Sewage as a cooler
What about using wastewater to cool servers in the heat? We know, we can, we practice - Apple has recently announced its intention to sponsor the construction of a wastewater treatment facility in the city of Primeville (Oregon, USA). In this town there is already a data center of the company, according to the information agency Oreon Live, it is considered the largest consumer of water in this region.
The idea of building unique water treatment systems near the data center is not new. Many companies have already designed and built such systems, using such systems, you can use recycled sewage water to cool server farms with the same water. All this saves money for companies in their electricity bills, while also reducing the negative impact of the data center infrastructure on the environment. More than once the question was raised that a very large amount of water is used for the work of server farms, the question was particularly acute last year, because of the drought in California.
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At the moment, Apple's policy is aimed at developing systems that will help reduce water consumption. This was stated in the Environmental Responsibility Report 2016 report. Frankly, the report does not cover the whole picture, because the company rents many premises for hosting its infrastructures from third-party colocation providers. The report mentioned the company's 4 server farms in Maiden, North Carolina, Newark, California, Reno, Nevada and Primeville, Oregon.
Maiden, North Carolina
The constant growth and expansion of the already existing campuses of the company's data centers leads to ever-increasing water consumption. In 2012, Apple used slightly more than 190 million liters of water for the needs of server farms, the water consumption of the company's corporate offices was 850 million liters of water. Over the past three years, water consumption by Apple data centers has tripled. In 2015, the company used 2,169 million liters of water, 28 percent of which went to cover the needs of server farms.
Apple, seeking to reduce the adverse impact on the environment, intends to minimize water consumption. Until recently, for this purpose, data centers used cooling systems with innovative design, focused on the most intensive use of outdoor air instead of water chillers. The cooling system at Apple’s server farm in Maiden is a prime example of this. This system provides 35-fold recycling of water, which in turn reduces fluid consumption by 20 percent.
- as a way out of the current situation. This is the first such project funded by the company. In 2015, the local server farm (with a total area of 31.5 thousand square meters) consumed 100 million liters of water, and it is expected that the area will increase, because construction work is now under way on campus to expand it.
The wastewater treatment plant will take water from the city’s sewage system, then clean it sufficiently for use in evaporative cooling systems of data centers. Apple representatives claim that the construction of a sewage treatment plant will minimize the risk of water shortages, as well as significantly reduce the negative impact of the server farm on the environment.
google farm server in georgia
Google has been practicing such a cooling system for its data centers for years. The Google server farm in Georgia was launched in 2007, initially used drinking water to cool it. Later, in order to save and to reduce the impact of its infrastructure on the environment, together with local authorities, the company created a system into which 30% of treated wastewater from nearby treatment plants, which would be discharged into the Chattahuchi River, is sent.
To cool the data center of the US National Security Agency in Fort Midi, the construction of which began in 2014, about 18 million liters of treated wastewater from a utility in Maryland will also be used, after which it is planned to discharge this water into the river. NSA spent $ 40 million to build a pumping station for server farm cooling systems.
The idea of building unique water treatment systems near the data center is not new. Many companies have already designed and built such systems, using such systems, you can use recycled sewage water to cool server farms with the same water. All this saves money for companies in their electricity bills, while also reducing the negative impact of the data center infrastructure on the environment. More than once the question was raised that a very large amount of water is used for the work of server farms, the question was particularly acute last year, because of the drought in California.
')
At the moment, Apple's policy is aimed at developing systems that will help reduce water consumption. This was stated in the Environmental Responsibility Report 2016 report. Frankly, the report does not cover the whole picture, because the company rents many premises for hosting its infrastructures from third-party colocation providers. The report mentioned the company's 4 server farms in Maiden, North Carolina, Newark, California, Reno, Nevada and Primeville, Oregon.
Maiden, North Carolina
The constant growth and expansion of the already existing campuses of the company's data centers leads to ever-increasing water consumption. In 2012, Apple used slightly more than 190 million liters of water for the needs of server farms, the water consumption of the company's corporate offices was 850 million liters of water. Over the past three years, water consumption by Apple data centers has tripled. In 2015, the company used 2,169 million liters of water, 28 percent of which went to cover the needs of server farms.
Apple, seeking to reduce the adverse impact on the environment, intends to minimize water consumption. Until recently, for this purpose, data centers used cooling systems with innovative design, focused on the most intensive use of outdoor air instead of water chillers. The cooling system at Apple’s server farm in Maiden is a prime example of this. This system provides 35-fold recycling of water, which in turn reduces fluid consumption by 20 percent.
Construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Primeville
- as a way out of the current situation. This is the first such project funded by the company. In 2015, the local server farm (with a total area of 31.5 thousand square meters) consumed 100 million liters of water, and it is expected that the area will increase, because construction work is now under way on campus to expand it.
The wastewater treatment plant will take water from the city’s sewage system, then clean it sufficiently for use in evaporative cooling systems of data centers. Apple representatives claim that the construction of a sewage treatment plant will minimize the risk of water shortages, as well as significantly reduce the negative impact of the server farm on the environment.
google farm server in georgia
Google has been practicing such a cooling system for its data centers for years. The Google server farm in Georgia was launched in 2007, initially used drinking water to cool it. Later, in order to save and to reduce the impact of its infrastructure on the environment, together with local authorities, the company created a system into which 30% of treated wastewater from nearby treatment plants, which would be discharged into the Chattahuchi River, is sent.
To cool the data center of the US National Security Agency in Fort Midi, the construction of which began in 2014, about 18 million liters of treated wastewater from a utility in Maryland will also be used, after which it is planned to discharge this water into the river. NSA spent $ 40 million to build a pumping station for server farm cooling systems.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/303940/
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