Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater

Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by jedberg on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @04:57PM (#13700437)

This is great. A long time ago I had this crazy idea that if we built data centers at the poles, we could solve a lot of problems. Each one would sit idle 1/2 the year, but you could power it with solar and cool it with the outside air.

Of course the big problem was latency. It was one I couldn't conceive of a good solution for.

This is much better. It takes advantage of the same idea but you can park it right next to a population center and move it around the world fairly quickly as demand requires.

I love this idea!

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by lithos on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @05:31PM (#13700739)

There was an article posted about one of the Antarctic data centers. And it's a horrible place to put one. Air too dry, too cold, parts being months away, and rubber/cardboard losing the properties that it needs. The shear terror when power goes out which will destroy a server if it's out too long.

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by jedberg on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @06:01PM (#13701018)

Yeah that was one of the many reasons it was a terrible idea. :)

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by GeneralMayhem on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:20AM (#13703792)

The poles are too cold. The datacenter maintained by researchers in Antarctica ends up having to be insulated against external temperatures, and then ironically has a worse cooling problem than ones on other continents.

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by beaconstudios on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @05:03PM (#13700486)

a datacenter at the poles might also contribute to melting the ice.

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by Cleisthenes on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @05:06PM (#13700505)

More or less than burning fossil fuels to keep the data center cool at non-polar latitudes?

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by NegativeLatency on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @05:09PM (#13700527)

Less than or equal to the same amount of energy would be dissipated, but it would be closer to the actual ice.

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by mehwoot on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @08:21PM (#13702041)

But global warming isnt caused by energy dissipation, its caused by the greenhouse effect.

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by titanomachy on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @10:13PM (#13702676)

I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. Humans producing heat is not the problem; humans producing pollution is.

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Re:Want an energy efficient datacenter? Build it underwater by beaconstudios on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @05:12PM (#13700552)

it would contribute less co2 into the atmosphere, at the cost of physically and directly melting the ice. All-in-all it seems like a poor trade-off.

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