Data Center Energy Efficiency at Nordic Green II

Data Center Energy Efficiency at Nordic Green II
by Zen Kishimoto

I have participated in and run several sessions on the topic of data center energy efficiency here in the U.S. as well as in Japan. I will moderate yet another such panel at SRI at 10:45 a.m. on April 28, less than a week away. This one is a little bit different from the ones I’ve been involved in before. The volcano ashes at one time threatened to postpone the conference, but it will be held as planned.

I’ve talked before about how to select a location for a data center. The criteria include:

Power
Network access
No natural disasters
Climate
Tax breaks
Access to human resources
Space
Market

The first two are essential. Without power or network access, no data center can be constructed. It is most beneficial to discuss universally applicable disciplines for energy efficiency, but it is also interesting to know how four data center operators from Norway, Iceland, and Finland are exploiting their regional environments for energy efficiency. My April 28 panel will also have two experts from Google and from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), who will talk about universally applicable disciplines, with flavors of region-specific environments.

The panel consists of:

Moderator: Zen Kishimoto, principal analyst, AltaTerra Research (U.S.A.)
Isaac Kato, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Verne Global　(Iceland)
Kimmo Pentikäinen, director of Environmental Information, Elisa Corp. (Finland)
Sindre Kvalheim, chief executive officer, LocalHost (Norway)
Eric Teetzel, manager, Green Energy Program, Google (U.S.A)
Dennis Semanski, senior project manager, EPRI (U.S.A.)

Incidentally, Isaac Kato lives in Boston and sort of commutes to Iceland. Verne Global’s data center is completely fueled by renewable energies from hydro- and geothermal, and it exploits the cold air there. The data center is west of the volcano and has not been much affected by the eruptions. And other operators have a lot of interesting stories to tell about their energy efficiency efforts. This is a must-see event.

You can register here.

The conference by itself will be interesting enough, but they are making it even more exciting by having opening and closing receptions. The opening reception is scheduled for Monday, April 26, 6:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m., at Stanford University’s Wallenberg Hall, 450 Serra Mall, Building 160. I plan to attend this reception and would like to meet with some of my readers there. The Silicon Vikings and the Consulate General of Finland will host the networking event. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served. Please RSVP and find more info here.

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		Deploying High-Density Zones in a Low-Density Data Center
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The closing reception is scheduled for Wednesday, April 28, 6:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m., at Dinah’s Garden Hotel and Trader Vic’s Restaurant, 4269 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA. Hans-Martin Friis Møller, director of Water, Energy, and Environment for Grontmij　Carl Bro, will give an informal presentation on the worldwide challenges of water and how new technology and programs are being implemented. The presentation will be hosted by the Danish American Chamber of Commerce, Invest in Denmark, and Innovation Center Denmark. Hors d’oeuvres will be served, and there will be a cash bar. Please register and learn more here.

Tags: Data Center, Energy Efficiency

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 3:25 PM and is filed under Community Manager, Data Center, Green Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.