles restraining the use of fuel cells as a backup power source today are the cost of hydrogen, which could come down as adoption of fuel cells increases across various industries, and the challenge of transporting and storing the quantities of hydrogen required to ensure 24 or 48 hours of backup power.
Ultimately, this second obstacle could be addressed by implementing on-site hydrolyzation that, when powered by renewable sources, creates enough green hydrogen to enable fuel cells to serve not only as the backup power source, but as the primary source of power when renewables are not producing energy.
Excess wind or solar energy generated on site could be used to power hydrolyzers that generate clean hydrogen that supports fuel cells. This hydrogen can be stored on site and when the sun stops shining or the wind is not blowing, the fuel cells can power the data center. When the hydrogen fuel is depleted, the UPS switches the data center to the grid to maintain continuous operations.
In this scenario, the UPS provides key energy management capabilities in addition to its power conditioning and backup power functions. For example, operators that make the investments in renewable energy and fuel cells may want the ability to save excess energy for later use or use it within their campus to offset existing base loads. Future generations of UPS systems will require smart energy management capabilities to orchestrate these activities.
The challenges associated with taking the next steps on the road to net zero are not insignificant, but as Gartner points out in The Road to a Net Zero Net Zero Data Center2 “The alternatives are either elderly, less efficient data centers or ones that cannot consume any form of renewable energy, thus becoming a liability for business should emissions taxations be introduced.”
There are solutions available today from data center equipment manufacturers, such as Vertiv, that allow operators to improve equipment utilization, minimize water consumption, and reduce emissions, while the technologies required to support local renewable power generation continue to advance.
1,2 Gartner, The Road to a Net Zero Data Center, Tiny Haynes, Philip Dawson, Simon Mingay, 10 June 2021
Real-World Solution 1: Managing Higher Densities
Background:
Silicon Valley-based Colovore delivers a colocation data center environment designed to support next-generation high performance computing (HPC) for applications that include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and big data. Colovore’s high-density solutions are ideal for these applications because they allow customers to deploy servers in a highly compact footprint that requires much less space and far fewer cabinets than traditional colocation facilities.
Critical Need:
The increase in power usage from HPC coupled with the high operating temperatures of high-density environments required Colovore to implement a robust thermal management solution that would enable compact server footprints that maximize power, cooling, and operating efficiency.
Solution:
Colovore chose the Vertiv™ Liebert® DCD rear-door heat exchangers to deliver efficient and effective high-density cooling. The Liebert DCD liquid cooling modules manage efficient heat removal of up to 35 kW per rack across the entire data center floor. This solution enabled fully packed, top-to-bottom rack deployments with no wasted or unusable rack unit slots and increased operating and capital efficiency due to significant reductions in required cabinets, data center floor space, and energy consumption. The high-density facility also relies on Vertiv UPS systems, power distribution units, and supplemental air-cooling systems.
Real-World Solution 2: Increasing Power System Efficiency
Background:
The University of Southampton, UK, enables its exceptional research and development capabilities and entrepreneurial culture with a forward-thinking IT team and a proactive approach to data center infrastructure. With computing demands continuing to increase, the university identified the need for a new data center that could achieve the dual goals of enabling HPC while ensuring environmental accountability.
Critical Need:
The challenge the university faced during the data center design process was enabling HPC alongside more repetitive processing tasks while optimizing efficiency across the various load profiles.
Solution:
The university chose the modular Vertiv™ Liebert® Trinergy Cube UPS system to meet its current needs for a high-efficiency power system while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to future requirements. The Liebert Trinergy Cube is the first high-power UPS with an adaptive algorithm that continually monitors the power supply and load and automatically selects the most efficient operating mode. With the new facility, the university has reduced data center energy requirements by 300 megawatt-hours per year and annual CO2 production by 160 tons.
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