Question. Why do data centers need to be connected to a dirty,
expensive, unreliable electrical grid? Answer. They don't and they
don't want to be either. Integrating a data center directly into
the power plant -- what we are calling our Data Plant program --
will allow a data center to pick its sustainable fuel source and
shield itself from grid volatility.
As customer demand for more and more cloud services continues to
grow, Microsoft, as well as many other IT companies, will need to
aggressively plan for how we can significantly reduce our carbon
footprints and make our data center operations more efficient. The
necessity for clean, renewable, reliable, and low cost power will
increase exponentially in the near future. Without a bold shift in
strategy, our entire industry will become more dependent on a
costly, antiquated, and constricted power grid.
The future requires a fundamental shift in how we approach
data center design and how we source energy for our data
centers. I still think the biggest opportunities are ahead of
us. Today, Microsoft is focusing on integrations that will drive
down costs and improve sustainability long term:
- Integration from the Chip to the Utility
- Integration across the Hardware and Software stack
Our team has been focusing on this since last year, and right
now it's really about how do we integrate even beyond what we've
done already? How do we integrate from the chip all the way
out to the utility, but not only from a hardware perspective? How
do we integrate across that whole stack and make the right
tradeoffs to drive the most sustainable, affordable solution?
So what is a Data Plant? In 2010, I started
introducing the idea of a Data Plant at industry
speaking engagements, as a grid independent data center and the
integration of power plants and data centers. This concept opens up
a host of options for a data center operations team, allowing it to
target clean, sustainable, cost effective, and reliable fuel. A
Data Plant can be integrated with the grid for back-up, or in an
island mode to facilitate locations that are not near large
transmission lines. As an option, a connection to the grid would
allow the power plant to maintain a maximum capacity factor; in
other words any unused power can be sent back into grid, keeping
the power plant fully utilized at all times and eliminating the
risk of stranding capacity.
Currently, our team is researching the first-ever grid
independent fuel cell, data center that is fueled directly from
biogas. The experiment is small scale, so we can demonstrate and
measure the benefits of it like we did with our "data center in a tent project" in 2008. We
are also talking with several municipalities about a public-private
partnership to test a prototype. The impact of this Cleantech
project is significant. For one, biogas is 100 % renewable. A small
200 kW prototype data center will offset over two million pounds of
CO2 emissions per year which is the equivalent of about 300 Honda
Civics being taken off the road. One can start to see how
significant this program will be when it's implemented in the
megawatt scale.
Where do you find biogas? Landfills and water
treatment plants are two of the most common sources, although there
are many others. Water treatment plants are mission critical
installations that produce methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas that is
20 times more potent than CO2, as the sewage from our communities
are broken down in an anaerobic digestion process (decomposition
without oxygen). Landfills produce methane in a similar way as our
garbage slowly decomposes underground. The methane that is produced
by both approaches must be flared, converting it to CO2 to minimize
the impact on the environment.
But haven't I heard of other data centers powered by
biogas? This data center will be constructed directly on a
water treatment plant or landfill site and will consume waste gas
that is typically flared off. Some data centers are reported to be
fueled with 'Directed Biogas' where biogas is injected into the
natural gas pipeline and then natural gas is purchased at the data
center site many miles away. The Data Plant consumes the biogas as
it is produced onsite making it purely biogas powered.
Why Fuel Cell? The process used in fuel cell
technology yields a very reliable source of energy while producing
a fraction of the emissions that other generation technology emits.
The clean electrochemical reaction of this device makes it a much
cleaner and easier to secure air quality permits because there are
no carcinogenic DPM (Diesel Particulate Matter) to worry about.
Compared to internal combustion type generation technology, a fuel
cell's Nitrous Oxide (NOx) and Sulfuric Acid (SOx) emissions are
barely measurable. Fuel cells basically exhale the same thing you
and I do, CO2 and water vapor.
In addition to the clean technology benefits, fuel cells offer
us a host of other advantages including increased Mean Time Between
Failure (MTBF), higher availability, pay as we grow, flexibility in
fuel sources, high electrical efficiency, combined heat and power
source, and reduced dependence on traditional data center
infrastructures such as five minute UPS and back-up diesel
generators.
Simplified Design. Ironically, the unreliability
of the grid requires us to install a complex array of UPS, back-up
generators, maintenance bypass circuits, power conditioning, etc.,
that adds additional impending sources of failure. Keep in mind, a
data center does not actually have to incur a utility outage for
there to be problems. Spikes and sags at the millisecond level can
result in component damage downstream. The reality is data centers
are constantly bombarded with power quality events and transients
that over time degrade the built in protection infrastructure of
the data center lowering confidence in older, well-engineered data
center electrical plants.
As the demand for cloud services grows, we are looking at new
methods for maintaining the high availability of our applications,
while becoming more sustainable, efficient and cost effective so we
can pass those benefits on to our customers and our shared
environment. A constraint we all need to work with, is the fact
that our electrical grid was never methodically planned or
engineered for the significant growth we are experiencing today.
And it certainly was not engineered to take on the proliferation of
data center growth. Independence from the power grid will allow our
industry to minimize its impact and ease some of the constriction
already taking place. The Data Plant is one way of giving us an
ability to manage the growth of our clouds in a thoughtful manner:
building in sustainability from the ground-up, so we can run
sustainably every day. Our goal is to reduce the impact of our
operations and products, and to be a leader in environmental
responsibility.
So, in parting let me give you my final thoughts. Clearly, the
industry is going to face some challenges with respect to power,
carbon, and water as a resource. Within Microsoft, we are working
to proactively address these issues. You can expect massive
integration in cloud infrastructure, and it's purely driven by
sustainability and a total cost of ownership advantage.
Remember, lower costs generally mean better sustainability
too. If you drive your costs down, you are actually
using less material and energy. That also makes it more
sustainable. Think about that in terms of the data center
infrastructure and about data as the next form of energy. How
would you rethink your operations if you did that? As I've
said before, there's tons of opportunity and there's certainly a
lot for all of us to learn. This industry is blessed with a lot of
smart people attacking the same problem set. Personally, I am very
excited about these possibilities and believe I am fortunate to be
working on this technology at this time.
Our team will continue our efforts through R&D, blogs,
involvement in industry organizations, speaking at conferences, and
white papers to share what we are doing in the most transparent way
possible. We have been busy in the past year creating all the
content you will find on our web site today. I hope you will
explore the videos and arsenal of related papers from our engineers
and subject matter experts published on it. I hope these will
continue to stimulate a healthy discussion and continued
collaboration with our industry participants.
(Don't forget to re-subscribe to the RSS
feed on this new blog site for all the latest news and
posts.)
//cb
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