Assuming it will work as polanned, a new data center in Espoo Finland might be able to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by up to 7.500 tons. Mind you, this is not eliminating the problem from the data center through efficiency–it is actually taking carbon dioxide out of the air altogether. The plan is to take the server and storage-generated heat and reroute it for heating and cooling district. In other words, instead of sending the heat out to space, the heat will actually be utilized. This means that the data center will also have a secondary revenue stream–from selling heating and cooling services to the nearby community. It will replace the fossil-fuel driven district heating and cooling systems and might set the standard for large data centers worldwide if successful.
The Data Center that Reduces Greenhouse Gases
April 22, 2010