Manchester is to build the world's first large-scale
green hosting facility and internet hub using the techniques for
minimising
carbon emissions.
The joint project by construction company Ask:Goodman, internet
hosting company UKFast and
Manchester City Council aims to be operational in the second half
of 2008.
The facility in Central Park, Manchester, has been designed to
be carbon neutral. It will generate some of its own renewable
energy using wind turbines and solar panels as well as re-use the
heat generated by the servers.
Other measures include the industry's greenest servers and
uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems.
"Servers will be designed to require as little power as possible
using dual core chipsets that are 40% more energy efficient than
current systems and advanced UPS, which will be 7% more efficient
than today's best," said Lawrence Jones, managing director of
UKFast.
A
recent report estimated the electricity used by Internet
hosting facilities and datacentres worldwide at 0.8% of total world
electricity consumption, raising concerns about the contribution of
these centres to climate change.
"We have been looking for ways of reducing the environmental
impact of our hosting services, and this project will enable us to
keep it to a minimum," said Jones.
UK businesses need support in green IT >>
Fujitsu throws down £10,000 green datacentre challenge to top firms
>>
Comment on this article:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk