Microturbines Power, Cool Servers Simultaneously 58
jfruhlinger writes "The infrastructure of a large data center poses two main problems: You need to find a way to reliably power all those servers, and you need to figure out a way to deal with the heat those servers put off. Syracuse University and the University of Toledo are experimenting with one gadget to solve both problems. Small power units that run on natural gas, called microturbines, provide reliable DC power separate from the utility grid, and their heat output can paradoxically be harnessed to cool the servers and transmit the heat to other buildings on campus."
Purdue University has this (Score:5, Informative)
Can they sell unused power back to the grid? (Score:3, Informative)
Can they sell unused power back to the grid?
Re:Purdue University has this (Score:5, Informative)
Citation?
Many EDUs and other large business campuses use tri-gen plants and from everything I've seen they arguably are significantly more efficient per unit of input engery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeneration [wikipedia.org]
chp (Score:5, Informative)
Re:chp (Score:3, Informative)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator [wikipedia.org]