Green data center strategies courtesy of the international community

Solar cooling spreads to South Africa
South African mobile carrier MTN has introduced an innovative approach to energy efficiency to its Johannesburg headquarters. A 242 mirror solar array will power a water chiller, says IT Web Africa. The chiller lowers the temperature of a water/coolant solution that is then cycled through the data center. The solution absorbs heat, maintaining efficient server temperatures, and releases it into the atmosphere before returning to the chiller to restart the cycle. This solution points toward the opportunity for data centers in any hot and sunny climate to let Mother Nature do heavy lifting of keeping servers at cool temperatures.

Hydro-electric does the job in Canada
French web hosting giant OVH recently constructed an energy-efficient data center in Montreal, Canada. The facility is located less than 1000 ft from a hydro-electric dam that provides a large percentage of the data center's energy, according to Data Center Knowledge. OVH also utilizes an in-house developed cooling solution to eliminate the need for air-conditioning. Again, American facilities can take a page from the international community's handbook when it comes to designing data centers to take advantage of natural environments.

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