Datacenters - Energy Source

[GradPhys]

There is a thread in the Miscellaneous forum about datacenters.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=90#p321

I was just wondering if anyone here has looked at possible application of nuclear, wind, hydro to directly power datacenters. I figured that with all the SMR discussions and research, someone might be looking into it.

[MikeTil]

There has been some work done in that area. Here is an article about using Nuclear Power for data centers. You might find it interesting.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/arch ... -possible/

[FrankS]

MikeTil, I am very interested in Data Centers and this link was very interesting, from the energy supply viewpoint. There seems to be a push to come up with self-contained power sources for Tier-2 and higher datacenters and small nuclear plants may be just one of the answers. Many newer datacenters are using local hydro and other local energy sources already, but an on-site small nuclear plant might be a much better solution.

You may be interested in this document, from last year, about designing an efficient datacenter.

[GradPhys]

Indeed the Hyperion SMR is what I had in mind when I posted the original message. With ~25 MW power that can run, without replacement for 10 years and the size of a large bathtub, I thought it would be ideal for a datacenter environment.

[Helen22]

and the size of a large bathtub

I think you may be over-simplifying this the nuclear component (core) may be that size but the power plant isn't that small.

[jniardo]

In theory using a stand-alone nuclear plant to supply a datacenter with power sounds like a good idea. However, it has its own drawbacks and complications.

I like the fact that people here are thinking about how to provide power to datacenters. However, this topic is buried among so many other topics that have nothing to do with it, so it makes it hard to follow. I wish they would break up this board to multiple topics/forums.

[Moderator]

Every so often we get a suggestion to break up the forums into smaller, subject specific ones. The idea sounds good, but the devil is in the details It's very simple for us to create a few additional forums, but the question becomes what are the dividing lines? Do you break them them up by general principle (e.g., Energy, Technology, Software, Regulations,...) or even finer than that, (e.g., Nuclear, Wind, Solar, Hydro, etc.). Once you start dividing them, you may end up with a very nice hierarchical structure where a visitor may have to spend lots of time navigating it, before they get to the information they are interested in.

Having said that, we'll discuss it and consider some sort of break-up once again and see if we can come up with something that makes sense and still keeps it simple for the visitors.

[jniardo]

I'm sure that there are other considerations that I am not privy to, but I think even a "rough" division would make it easier to follow conversations. Something like this: (just saying)

General Technology, etc. (Your main category)
- Energy
- Nuclear
- Solar
- Wind
- Hydro
- Bio
- Analytics - Computer Programs and Apps
- Datacenters
- Power
- Networks
- Security
- Other

[GradPhys]

and the size of a large bathtub

I think you may be over-simplifying this the nuclear component (core) may be that size but the power plant isn't that small.

Of course that was an oversimplification But, we all need to be thinking a bit outside the box, to use an old cliche, if we are going to find real solutions to our real energy problems that are bound to become even more real as datacenters are demanding more power!