Engineering news
A joint UK and Malaysian consortium is set to develop the next generation of green data centres.
Data centres are key to handling the demand for internet data, from communications to financial services, and global capacity is set to increase significantly. However, data centres are also large consumers of energy. Depending on how that energy is generated, data centres can indirectly be responsible for substantial emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants that impact urban air quality.
One of the core challenges facing data centres is to maintain cooling to ensure that servers do not overheat, and this can consume up to 50% of the total energy used in the facility.
The UK-Malaysia project, which brings together technologies developed in Malaysia and the UK, aims to improve the sustainability of date centres, by changing the way they are cooled. It is hoped that the research could half energy consumption, improve energy security and reduce localised emissions caused by diesel powered backup generators.
The consortium is made up of Dearman, the clean cold technology company, developer of data centre technology Green Data Center, Heriot-Watt University and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
As part of the project, a ‘next generation green data centre’ will be established in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. It will feature liquid submersion cooling technologies introduced by Green Data Centre alongside a Dearman Engine, which will harness expansion of liquid nitrogen to provide zero-emission back up power and cooling.
Heriot-Watt University will provide systems integration and sustainability analysis to ensure that the technologies deliver maximum environmental benefit in addressing a critical socio-economic urban development challenge. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia will support the project by developing a sustainable computing model to assist the management of the technology.
Toby Peters, chief executive of Dearman, said: “Although people may not realise it, online activity has a considerable energy requirement and an enormous environmental footprint. This project, which brings together world class innovation from the UK and Malaysia, has the potential to revolutionise the way that data centres are cooled and therefore the energy they require. The research could represent an important step towards making the digital world a much greener place to interact, to share information and to do business.”
"This project will create a replicable and commercially viable approach to sustainable computing for reconciling urbanisation with environmental risk and climate change globally," said Dr. Jalil Ali who is project lead at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.