Network World
Jul 30, 2019
Coming soon: Eco-friendly data centers | TECH(feed)
Network World | Jul 30, 2019
As the push for sustainability across all businesses intensifies, so too will the push for greener IT infrastructure. Data centers are notorious for giving off thermal energy and being somewhat energy inefficient. Researchers at Rice University are looking for solutions to turn this heat into something a little more useful. In this episode of TECH(feed), Juliet discusses the push for green IT and how data centers could become much more energy efficient.
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Hey everyone welcome back to tech feed i’m juliet beauchamp. Today let’s talk green i-t. Tech requires a lot of power, which isn’t particularly eco-friendly. Recycling energy could be the answer. Stick around.
Obviously, all the tech we all own requires power. From small wearables to huge data centers, everything’s got to be plugged in somehow at some point. You know how your laptop can get really hot while you’re charging it? That heat is an unwanted byproduct of powering your laptop. Virtually everything that’s plugged in generates some kind of heat--and in the case of huge data centers, that can be extremely inefficient.
Data centers are huge producers of heat. And then they’ve got to be cooled down. But what if there was a way to recycle this thermal energy into something that’s actually useful? Well, that’s just what researchers at rice university are trying to do.
Now this idea is in its early stages, so there’s no guarantee that it’ll pan out. But it seems pretty cool. Let’s travel quickly back to high school science class--energy can be converted into other types energy. That’s how computers end up with all this heat in the first place. So the researchers’ goal is to convert this thermal energy into light, which would then be converted into electricity. Think about solar panels--it’s kind of the same idea.
This idea makes data centers--and tech in general--a lot greener. And it’s certainly not the only green i-t idea floating around. As cloud computing continues to grow in popularity so will the amount of data centers across the globe. And cutting back on inefficiency will only prove more important as the push for renewable energy grows. So while this idea may not be a reality just yet, don’t expect the push for greener i-t to end anytime soon.
Thanks for watching this episode of tech feed. If you liked this video be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel. If you’ve heard of an innovative green i-t initiative, let me know about it in the comments. And check out the link below for more on this story from network world. See you next time.
Obviously, all the tech we all own requires power. From small wearables to huge data centers, everything’s got to be plugged in somehow at some point. You know how your laptop can get really hot while you’re charging it? That heat is an unwanted byproduct of powering your laptop. Virtually everything that’s plugged in generates some kind of heat--and in the case of huge data centers, that can be extremely inefficient.
Data centers are huge producers of heat. And then they’ve got to be cooled down. But what if there was a way to recycle this thermal energy into something that’s actually useful? Well, that’s just what researchers at rice university are trying to do.
Now this idea is in its early stages, so there’s no guarantee that it’ll pan out. But it seems pretty cool. Let’s travel quickly back to high school science class--energy can be converted into other types energy. That’s how computers end up with all this heat in the first place. So the researchers’ goal is to convert this thermal energy into light, which would then be converted into electricity. Think about solar panels--it’s kind of the same idea.
This idea makes data centers--and tech in general--a lot greener. And it’s certainly not the only green i-t idea floating around. As cloud computing continues to grow in popularity so will the amount of data centers across the globe. And cutting back on inefficiency will only prove more important as the push for renewable energy grows. So while this idea may not be a reality just yet, don’t expect the push for greener i-t to end anytime soon.
Thanks for watching this episode of tech feed. If you liked this video be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel. If you’ve heard of an innovative green i-t initiative, let me know about it in the comments. And check out the link below for more on this story from network world. See you next time.
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