Google: From Paper Mill to Efficient Data Center

"(Google's) new data center in Hamina, Finland, takes advantages of the facility's surrounding environment by using ocean water to cool its servers.

Google Senior Director of Datasite Construction and Operations, Joe Kava, relays that the building, purchased in 2009, was actually a paper mill that came equipped with granite tunnels for sucking in water."

Techland

 

 

Comments

[StuartJones]

I am not a scientist but I do know that discharging warm water into the sea can cause enviromental problems.

Sellafield nuclear processing plant does this and enviromentalists say this "The discharge of large volumes of warm water in to the Duddon Estuary would inevitably have ecological effects, possibly including the creation of conditions favourable to invasive species not native to the Cumbrian coast" http://www.savekirksanton.org.uk/sites/default/files/document/cumbria%20wildlife%20trust%20response%20to%20ecc%20consultation%20on%20nps.pdf

I presume the volume of water in Sweden, however, is minimal compared to Cumbria.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Stuart, discharges. dumps etc obviously have all kinds of impacts on oceans and seas and rivers that we have just scratched the surface in terms of understanding.

But more positively locally to us, the warm discharge from a power plant actually attracts the threatened species of manatees as I wrote below

http://florence20.typepad.com/renaissance/2010/12/manatees-and-more.html