Project Goals: (1) To motivate the use and development of data center facilities, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to support the IT and knowledge economies, by quantifying the energy savings from using newer data center technologies that are emerging. (2) To suggest simple ways to improve the energy-efficiency hosting servers on campuses or in office settings, either by improving the efficiency of existing server closets or using a prototype of a free air cooling system.
Project Description: The first goal of this project is to motivate the use and development of data center facilities, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to support the IT and knowledge economies, by quantifying the energy savings from using newer data center technologies that are emerging. Massachusetts has, until now, not been a cost-effective state to deploy data centers due to higher relative real-estate and energy costs; emerging green and renewable technologies have the potential to be game changers for Massachusetts and the project will focus on such techniques. The study will particularly focus on the use of renewable solar, renewable open-air cooling and thermal energy storage in data centers. A secondary goal is to suggest simple ways to improve the energy-efficiency hosting servers on campuses or in office settings, either by improving the efficiency of existing server closets or using a prototype of a free air cooling system. Project results should spur the location of Energy Efficient Data Centers, utilizing significantly less cooling energy than the average facility currently uses. This will result in GHG reductions and in added jobs for Massachusetts. The secondary goal, should help improve the efficiency of non-data center server rooms in offices and campuses across Massachusetts resulting in both energy and cost savings for businesses and educational institutions.
