Yea, I saw an article about this. MS got fined before for NOT using enough energy. This time they were below the threshold, and were going to get fined 210K!
So they burned up 70K of energy to avoid the fine.
So here’s the question I haven’t heard asked: if WA state is supposed to be so gung-ho on saving energy; why are they fining companies for not using enough energy?
Building a server facility on a farm just to claim it is powered by hydro-electric power is a bad idea. Most importantly, the hydro-power was already being used, so any new power will come from a natural gas turbine, no matter where the servers are located.
Power is lost in the delivery of electricity from the generator to the end user. When the electricity is initially generated, it is at a low voltage, which cannot be transported through wires to the end user. Instead, it is “stepped-up” to a much higher voltage, which travels better through wires to the end user. Once near the end user, the voltage is “stepped-down”, sent through neighborhoods, and then “stepped-down” again to the familiar 240V used by most homes. This process wastes about 40% of the original energy delivered by the generator, which directly correlates to carbon emissions. Computers require various low DC voltages, introducing further losses in their power supplies. While server facilities are more efficient, only about 40% of generated power reaches the typical home computer motherboard (60% loss).
Likewise, natural gas must be pumped from a field of wells to the power plant. That involves lots of steel pipe and some electricity.
Servers also generate a lot of heat, which must be dissipated through either air conditioning or water cooling towers. Northern climates, being cooler, would reduce this cost somewhat.
Therefore, the most energy efficient (and truly green) server facility solution would be:
• Located near a natural gas field with several decades of proven reserves, and in a northern climate zone.
• Have its own natural gas turbine generator, or perhaps a fuel cell if that technology evolves a bit more.
• Instead of stepping-up the voltage of the generator to 100,000 Volts or more, transform it to 25V, 12V, and 5V (or a bit higher to account for losses). Then send the power to a AC to DC converter that provides the required voltages to thousands of server computers.
Compared to a fake hydro-power solution that is really a standard gas turbine distribution network, this solution should consume about half the natural gas. The only drawback is that this solution cannot make the vague ‘carbon neutral’ claim. Companies should decide if they want to consume less fossil fuel or if they want to ‘green wash’ their image while really doing nothing.