There are three main ways to use solar energy to supplement data center powering, according to Srikanth Murugan, the Global Director Sales Engineering at Flexenclosure.
Mururgan writes at Clean Technica that the methods are to buy energy from a local solar utility or build a solar farm as a primary or secondary energy source.
Buying solar power would be the easiest. In addition, this approach supports long-term investment in solar energy. Using solar as a partial energy source suggests that the data center won’t have to invest in batteries and other technology that is necessary if the data center fully relied upon this source. Using solar as the primary energy source, the story says, presents several challenges, including securing enough land to generate the energy and the limited time during which sun shines. Investment in energy storage would be necessary.
A feature at CXOToday points to six ways to cut data center energy use. Ravi Raj, the Brand Head for Netrack, writes that data center managers should employ low power processors; measure power use effectiveness (PUE); balance servers; use hot/cold aisle containment; employ an integrated approach to power management and deploy high-efficiency power supplies.