A VP of Sun Microsystems has predicted that within the next 12 months a major data centre will have a meltdown. He tells of data centres currently being built that consume 50 megawatts of electricity (more than a small town does). Of course this is the reason that MS, Google and others are building data centres in either extreme cold areas or close to large electricity sources.
It also however starts to make perfect sense that Google is making forays into the energy sector. It’s a text book vertical integration play that vives them both price and supply security. It also enables them to run data centres, in part at least, as a closed loop which is very much in keeping with the way Google seems to architect things.
Roll on renewables and hi-temperature superconductors I say!
