Holyoke Green Data Center

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In a formal announcement scheduled for today, Holyoke MA will be named the location for  a proposed green data center, a project affiliated with UMass Amherst, MIT, BU, EMC Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc.  According to a recent Mass High Tech article (MHT), the center is still in the initial phases of design and, if successful, will ultimately be a “world-class green research high-performance computing center,” helping to shape the research agenda in Massachusetts.

While it is not clear how “green” such a project would be, the center’s energy claims to be cost effective due to utilizing clean power sources (MHT).   The center would also be a resource for various universities involved in biotechnology and climate modeling and would marry private sector R&D with academia, a relatively unfamiliar pairing.   Additionally, the project would bring new jobs in research and technology to western Massachusetts, an area of the state that could benefit greatly from new job creation.  Holyoke in particular, a post-industrial paper mill city, could use the economic boost and its location alongside the Connecticut River, as well as its proximity to I-91 and high-speed data lines makes it an ideal location for this project.

This entry was posted in Conservation & Efficiency, Technology and tagged by Tara Holmes. Bookmark the permalink.

About Tara Holmes

Tara lives in San Francisco (but hails from Massachusetts). She is passionate about environmental conservation and increasing public awareness of environmental issues. Tara received a BA from Connecticut College and an MPA with a concentration in environmental policy from The Maxwell School of Syracuse University. She tends to focus on politics and business, but also touches on behavior. Tara has worked at the World Resources Institute, the MA Department of Energy Resources and spent summer 2010 working on UN-REDD research and policy in Paris, France for ONF International. She is currently involved with SF Environment, Friends of the Urban Forest and sits on the Board of Directors for Randall Museum Friends in San Francisco. She enjoys being outdoors as much as possible! Twitter: @tmhol. Personal Blog: http://taraholmes.wordpress.com/ In addition to the posts listed by clicking her username above, she also contributed to the post Whitehouse goes solar!

3 thoughts on “Holyoke Green Data Center”

  1. There are lots of claims about energy savings in data storage centers. Sometimes it’s hard to justify those claims. There is, however, one thing you can count on according to Al Thomason, vice chairman of SNIA’s Green Storage Initiative and a storage portfolio manager at IBM.

    “… every watt you burn [to power systems] you burn another watt in cooling these systems.”

    Some more math here: http://www.byteandswitch.com/storage/infrastructure/snia-tackles-green-hype-in-storage.php

  2. The Green Grid is promoting Data Center efficiency. Two metrics are Power Use Effectiveness(PUE) and Data Center Efficiency (DCiE). Both measure the ration between power consumed for IT loads and non-IT loads such as cooling. This is becoming a bigger issue and Data Centers since it drives cost savings as well. Data Centers are huge users of electricity.

  3. I agree with Mike, PUE and DCiE are really important for measuring Data Center efficiency. I would suggest start to track your own PUE and DCiE right now if you haven’t done so, and mock the case before you deploy any “Green Data Center” project.

    There are plenty free tools online, too. This one from 42u.com is quite good (http://www.42u.com/efficiency/energy-efficiency-calculator.htm), or just google “data center efficiency calculator”.

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