Bottlehill Park Summary Business Plan - CIX · Bottlehill Park Summary Business Plan Jerry Sweeney B.E.(Elec.) M.Sc. [email protected] 087 6681692 ... The COdiNOx product visualisation

Bottlehill Business Park

Bottlehill Park Page 1

Bottlehill Park

Summary Business

Plan

Jerry Sweeney B.E.(Elec.) M.Sc.

[email protected]

087 6681692

Revision Date 15th January 2013



Table of Contents Tables ............................................................................................................................................................ 3

Figures ........................................................................................................................................................... 3

Acronyms ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Bibliography................................................................................................................................................... 4

YouTube Visualisations .................................................................................................................................. 4

Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 5

1 Initial Promoter ..................................................................................................................................... 6

2 Plan Drivers ........................................................................................................................................... 7

3 Plan Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 8

3.1 Why Bottlehill? .............................................................................................................................. 8

3.2 Plan Components .......................................................................................................................... 9

3.3 Indicative Layouts ........................................................................................................................ 10

4 Synergies ............................................................................................................................................. 12

5 Gating Factors ..................................................................................................................................... 13

6 Financial Information .......................................................................................................................... 14

6.1 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 14

6.2 Employment ................................................................................................................................ 14

6.3 Regional Development ................................................................................................................ 14

Appendix 1 Aerial Photograph of Bottlehill Park .................................................................................... 15

Appendix 2 Electrical and Energy Systems Design ................................................................................. 16

A2.1 Grid Connection .......................................................................................................................... 16

A2.2 Proposed Electrical System Line Diagram ................................................................................... 17

A2.3 Single Electricity Market .............................................................................................................. 18

Appendix 3 Proposed Fastnet Connect Fibre Route............................................................................... 21

Appendix 4 Cloud Valley Supporting Information .................................................................................. 22

A4.1 Wave Division Multiplex (WDM) ................................................................................................. 22

Appendix 5 Press coverage on Renewable Energy and Data Centres .................................................... 24

A5.1 Going Modular in Iceland to Slash BMW’s Costs, Carbon ........................................................... 24

A5.2 http://www.apple.com/environment/renewable-energy/ ........................................................ 25

A5.3 Microsoft to pilot data centre powered by biogas. .................................................................... 26



Tables Table 1 Plan Drivers ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Table 2 Synergy Summary ........................................................................................................................... 12

Table 3 Project Financial Summary ............................................................................................................. 14

Figures Figure 1 Current CIX facility at Hollyhill, Cork ............................................................................................... 6

Figure 2 Plan Overview .................................................................................................................................. 9

Figure 3 Possible Data Centre Elevation ..................................................................................................... 10

Figure 4 Possible Building Campus Layout ................................................................................................. 11

Figure 5 Bottlehill Aerial Photograph .......................................................................................................... 15

Figure 6 Regional Electrical Grid.................................................................................................................. 16

Figure 7 Electrical Line Diagram ................................................................................................................. 17

Figure 8 Ireland's Electricity Market Size ................................................................................................... 18

Figure 9 Ireland's grid stability as a function of wind penetration ............................................................ 19

Figure 10 Daily price variation on the SEM ................................................................................................ 20

Figure 11 Celtic Connect Fiber Route .......................................................................................................... 21

Figure 12 WDM Network............................................................................................................................. 23

Acronyms DC Data Centre

DRUPS Diesel Rotary Uninterruptible Power Supply

Gbps Gigabits per second, a measure of data transfer speed

GW GigaWatt, a measure of power

ICT Information and Communications Technology

MW Megawatt, a measure of power

PUE1 Power Usage Effectiveness

SEM Single Electricity Market, the wholesale electricity market for the island of Ireland

WDM Wave Division Multiplex, a technology to maximise fiber optical cable transmission

1 Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is an energy efficiency metric for data centres. It is calculated as follows:

PUE = (Power used by Computer Infrastructure)/(Total energy entering the data centre)

A lower PUE number is better. A PUE of 1.0 is considered the theoretical minimum where all of the energy is used

to drive the computing load and no losses occur in cooling and power distribution. Typical PUEs of 1.2 are now

being quoted by very efficient data centres.

Bottlehill Park will be the first data centre in the world to target a PUE below 1.0 by scavenging the waste heat and

reselling it to grow fruit and vegetables. Our formula is therefore extended as follows.

PUE = (Power used by Computer Infrastructure)/(Total energy entering the data centre – Reused Energy)

We accept that this method of calculation is non standard because PUE does not normally include a scavenged

energy component. Our project is different and therefore requires to be analysed in a different way.



Bibliography

Author Date Name

Joint Committee on

Communications, energy and

Natural Resources.

January 2011 PRN: A11/0060

The Development of Anaerobic

Digestion in Ireland

West Sussex Growers Association

(John Hall)

31st

October 2012 Combined Horticultural Production and

Energy Hubs

YouTube Visualisations

URL Description

http://youtu.be/IeaZ6ASu3iY Tour of existing CIX facility in Hollyhill, Cork

http://youtu.be/fLPvtvL8hSs How a biogas plant operates

http://youtu.be/PFeCJVIg2G8 Diesel Rotary UPS System (DRUPS)

http://youtu.be/c6F60kjkfwc The COdiNOx product visualisation



Executive Summary

Bottlehill Park will be the world’s most sustainable and most efficient data centre.

Food, energy and information are the rapidly expanding industries in Ireland today. This is a strategic

plan delivering all three aspects in one synergistically integrated project within the Cork region. The plan

utilises natural resources and existing infrastructure to exploit emerging market opportunities.

Sustainability, both ecological and economic, is the central theme of this project. It is proposed to

develop the project at Bottlehill Park on land in the ownership of Coillte and Cork County Council. The

project will consist of the following infrastructural elements.

1. A 10 MW data centre run entirely on renewable energy and achieving a PUE of 0.8. These

energy specifications are unique globally and will attract tier one IT companies to the Cork area.

2. Cork Region Connectivity.

a. The first optical fibre connection from Ireland to mainland Europe (72 fibre pairs from

Cork to Lannion in France).

b. Two resilient 72 fibre pair connections from Cork to Dublin.

c. A high speed WDM network connecting the business parks in Cork to the new

international and Dublin connections, called CloudValley.

3. A 7.5 hectares (18.5 acres) horticultural greenhouse producing fruit and vegetables 365 days a

year using scavenged heat from the adjacent data centre and excess wind generated electricity

to power grow lamps at night time.

4. A 27 MW wind farm.

5. 15 MW of fast acting (200ms) grid frequency response diesel rotary uninterruptible power

supplies (DRUPS) to facilitate renewable penetration to the grid, high frequency harmonic

filtration and resilient power to the data centre.

6. A bio-digester feeding electricity to the grid at times of high SEM prices.

The key deliverables of the plan are:

1. 120 direct fulltime jobs within Bottlehill Park. Most of these jobs being from the immediate area

using skills prevalent in the area.

2. Support of the development of the entire Cork region as a Cloud Computing / Software / Big

Data centre.

3. Improvement of connectivity to Ireland as a whole and Dublin in particular by offering a direct

fibre route to France.

4. Processing of bio waste materials to produce green energy.

5. Energy production and stabilisation of the electrical grid to allow deeper renewable penetration

to the grid.

6. Energy efficient, year round production, of fruit and vegetables

The purpose of this document is to determine interest from various potential stakeholders to see if the

project can be advanced.



1 Initial Promoter

The initial promoter of this project is:

Company Contact

Cork Internet eXchange

Hollhill Industrial Estate

Cork, Ireland

Jerry Sweeney

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 087 6681692

Cork Internet eXchange (CIX) operates the largest commercial data centre in Ireland outside of Dublin.

Turnover is growing at 35% per annum, the company is profitable, is self funding, and has very low debt.

CIX has adequate cash reserves and cash flow to support project costs (legal, planning application etc.)

through all of the gating factors outlined in Chapter 5. Specialist partners will be secured to implement

sub-projects not related to the CIX core competencies (e.g. horticulture and wind energy).

Below is a cutaway drawing of the current CIX facility. Full capacity at this facility will be reached in 2014

or early 2015. By that time the facility will have a capacity of 600kW which is only 12% of the capacity of

the 5MW phase 1 planned data centre at Bottlehill Park.

Figure 1 Current CIX facility at Hollyhill, Cork

CIX’s experience in project management, IT, Energy, Software, Networks and Cyber Security, make the

organisation ideally suited to lead this project. Parties interested in the Bottlehill Park project are

welcome to visit CIX to see the existing facility and to discuss this proposed plan.



2 Plan Drivers

Driver Plan Deliverable

Ireland needs capital investment to create jobs

and tax revenue. These jobs must be spread

across the skills range of our people and cannot

be aggregated in high-tech.

This plan is projected to deliver 120 direct jobs in a

wide variety of skills. Up to 500 jobs will be

created during construction. The entire Cork

region will benefit by creating a globally unique

environment for ICT companies.

The Cork region needs better Broadband/Internet

connectivity. All large data centres in the

Republic of Ireland are currently located in Dublin

because of Dublin’s excellent international

connectivity.

The CloudValley sub-project aims to build Cork as a

Cloud Computing centre and will provide copious

connectivity at reasonable prices to regional ISPs.

Ireland needs direct fiber connection to mainland

Europe. Current connections go to North America

and the UK only.

This plan includes the connection of Cork (and

therefore Ireland) to Lannion in France by a 72 pair

fibre optic cable.

The twin threats of global warming and peak oil

require that we develop business ventures that

are carbon neutral.

This plan creates sustainable economic activity

with a very low, or zero, carbon footprint.

Ireland’s Electrical Grid has a stability limitation

on the addition of wind based renewable. This is

leading to a growing volume of wind farm

curtailment.

The data centre sub-project in this plan will be

supported by Rotary UPS systems that will respond

within 200ms to a drop in grid frequency by

removing the data centre from the grid. This will

assist the grid to exceed the current renewable

penetration limit of 75%.

Ireland’s Single Electricity Market (SEM) is prone

to large daily price swings (typically 300%).

The electrical generation associated with the bio

digester sub-project will coincide with peak

electricity price times. This will assist in reducing

market price peaks and reduce the need for

investment in peaking plant.

Food prices are rising. Bottlehill Park will cost effectively and carbon

neutrally produce2 large volumes of fruit and

vegetables for both home and export markets.

Table 1 Plan Drivers

2 Initial analysis suggests that the carbon captured in the production of fruit and vegetables at Bottlehill Park will

far exceed carbon released from associated transportation and fertiliser usage.



3 Plan Overview

3.1 Why Bottlehill?

The initial promoter of this project, Mr. Jerry Sweeney, lives in Whitechurch, County Cork. Whitechurch

is four km from Bottlehill. His extended family have now lived in the Mourne Abbey area for several

generations. He grew up looking across the valley, toward Bottlehill. The concept behind this plan is

derived from an intimate knowledge of the area and a desire to improve the level of commercial activity

there. The plan is designed to meet the needs of the location rather than a location being selected to

implement the plan.

Bottlehill is located 16km due north of Cork City, off the N20 highway. Its access road infrastructure has

been developed to cope with its proposed future use as a land fill site. See Appendix 1 for further details

of the site.

For the five reasons below, Bottlehill is an ideally suited location from which to develop this plan.

1. To achieve a PUE below 1.0, the waste heat from the DC must be scavenged. Therefore the DC

and glasshouse have to be located together because there is no means of moving warm air over

long distances. An absolute minimum of 20 hectares is required and preferably a lot more. This

land requirement excludes construction within normal industrial parks.

2. There is a growing desire by Tier 1 IT companies to use green DCs. Appendix 5 contains some

press coverage of a few such projects. Bottlehill Park hopes to tap into this trend. A marketing

requirement is that the park, overall, be a net energy exporter. The wind farm site must have a

high average wind speed (wind farm output is proportional to the cube of the wind speed). This

excludes low and sheltered areas.

3. Bottlehill Park already has an EPA licence and planning for refuse handling. This would,

hopefully, make getting planning for an anaerobic digester easier.

4. Bottlehill is close to the proposed fibre landing point in Cork and is close to Cork International

airport.

5. Bottlehill already has a 110kV electricity supply passing through the site.



3.2 Plan Components

The drawing below describes the relationship between the components operating within Bottlehill Park.

Figure 2 Plan Overview

Farmyard slurry and food processing wastes will form the bulk of the input for the biodigester. Sewerage

from the 120 staff working on site will also be processed in the bio-digester. Methane gas from the

Landfill site can be added to the output from the bio-digester to generate electricity at peak price times.

An opportunity will be offered to local farmers of adjoining land, where suitable, for construction of

wind turbines connected to the project.

Water from the roof (DC and greenhouse) will be collected and used for irrigation in the greenhouse.

Waste water from the bio-digester can be used for irrigation and fertiliser in the greenhouse.

Extensive environmental studies have already been performed at Bottlehill Park as part of the planning

process for its use as a landfill site. It is an important habitat for the Hen Harrier and this function must

be maintained.



3.3 Indicative Layouts

Figure 3 Possible Data Centre Elevation



The drawing below gives one possible site layout for the facility, incorporating two data centre buildings

and two horticultural greenhouses. The red arrows represent warm air being ducted to the horticultural

green houses.

Figure 4 Possible Building Campus Layout



4 Synergies The concept behind this plan is to develop competitive advantage for individual component projects

through synergies.

Synergy Benefit

Electrical Substation The data centre, wind farm and anaerobic digester all require an

electrical substation. Since the data centre consumes electricity, a

substation sized for the wind warm will be adequate for all three

operations. In effect the DC and digester get a free substation.

Shared Generation a) The gas engine(s) required to consume the biogas generated on site

will also offer extra standby generator capability for the data centre at

no extra capital investment cost.

b) The DRUPS systems planned for the DC will offer grid frequency

stabilisation to the grid as well as harmonic reduction.

Roads The new roadways and other infratructure already constructed for the

Bottlehill landfill site will be utilised at no extra cost for the proposed

new projects.

CO2 Usage CO

2 recovered from the bio-gas engine using the COdiNOx system can be

used as a fertiliser for the greenhouse.

Heat Utilisation. Waste heat from the data centre will heat the commercial green house

when solar gain is inadequate to achieve optimum growing

temperatures.

Waste Usage Animal Droppings, Food Waste and Abattoir Waste can be used directly

by the Anaerobic Digester to produce methane rich biogas.

Horticultural Waste Usage Plant waste such as stems and leaves can be consumed in the bio-

digester on site to produce electricity.

Low Cost Electricity Due to the direct connection to the transmission network, the

horticultural business will have access to very low cost electricity during

the night. This will facilitate using ‘grow lamps’ to extend the growing

season so that crops can be produced in winter. Using electricity in this

way will reduce the need for wind farm curtailment nationally and as the

loads are interruptible will increase grid stability.

European Fibre Connection Ireland has no fibre optic connection directly to Europe. All connections

go via the UK with some connectivity to North America. Cork is the

obvious place from which to run such a cable but the capital cost is very

high. Locating a data centre in Cork and developing the Cloud Valley

initiative with make this investment in a European fibre connection much

more viable as a whole. In turn Cork will become one of the best

connected locations on the globe.

Table 2 Synergy Summary



5 Gating Factors The following gating factors have been identified. All of these factors must be overcome if the project is

to proceed.

Gating Factor

1 Land must be procured from Cork County Council for construction. Approximately 40 hectares

(100 acres) will be required along with access right of way.

2 An annual lease price, or revenue share deal, must be agreed with Coillte for the rights to build

the wind farm and substation on the site.

3 A Grid Connection Licence must be procured. As Gate 3 is closed this may involve the purchase

of a licence from another project and is subject to CER rules and approval.

4 Capacity on 110V transmission network must be verified.

5 Wind Survey must be carried out. Wind Farm investment/operation partner must be identified.

6 Horticultural Partner must be identified.

7 Planning Permission must be applied for and received.

8 EPA licence must be applied for and received, with special attention to bio-digester aspect.

9 International Fibre Connection from Cork to Cornwall / France.

10 Fibre Connection from Cork to Dublin.

11 Identification of Tier 1, ICT companies, prepared to sign co-location agreements.

An important initial milestone will be to get agreement from the land owners to allow a web site be

constructed to facilitate information dissemination and marketing of the project.

A projected timeline for the project might be as follows:-

• 2013: Partner location, negotiations and agreement

• 2014: Planning permission procurement

• 2015: Phase 1 Construction

• 2016: Initial Commercial Operation



6 Financial Information

6.1 Summary

The following table gives some initial cost, sales and jobs estimates for the project components.

Investment in the data centre and horticultural components are likely to occur in a number of stages

over a few years.

Business Capex

(€ Million)

Annual Sales

(€ Million / Annum)

Direct Jobs

(Fulltime Persons)

Wind Farm €70 €7.0 2

Anaerobic Digester €4 €0.5 5

Data Centre €303 €12.0 30

Horticulture €30 €10.0 75

France Fibre Optic

Connection

€45 €8.0 1

Cork Dublin

Connection

€5 €1.0 1

WDM Network €3 €1.0 6

Totals €187 €39.5 120

Table 3 Project Financial Summary

6.2 Employment

Because of the skills mix, approximately 80 of the jobs could be filled by persons from the immediate

locality without highly specialised training. The local area comprises the villages of Carrignavar,

Whitechurch, Rathduff, Grenagh, Burnfort, Killavullen, Glenville and the rural areas surrounding. There is

excellent road access from Cork (18km) and Mallow (17km) for employees that need to commute.

6.3 Regional Development

It is expected that the business parks in Cork, and also Mallow Business Park, will benefit by attracting

high tech companies to Cork because of the connectivity and unique hosting capabilities afforded by the

project.

Aldi in Mitchelstown (35km), Lidl in Buttevant (20km), and Musgrave Group (20km) in Cork City all have

distribution centres close to Bottlehill Park and would be potential local markets for horticultural

produce.

A bio-digester would support the pig, poultry and cattle industries by offering environmentally friendly

utilisation of farmyard manure and processing wastes on a year round basis.

3 Data Centre Investment covers the construction and fit out of two phases of 5MW each. It does not include

investment in IT equipment which will be paid for by the data centre customer’s.

Bottlehill Park

Appendix 1 Aerial Photograph of Bottlehill

Figure 5 Bottlehill Aerial Photograph

Cork County Council paid €46.8m to develop the landfill

Bank hold an outstanding loan of €35m on which the Council are repaying €2m per annum in interest

and capital (Irish Examiner, September 2012).


Aerial Photograph of Bottlehill Park

€46.8m to develop the landfill site in Bottlehill Park. The European Investment

€35m on which the Council are repaying €2m per annum in interest

and capital (Irish Examiner, September 2012).

Page 15

site in Bottlehill Park. The European Investment

€35m on which the Council are repaying €2m per annum in interest



Appendix 2 Electrical and Energy Systems Design

A2.1 Grid Connection

The 110kV electrical transmission line from Mallow to Cork passes though the west side of the Coillte

forest at Bottlehill Park. The map below shows the distribution grid network within the region.

Figure 6 Regional Electrical Grid



A2.2 Proposed Electrical System Line Diagram

Bottlehill Park will be supplied by a 110kV substation feeding a 20kV MV ring main around the Park via

dual 30MW transformers in active standby mode.

• Each Wind Generator will have its own transformer.

• The Data Centre will be fed by two diesel rotary uninterruptible power supplies (DRUPS).

• A small transformer will deliver LV services to other buildings in the park.

The drawing below shows nine 3MW wind turbines and a single 5MW data centre. It is envisaged that

the possibility of a second 5MW data centre will also be allowed for.

Figure 7 Electrical Line Diagram



A2.3 Single Electricity Market

A2.3.1 Size and Composition

The following table shows the size of the electrical grid system on the island of Ireland and the existing

renewable penetration. It also suggests a possible grid size for 2020 and estimates the required

renewable penetration to achieve the planned 40% renewable penetration. In Ireland renewable energy

will be predominantly wind energy for the foreseeable future. Natural gas will continue to be the largest

energy source for electricity production.

Figure 8 Ireland's Electricity Market Size

These figures suggest there are three problems with this model.

Problem 1 Double capital investment.

Wind cannot be relied upon because the weather is randomly variable. Therefore for every wind turbine

constructed, a similar capacity of natural gas powered generation will need to be installed. This standby

generation will have a low utilization (periods of high demand when the wind isn’t blowing strongly) and

will therefore be expensive per MWh produced.

Problem 2 Wind farm curtailment.

Because of variability in wind speed, a wind turbine produces approximately 33% of its rated output on

average. Therefore to achieve 2GW of output will require the installation of 6GW of wind generation.

As wind energy penetration increases on the electrical grid, a growing need for wind farm curtailment

will occur at times when wind output exceeds demand (periods of low demand when the wind is

blowing strongly). This curtailment will reduce the financial viability of wind farm investment.



Problem 3 Grid instability.

Studies by Eirgrid suggest that at levels above 50% penetration of wind energy onto the grid, the danger

of grid instability occurs. With mitigation efforts, a true limit of 75% penetration exists. This issue in

effect exacerbates the issue in problem 2 and will increase further the amount of wind farm curtailment.

Figure 9 Ireland's grid stability as a function of wind penetration



A2.3.2 Market Operation

The island of Ireland is operated as a single electricity market at a wholesale level. All generators must

sell to the Single Electricity Market (SEM) and all suppliers must purchase wholesale from the SEM. The

SEM is operated by SEMO (http://www.sem-o.com). A detailed explanation of the operation of the SEM

is available by reading the Helicopter guide to the Trading and Settlement Code:-

http://www.sem-o.com/Publications/General/SEM%20Trading%20and%20Settlement%20Code%20Helicopter%20Guide.pdf

The price on the SEM varies on a 30 minute basis and typically price differences from low to high across

a day vary by more than 300%. The following chart shows the variation on 21st

October 2012.

Figure 10 Daily price variation on the SEM

Using the above graph as a guide, Bottlehill Park might operate during a market day as follows...

• As much wind energy generated electricity as possible will be consumed internal to the park at

all times thus avoiding DUoS, TUos, SEMO and Tax costs.

• The horticultural facility would run grow lamps as required from 02:00 to 08:00.

• The generator powered by the bio-digester would run from 18:00 to 20:30 to maximise the

economic return (or saving) from the electricity generated.



Appendix 3 Proposed Fastnet Connect Fibre Route Sea Fibre Networks Limited have constructed a 72 pair fibre optic cable from Dublin to Anglesey Island

in north Wales. They are currently developing a plan to bring a similar cable from Lannion in France to

Cork. It is planned that the Cork Lannion connection will also have a spur connection to Bude in

Cornwall. Bude and Lannion are both landing points for high capacity fibre optic connections to North

America.

The following drawing is taken from Sea Fibre Networks Limited’s brochure.

Figure 11 Celtic Connect Fiber Route



Appendix 4 Cloud Valley Supporting Information

A4.1 Wave Division Multiplex (WDM)

WDM is a technology that allows a single fiber optic cable to carry multiple signals. This reduces the cost

and/or increases the capacity of the cable to carry data.

Pulses of light are used to transmit data in a fiber optic cable. WDM uses light of different colours to

create many signal paths. Think of a single fiber cable carrying both red and blue pulses of light. Optical

prisms are used to separate the different colours at the receiving end. These optical prisms are passive

(meaning they don't require a power source). This makes them immune to power failure.

Low cost solutions allowing for 16 colours are now available on the market. Each colour is capable of

carrying 10Gbps, or even 40Gbps, if more expensive optics are used. A 16 colour solution, based on

10Gbps per colour, yields a total network capacity of 160Gbps. Each colour can come off the network at

multiple nodes. Also, all nodes are terminated in one or more data centres, allowing for resilient routing

between circuits and also for 'on ramp' services.

The sample diagram on this page represents a single optical fiber ring with six different colours. Ten 'off

ramp' nodes are shown and two data centres are shown. The data centres allow for 'on ramp' services

and also allow for routing of data between the colours.

Each 10Gbps 'off ramp' node on the main ring then becomes a feed for a local campus, business park or

residential suburb.



Figure 12 WDM Network



Appendix 5 Press coverage on Renewable Energy and Data Centres

A5.1 Going Modular in Iceland to Slash BMW’s Costs, Carbon

Rich Miller, Oct 11th 2012, Data Centre Knowledge

It’s been more than five years since the government of Iceland began seeking to lure data center projects with a

tantalizing prospect – state-of-the-art data centers powered by massive amounts of totally renewable energy, with

year-round free cooling. What kind of savings in cost and carbon might such a facility realize? A new tenant with a

marquee brand has some data quantifying the gains it expects to see from the “Iceland effect.”

Automaker BMW Group is moving some of its high performance computing (HPC) applications to a data center in

Keflavik, Iceland operated by Verne Global, whose facility runs on 100 percent renewable energy. BMW will move a

number of power-hungry applications to the Verne Global facility, including crash simulations, aerodynamic

calculations and computer aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE), all of which are critical to the development of

BMW’s next generation of energy efficient vehicles.

These kind of HPC applications are accompanied by high power consumption and carbon emissions. In their current

environment, the 10 clusters running these apps are consuming 6.31 Gigawatt hours of power annually.

Sharp Reduction in Carbon Emissions

By moving these HPC clusters from its German facilities to high-efficiency data center modules from Colt housed at

Verne Global, BMW expects to reduce the cost of powering these HPC apps by as much as 82 percent. And because

the Iceland facility is a “zero emission data center,” BMW will reduce annual carbon emissions by 3,570 metric tons;

the equivalent of the carbon produced by burning 1.46 million liters (about 385,000 gallons) of gas, according to

estimates from CarbonFootprint360.

“Companies are facing a mounting challenge to keep both their data center power costs and carbon emissions in

check,” said Jeff Monroe, CEO of Verne Global. “Particularly those involving power intensive computing such as

HPC. By moving its applications to Verne Global, BMW is showing there are alternatives available today that address

the unpredictable and fluctuating power prices found throughout the world and simultaneously reduce their carbon

footprint in a very meaningful way.”

The Verne Global facility, built in a former NATO command center, takes advantage of Iceland’s vast supply of

renewable energy (hydroelectric and geothermal), along with a cool climate that allows the use of air-side free cooling

for the entire year. Colt customized its modular data center hall design, equipping it with cooling modules that allow

Verne to cool servers using air from outside the data center. In winter months, the system gives Verne the option of

mixing the chilly outside air with exhaust heat from servers.



A5.2 http://www.apple.com/environment/renewable-energy/

Apple Website, December 12th, 2012

Generating onsite renewable energy.

Apple’s data center in Maiden, North Carolina, will draw about 20 megawatts of power at

full capacity. We’ll be producing an unprecedented 60 percent of this power onsite. To do

that, we’re building what will be the nation’s largest private solar arrays and the largest

non-utility fuel cell installation operating anywhere in the country. That’s a scale of onsite

renewable energy production that no other company has matched. Onsite energy

generation minimizes our dependence on the grid and reduces our environmental impact.

And when our solar arrays and fuel cells are operating, Apple’s Maiden data center will be

the most environmentally sound data center ever built.

Solar power and fuel cells.

We’re currently building two solar array installations in and around Maiden. These sites use

high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system. A 100-acre, 20-

megawatt installation on the same site as our data center will produce 42 million kilowatt-

hours (kWh) of energy annually. A 100-acre site located a few miles away will produce

another 42 million kWh. Together that’s 84 million kWh of clean, renewable energy

supplied annually. When our bio-gas-powered 5-megawatt fuel cell installation comes

online later this year, it will provide more than 40 million kWh of renewable energy

annually. This means Apple will be producing enough onsite renewable energy — 124

million kWh — to power the equivalent of 10,874 homes.*

Accountability and transparency.

We want to ensure that our efforts to use renewable energy are transparent and that

everyone can follow our progress. That’s why Apple will register the renewable energy

generated by our solar arrays and fuel cell installations with the North Carolina Renewable

Energy Tracking System (NC-RETS) established by the North Carolina Utilities Commission.



A5.3 Microsoft to pilot data centre powered by biogas.

Carmel Doyle, Nov 23rd 2011, Silicon Republic

Microsoft is teaming up with US firm FuelCell Energy to pilot a data centre research project in Wyoming

that will see biogas generated by a wastewater treatment plant being used to power up a data centre that

will be independent of the grid.

With IT giants trying to find cleaner ways of powering up their energy-hungry data centres – think

Google's new air-cooled data centre in Dublin or Apple's solar farm around its new data centre in

Maiden, North Carolina – Microsoft is taking it one step further, looking to the potential of the process of

anaerobic digestion from sewage to create biogas and power its data centres of the future.

Microsoft is planning to invest around US$5.5m in the R&D project, which will be located in the Dry Creek

Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

During the trial, one of FuelCell Energy's fuel cell power plants will be installed at the wastewater plant in

Cheyenne in early 2013. The system will provide 200 kilowatts of power to a modular Microsoft data

centre, which will house servers to recreate a data centre environment.

In a blog post, Microsoft pointed to the potential of capturing and reusing biogas directly from wastewater

treatment plants, farms and fuel refineries to power its data centres.

"In general, biogas fuel sources are typically uneconomical to recover and convert to grid energy and are

usually flared off. By capturing and reusing biogas on-premise with our data centres, we will be able to

significantly reduce their carbon emissions while producing beneficial uses at the same time," said Sean

James, a senior research programme manager for data centre development at Microsoft, in the blog post.

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Bottlehill Park Summary Business Plan - CIX · Bottlehill Park Summary Business Plan Jerry Sweeney B.E.(Elec.) M.Sc. [email protected] 087 6681692 ... The COdiNOx product visualisation