korrents · piece

How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordable

Austin Vernon · 18 Apr 2024

Others here said this too

Air cooling has run out of headroom for AI racks, so liquid cooling is now a requirement rather than an upgrade.

Their wordsAI servers bring new challenges because many require liquid cooling.

Also said by Doug O'Laughlin, Brian Potter

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Austin Vernon did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
A data centre powered by solar and batteries alone needs an array so oversized that the design is not worth building.

Their wordsThe solar array sizes under these assumptions are prohibitively large.
Our reading
Letting generators cover one per cent of the year is what makes an off-grid solar data centre affordable, because the last few gloomy days set the whole array size.

Their wordsThe optimal scenario is typically when the generators supply 1% of yearly electricity (shown below).
Our reading
Cooling adds nothing to what a data centre produces, which is why it is the first thing a good design deletes rather than optimises.

Their wordsThe cooling systems in most data centers are energy hogs and contribute no direct value.
Our reading
Air cooling has run out of headroom for AI racks, so liquid cooling is now a requirement rather than an upgrade.

Their wordsAI servers bring new challenges because many require liquid cooling.
Our reading
An off-grid data centre can delete its uninterruptible power supplies entirely, because the battery bank outside already is one.

Their wordsDeleting the UPSs could knock off ~$750/kW after considering equipment, installation, and square footage reduction.
Our reading
A data centre should be split into independent power blocks fed directly at 1500 volts DC, rather than run through one central distribution system.

Their wordsThe 100-megawatt facility might have ten 10-megawatt blocks served directly by a 1500V DC feeder line without connections to other blocks that would require extra switches and routing.
Our reading
Buying spare compute is cheaper than buying backup generators, because the servers cost fifty times what the generator does.

Their wordsInstalled generators cost ~$800/kW, and the data center capital cost, including servers, is ~$40,000/kW, so adding 1% more makeup compute capacity is money ahead of purchasing generators.
Our reading
Off-grid data centres will win the way electric cars did, by redesigning the machine around the new power source instead of swapping the power source in.

Their wordsEfforts to improve efficiency and remove vestigial features pay off handsomely.
Our reading
Nuclear-powered data centres are this decade's hydrogen car: a zero-emissions story incumbents prefer because it changes the least.

Their wordsSome efforts, like nuclear-powered data centers, are reminiscent of Toyota's hydrogen push.

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