Is demand-side response an attractive proposition and are mission critical sites now coming on board? Demand-side response is becoming more critical as a method to balance the grid with increasing amounts of intermittent generation and a reluctance to have fossil fuel spinning reserve in place. Sites with back-up generation are Read more…
Is ambient cooling overtaking compressor technology?
Tim Bound, director at Transtherm Cooling Industries, explores the evolving role of ambient cooling technologies in keeping energy costs low in data centre applications As demand for data collection, storage and exchange multiplies at an unprecedented rate, experts are concerned that the energy consumption of data centre infrastructure is becoming Read more…
Does AI hold the key to reducing cost?
Schneider Electric’s Patrick Donovan discusses the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in increasing reliability and efficiency Schneider Electric’s Data Centre Science Centre recently calculated that typical data centre physical infrastructure energy losses have been cut by 80% during the past decade. In many cases this has been enabled Read more…
CNet launches data centre sustainability programme
A new distance learning initiative, focused on sustainability, has launched by CNet in response to calls from data centre professionals for a programme to provide knowledge and innovative approaches to planning, designing, implementing and monitoring a sustainability strategy for data centre facilities and operational capability. A one-year distance learning programme, Read more…
Vertiv extends partnership with Russian data centre operator IXcellerate
Vertiv, formerly Emerson Network Power, has announced at Datacloud Europe the extension of its partnership with IXcellerate. The Russian data centre provider recently launched the third expansion of its Moscow One campus, creating one of the largest data halls in Russia. Vertiv has been a technology partner for IXcellerate since Read more…
Siemens to harness AI to improve cooling efficiency
The Siemens Building Technologies Division is expanding its existing Thermal Optimisation offering set for data centres to intelligently ensure both highly efficient cooling production and cooling distribution throughout the entire facility. To improve the way cooling is distributed throughout data centre “white space,” Siemens is integrating Vigilent’s artificial intelligence-based dynamic Read more…
Eaton joins research campus to drive energy innovation
Eaton has joined the Low-Voltage (LV) Consortium of FEN Research Campus as a new industrial partner dedicated to innovative energy projects. Eaton will contribute to the research and development activities of the LV Consortium, in which 13 industrial partners and 15 institutes of RWTH Aachen University are working together on Read more…
The changing face of energy: The Energyst Event
New event taking place 17th to 18th of April at National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham The full conference line-up has been officially announced for the inaugural Energyst Event. The conference focuses on end-user sessions with household brands such as Marks and Spencer and BT sharing their experiences. The conference stream: Energy Read more…
Swedish data centre to heat 10,000 Stockholm households
Nordic data centre operator, DigiPlex, and heating and cooling supplier, Stockholm Exergi (formerly Fortum Värme), have signed a large-scale heat reuse agreement. The agreement is claimed to be the world’s first where an already operational data centre with an indirect evaporative air-to-air cooling solution, will be retrofitted to recover excess Read more…
TCN Data Hotels upgrades to transformer-free technology
Providing 99.9999% availability, TCN Data Hotels runs two data centres in the north of the Netherlands, each with a capacity of approximately 50MW. However, the company also shares its knowledge and experience by developing facilities for third parties, ranging from 1MW to more than 100MW. The data centre operator sets itself Read more…
Firms could waste £7bn in next two years through lax energy management
Public and private sector organisations could waste £7.4bn on avoidable energy costs by 2019 if they fail to implement effective energy management strategies, reckons Inenco. The third party intermediary (TPI) has totted up the cost of rising non-commodity costs (renewable and low carbon subsidies, climate change levies and carbon taxes) and Read more…
Experts to discuss energy saving strategies
Ebm-papst UK is hosting a free breakfast seminar at its Client Centre in Chelmsford on Thursday 7th December on ‘Energy reducing strategies for the built environment.’ This breakfast seminar will see four key industry leaders sharing their companies’ approaches to improving energy efficiency. The speakers will demonstrate their unique strategy for Read more…
Government aims to simplify energy and carbon reporting while adding some bite
Government is consulting on a streamlined carbon and energy framework for larger UK companies. It thinks firms could save over £2bn a year by being more energy efficient. But, alongside that carrot, it is potentially threatening some stick. The department for business, energy and industrial strategy seeks views from firms Read more…
Microsoft signs agreement with GE to power data centres with wind power
Microsoft has signed an agreement with GE to purchase energy from its wind farm in County Kerry, Ireland, as part of its target of producing 50% of its data centre energy requirements through green sources by 2018. The companies have agreed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to support growing demand for Read more…
Adapting infrastructure following legislative change
From the IP Act and Brexit, to a new Green Grid performance metric, Future Facilities’ Jon Leppard discusss the potential impact on data centre infrastructure and how to ensure you are prepared. So far this year, organisations across the UK and Europe have been faced with negotiating a series of Read more…
PUE: a flawed and inadequate metric or practically perfect?
PUE has its critics but it is neither flawed nor inadequate. In fact, for what it is intended to represent, it is nearly perfect; and it would be were it not for a combination of a lack of understanding, deliberate abuse by marketing folks and the ease that it can Read more…
Going underground: taking modularity to new depths
Situated next to a deep, cold fjord, with access to an ample supply of hydroelectric energy, the Lefdal Mine Datacentre aims to be the greenest in Europe and was developed together with technology partners Rittal and IBM The Lefdal Mine Datacentre (LMD) in Norway has an ambitious vision; it aims Read more…
Apple to build new ‘green’ data centre in Iowa
Apple has announced plans to build a 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data centre in Waukee, Iowa, to better serve North American users of iMessage, Siri, the App Store and other Apple services. Like all Apple data centres, the new facility will run entirely on renewable energy from day one. Apple’s investment of Read more…
Equinix to install largest deployment of fuel cells for data centres
Equinix, Inc., the global interconnection and data centre company, has signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between a subsidiary of Southern Company and Equinix in which Bloom Energy fuel cells will be installed at 12 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres in the US. The project will provide a total capacity Read more…
Real time monitoring delivers cool benefits
The latest digital monitoring and metering solutions deliver high accuracy, for optimised efficiency and maximum savings, and can be retrofitted quickly and easily, according to Socomec. The role of data centres as the engine room behind mission and IT critical operations means that a robust energy efficiency strategy is a Read more…