Interesting feature in the March issue of Harper's if you missed it: Google's server farms use a heckuva lot of energy. A planned server farm in The Dalles, Ore. will probably use 103 megawatts of mega-hydro electrons, enough to power 82,000 homes, according to the author, Ginger Strand. Server farms used more power than TVs in the U.S. in 2006, and this may increase as other search firms gear up to battle Google. Of course, the proliferation of flat-screen energy hogs since then may level that playing field ...
But the point here is that internet search isn't impact-free, and Google's good efforts to develop the renewable industry through grants and investments might be better viewed as more of an offset for its own impacts.
Weatherizing Portland
Comments
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Jonas Posted 7:05 pm
21 Apr 2008
Put your server farms there. You save big time on cooling them (which takes up most of the energy, I think). And power them with renewables.
Export data.
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GreyFlcn Posted 9:29 pm
21 Apr 2008
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GreyFlcn Posted 9:29 pm
21 Apr 2008
http://greyfalcon.net/google2
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Black Wallaby Posted 9:57 pm
21 Apr 2008
Why does he run (or at best obfuscate) from rational questions posted on other threads?
The raptor has no claws
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amazingdrx Posted 11:02 pm
21 Apr 2008
So solar powered geo heat exchange cooling would knock off 33%.
And a solar mirror CSP generating system on the roof and over the parking lot would produce enough electric power to more than offset the use of the hydropower.
Google could get this done, if someones lets them know it is possible. Google, just google. "Geo heat exchange cooling grist amazingdrx".
There it is..
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Geo+heat+exchang ...
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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bigTom Posted 11:39 pm
21 Apr 2008
One note on power consumption (other things being equal) scales as about the third power of the computer clock frequency. A quad core 1.5GHz chip has the same theoretical performance as a dual core 3GHz chip, but only needs a quarter of the power. Of course the server user then has to be able to use twice as many weaker processors as before to do the same thing.
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Jon Rynn Posted 12:18 am
22 Apr 2008
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Tasermons Partner Posted 2:14 am
22 Apr 2008
It's not like that's any big secret. matter fo fact, I'm pretty sure Google has stated several times that much of their interest in renewables is to offset their own consumption.
What? Would ya rather they not try to offset?
It's not like there's much of an alternative here.
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Biodiversivist Posted 3:26 am
22 Apr 2008
Is she suggesting we dump the Internet, or that Google should stop trying to use CO2 free sources of energy? Color me confused.
Not to mention, without any links or footnotes, who is to say anything in the article is valid? For example, watts is not the same as watt-hours. The average American home uses about 11,000 kWh per year. That is 11 MWh. To say the average American home uses a certain number of watts per year is meaningless unless you know how many hours they used that many watts, ditto for this server complex. To say it will use 103 MW is meaningless. She surely didn't mean 103 MWh, because that is only equal to nine households. 82,000 homes would use 902,000 MWh (902 GWh)
Ironic... here we all are, using Google's servers to criticize the amount of energy they consume. I've used Google several times for this article and I'm sure there will be many thousands of Google searches generated by this article before the day is over, not to mention you can bet your right arm the author used Google extensively to write her article. Not to mention the resources consumed by a print run of a Harper's magazine edition. The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among U.S. manufacturing industries. Google it.
The entire planet, not just the United States, uses Google servers. According to her numbers, the defunct aluminum smelters mentioned, and all of the emissions they belched forth (Google it) consumed 65% more energy than this server complex. Pointing out that a server complex will use the energy equivalent of a city the size of Tacoma (assuming she is even right) is a bit misleading, considering that this complex will serve an entire planet. "www." stands for World Wide Web.
"As the compete to offer software music and movies over the web ..." there will be fewer and fewer people driving GHG spewing cars to music and video stores. Telecommuting saves ten times the energy this server farm will consume. Google it.
"In 2006 data centers consumed more power than televisions ..." and with more people watching movies over the internet, you can expect fewer people watching televisions.
"Thus through city infrastructure, state givebacks, and federally subsidized power, YouTube is bankrolled by us ..." Is this all this article boils down to? The fact that a State government has wooed a business with incentives? What state doesn't do that?
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Erik Hoffner Posted 4:14 am
22 Apr 2008
BD: I feel pretty confident that Harper's fact checked this. Whether they got it right is their deal. This section of their magazine doesn't tend to use footnotes. Make of it what you like. This blog is powered by servers that are happy to host your thoughts.
The point is that, well, their renewable investments are, well, more like offsets, which 'aren't evil.'
Erik
The Orion Grassroots Network: 1,200+ grassroots groups working for conservation & more
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Hal 9000 Posted 7:11 am
22 Apr 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/22/renewab ...
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sunflower Posted 7:38 am
22 Apr 2008
CPUs can be directly cooled with cold water.
For a half measure, IBM found that they could reduce 40% of their cooling power with cold water plates above their servers.
Google should go simple efficiency for big energy savings before they go complicated solar for big green goodwill.
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GreyFlcn Posted 8:00 am
22 Apr 2008
A new report from the American Consumer Institute has calculated the current and future effects that broadband Internet will have on our carbon emissions. The resulting numbers are staggering. In the next 10 years, ACI reports that the world will save roughly 1 BILLION tons of carbon in the next ten years by operating on the Internet.
The trends break down like this:
* E-Commerce will reduce emissions by 200 M tons
* Telecommuting will prevent 250 tons of carbon emissions from reduced driving, 30 tons from reduced office construction and 300 tons of energy savings
* Teleconferencing could prevent 200 M tons of carbon emissions (if it replaces 10% of face-to-face meetings.)
* Shifting newspaper from print to digital could save 60 M tons of carbon
* Digitally shipping other goods, such as music, movies and books would also contribute.
Rock on, Internet! Well done.
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1192/
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Biodiversivist Posted 9:07 am
22 Apr 2008
I see your point about offsets, but short of building their own solar or wind farm, I don't see what else they can do.
Nice link, Grey
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Tasermons Partner Posted 9:27 am
22 Apr 2008
Actually, they have built their own solar farm. Their entire headquarters is powered by it.
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amazingdrx Posted 12:22 pm
22 Apr 2008
Savings, 33%.
Solar powered geo heat exchange heating/cooling buildings can save 36% of GHG emissions.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Delay And Deny Posted 12:28 pm
22 Apr 2008
Google is totally about waste.
The very nature of the company -- Boolean search, is the most invasive, least efficient, most destructive type of search.
From that origin, the costs expand.
What is not Google?
Hakia:
http://www.hakia.com
J. Bailo
Participant
Texeme.Construct()
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Tasermons Partner Posted 3:09 pm
22 Apr 2008
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sunflower Posted 7:13 am
23 Apr 2008
IBM also offers an optional liquid cooling solution that fits behind each rack, which cuts down on the amount of air conditioning required in the server room...
Right now, the biggest whitebox server customer and maker is Google, and IBM could be angling for the search giant's business with this new line.
Makes more sense than solar power.
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sunflower Posted 7:15 am
23 Apr 2008
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