
Video: Google's New Sea-Cooled Data Center - 1SockChuck
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/05/24/video-inside-googles-newest-data-center/
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rbranson
Is there any reason this isn't more common? Why aren't more US datacenters in
the Chicago metro area where the air is dry and cool, and trillions of gallons
of frigid water is available? The geography is mild and natural disasters that
effect datacenters are basically unheard of.

It seems silly that so many datacenters are in central Texas, where not only
are tornados and tropical storms fairly common, but it's hot and humid for 7
months out of the year.

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hyperbovine
One reason I have personal experience with is the massive regulatory headache
which accompanies any project that relies using a lot of fresh water from a
navegable river or lake. (Google "waters of the United States"). Invariably
you get to deal with both the U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, the Clean
Water and Endangered Species Acts, plus whatever state regulations are out
there, e.g. CEQA in California. This process can take literally decades and
cost millions of dollars: environmental consulting, EIS/EIR, Section 7 & 404
consultations, take permitting, habitat / species conservation plan,
mitigation, etc.

I'm not against preventing companies from trashing what natural resources we
have left. At the same time, I can see why they'd be reluctant to go that
route.

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rbranson
Very interesting. It doesn't surprise me that a vast array of permits would be
required, as it should be. We all know how companies will treat water
resources if they're not scrutinized. I do see water cooling as a potential
mitigation of large quantities of CO2. The need for datacenters will only
grow, and we need to find energy-efficient ways of cooling them. Perhaps
sticking to seawater in this case just makes more sense.

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JonnieCache
Who remembers google's patent from a couple of years ago for floating data
centers? Using the sea to cool it was a big part of that idea, alongside tidal
power. I'm kinda disappointed to see that this isn't the complete realisation
of that stuff, but its still a move in the right direction.

Original patent link: [http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Se...](http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220080209234%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080209234&RS=DN/20080209234)

I wonder if you could start a tropical reef around the outlets?

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b_emery
If it's anything like power plants in the US, then there are restrictions on
the allowed deltaT above ambient, and for good reason. For example in
California, the San Onofre Nuclear plant was found to significantly impact the
local fisheries by killing fish larvae and damaging kelp forests, and I
believe the deltaT is less than 2 degrees C. (Though I'm not sure if this is
at the heat exchanger or at the diffuser head). At Morro Bay (also in
California) there is a power plant built long before such restrictions existed
and it dumps cooling water straight into the surf zone. Apparently, intertidal
species (muscles, snails, etc) can be found there that are typically found
much further south. I can personally report that it makes the surfing much
more pleasant, but the heated water is generally considered a form of
pollution due to the negative impacts on native species.

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dstein
Or Datacenter-Heated Sea, depending on your perspective.

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splish
There is a tempering station that dissipates the heat from the water before it
is released back into the sea.

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ZoFreX
Then what advantage is there to sea water over a loop?

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wooster
The heated water is tempered with cold sea water so it's closer to the
temperature of the gulf when returned. This prevents a hot water plume at the
outlet, which can cause environmental problems.

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binarycheese
"It used to be a paper mill". Now its a data center.

Great to see factories evolving

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xutopia
This could not happen in Canada due to its geography. Most of our inhabitants
are sitting right by the border with the USA yet in the North we could easily
cool buildings for free with our weather and water.

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sudonim
Remember when the craze was to build water cooled gaming systems? I have a
feeling some of those people ended up working on this project at google.

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iwwr
You can also use water for a quiet(er) PC rather than strictly an overclocked
one. It's not that expensive nor labor-intensive to convert a regular system
to a watercooled one.

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mcorrientes
The video looks a little bit like the open compute project video from facebook
.

Isn't pumping so much water through the pipes less efficient compared to
facebooks method of cooling air down by spraying the water ?

See fb method at <http://livestre.am/wBjp>

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devicenull
That only works if the air you are cooling down is very dry. It then adds a
bunch of humidity to the air, so it couldn't really go back to the DC.

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VladRussian
it also seemed to be a great idea to use outside cool water for "free" cooling
of nuclear power plants. Happens to be not such a good idea after many years
of that [ab]use. While on the global scale the datacenters itself don't have
the impact yet, it will definitely affect the water ecosystem local to the
datacenter. There is no free lunch. Though Googlers may be under impression
that there is.

