Google's Hamina Data Center

[haukesa]

Is that an Apple commercial?..

[ThinkStage]

"Dont look at whats has been done as the only way it can be done"

-

- That Guy

To see more innovative videos like this or want to share your own ideas visit ThinkStageDOTcom

[PrawdaUnia]

I'm amazed by these kind of things. Google is a box of surprises. If there's a company I would like to work in is Google.

Finland also has the some of the finest Liquid Drum & Bass producers such as Kaleb, L.A.O.S., Countour and Physics.

[akse112]

@PrawdaUnia Hahah the other sentence was kinda out of the topic but nice :) (liquid drum & bass)

[pabloenis]

If they only were that creative in making their mobile operating systems :-(

[SiliconeSlave]

Very impressive. Go one step further and generate electricity from that heated water, or heat local homes or businesses. Seems a pity to waste that heat.

[tyylit]

google is one of major corporations that are controllin cities/countries more than the local goverments

fuck eu

[eje77]

Those blue and orange pipes makes me think of the portal games.

[DaemonDriver]

Amazing, I like such beautiful, I think, creations of the human mind!

[bazodee2]

yay Hamina!!! but why let the heat go to waste, why not sell it to Kaukolämpö Oy, or expand to agribusiness and use it to heat greenhouses - the pace this globe keeps overpopulating, agriculture is probably going to become even greater business than information technology.

[mustakoira]

Hamina is my Hometown!!!

[Wolferoth]

This is only thing, why I love to live in Hamina. ;))

[cicerothiago]

Put on minute 00:55... No Cool (White) Roof Google? What a shame!

[zx1986]

I love you! we love you! earth loves you! Google!

[DumbManiac]

how you gonna pump ice in winter? Finland has an Nordic climate.

[hequlent]

@DumbManiac At these latitudes the sea wont freeze from bottom to top, just the top layer which is from 0cm to ~60cm of ice depending on the winter.

[munce62]

Being there you would understand the brilliance. This design serves numerous purposes. The closed mill had no useful purpose based on its designed market. Numerous jobs were impacted. Google invigorated the area with a influx of new jobs. Designed to the latest technology today with emphasis on "green" preservation, the most efficient design from a carbon footprint standpoint.

Google leads the data center world in environmental awareness. That is what makes them a great company.

[sementerehov]

Why Google did not use the remaining heat to provide alternative source of energy to local info-structure?

[mvszao]

@sementerehov To use heat as energy source you have to steam the water, so the vapors can run a generator. I don't know what temperature the datacenter provide, but it's probably below 50°C (140°F). So if you want use the warm to make eletric energy, you would have to spend more energy doing so.

[TRauck1506]

@mvszao This isn't necessarily true. The Stirling Engine would probably have the ability to cool the data center and run the generators at the same time. However, the way in which they would do this would be extremely complicated, but it could be done and I'm not sure why it hasn't. They should be able to cut the temperature to a median between the sea water and the data center which would probably be rather cool.

[mitsukai89]

@mvszao

Not true, a stirling engine works on temperature differences not on steam. they could use sea water as a cold sink and the heater sea water as the energy source. Because of the heat gas expands and moves a piston, the heat draws to the cold sink, shrinking the volume of the gas and drives the piston again. The heat that got extracted from the processors would be undone in the process.

[MrXagel]

Kto od Dzuniora ? :D

[Fcukem]

7 people are living in Hamina :D

[DjMaXXimal]

@Fcukem

Nah... I live in Hamina and I think that this datacenter project is really good thing and I'd say that most of the people in Hamina agrees with me.

[ailisonailison]

What do facebook doing about that? HA-HA

[pescadorsp]

Blue pipes, orange pipes... Repulsion Gel ad Propulsion Gel... Who does Google think you fool? We are all test subjects.

[LilyQvang]

This somehow reminds me of Enron

[Chipicao999]

1:12 Blue paint helps you jump higher, orange paint makes you run faster.

[Pedroxpvista]

@Chipicao999

Hahaha :P

[Manakalamaha]

I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords.

[ItsLauraBoss]

I hope he's aware that even returning the water to a temperature much more "similar" to it's original temp. could be detrimental to many species.

[sad4ewer]

after americans come to some nice 0lace that place is fucked

[SimplyAsian1206]

However, isn't that seawater be heavily corrosive? That would mean you would have to constantly have maintenances, right?

[mvszao]

@SimplyAsian1206 no if you use the right materials. You can build a tunnel that won't be rusted for a long time. Using alloys, or adding sacrificial metals...

[0neinch]

Finland, welcome your new overlords. If nuclear winter were to ever hit the only things that would remain would be cockroaches and google.

[nois3]

how do you power the pumps and servers? burn coal i bet

[iWearGlassesLOL]

@nois3

How else will you power them? Running hamsters?

[fanman042]

Finland needs a cooling system? But srs good job google

[Myffe77]

@fanman042 Well duh only winters here are fucking cold

[timolotila]

Nice to see how it differs from late 80's when I working there as summer trainee.

[TonchaHD]

FINLAND!

[ThePoekaPoeka]

Finland rules :)

[AstroTrain100]

ah well you can take all my private data and do what you want now..you have totally gained my trust..

[Asoki11TV]

Kto od Dzuniora łapki!!! :D

[zxxzxzxxzxz]

Skynet detected

[fuksi85]

Why not to utilize the heated water instead of mixing it and simply returning it to the gulf?

[heilhobohitler]

Herp derp

Do you know how often everything will have to be replaced because of wear and tear? Theres a reason we use freshwater to cool stuff.

[UKNMajor]

@heilhobohitler Because you know better than the Engineers who designed this place, right?

[ssddanbrown]

@heilhobohitler Oh Crap!!, They obviously didn't think about his as nothing was said in this you tube video. RING THEM UP straight away and tell them their mistake before we loose all of our data!!! Herp-a-derp

[larlar752000]

@heilhobohitler Herp Derp Do you know what type of metals we have?

[spidern70]

why respect you google finally some humanous step from you. not that people info collecting :)

[fuksi85]

@spidern70 Hahaha. They have similar solutions in all of their DC. They have the most efficient DC in the world together with the FB ones.

[KeithCanadaa]

Great idea google. You should come to Canada.

You could do the same thing here on any of our few hundred thousand lakes or several dozen major fast flowing rivers. And in many cases there is a hydro electric generating station in the area.

[fuksi85]

@KeithCanadaa There are already several projects going on in Canada on energy efficient DC.

[smqzbq]

this is called  "direct polar caps melting" :)

[hukkinen]

You could also pump the heat to the Hamina city district heating (HaminaEnergia.fi). This would sure make even better publicity! But alas, as I understand, the district heating is produced in cogeneration (or CHP) and thus there is not hardly any lack of heat energy, as there is the need for electricity, in the current situation.

[likusdf]

@hukkinen And there is no existing district heating network in Hamina, which pretty much eliminates the whole idea.

[TheSnufking]

niceee

[jannepo]

Oh. One corretion. At the moment Manakala group owns 8,1% of Teollisuuden voima Oyj (Industry Power Inc), 91,3 % of the electricity TVO produces is nuclear ja 8,7 % coal. Wind is 0,01% so it's just for a greenwash (aka PR). Mankala's share of electricity is 1276 GWh/y out of which 1165 is produced at *Olkiluoto* Nuclear (where they are now building the new 1600 MW Olkiluoto 3 reactor). Mankala hydo's are 25+24 MW, but only Ahvenkoski is avail as Mankala production is sold to Helsinki Power.

[melrojohnn]

que absurdo esse Data Center da Google, espero um dia ver isso de perto hahahahaha \,,/

[jannepo]

Btw. I would be amazed if the Paper Mill was not sold with it's old Electricity agreement. Wich for us Finns means "Mankala deal". In this deal Paper Mill owns a portion of power plants and hydro and these plant produce electricity to owners with zero contribution margin. It's the cheapest form of electricity there is. And it's coming form nearby Loviisa Nuclear and some from Mankala hydro. The windmill they have, is not big enogh event to run the lights of the Mill.

[jannepo]

To buid a really ecological data center you need as cold climate as possible and cheap energy. Then you need a new disttrict of housing and offices wich will be built with floor heating - which works well with low temp water. You need to locate the data center to the center of the district. For cooling use bedrock or waterpark (yes, in finland these need heating even in summer). That would be green. Ex paper mill is not. Not even topped with one PR windmill.

[jannepo]

Depending the servers Google uses, return temperatire of coolant is propably below 50C. This means that for district heating system the energy content per m3 is low. In Finnish climate 70% of "waste heat" could be used for heating (Univ of Lappeenranta). This means that compared to Texas or some other hot area Google's datacenter is more ecological, but in reality it is anything but ecological in Finland. They just saved a chunk in coolin but all the rest of the energy is still wasted.

[kksnabb]

What is so hard with using the heat for heating up surrounding buildings instead of "throwing" it away into the sea??

[jannepo]

That cooling of water retunning to sea has been set up for marketing purposes. Fact is that 20m from waste water tunnel (I presume that tey use the old wasta water tunnel to return the water) flow has been mixed to sea water and the temparetur has dropped more that they ever gain by pumping more water in and then mixing it. That might actually cosume more energy than do any good.

[marqush]

@12345vickycool Well, first, You get busted and thrown into jail. And after that pretty much nothing else happens. Google has plenty of data centers to go around with. ;) I assume, your... Well not yours, because you would be in jail, but other people's googling would slow down from 0,00000001second to 0,00000002 seconds if one data center would seize to exist. :)

[Jaarsiii]

HAMINA! kotikaupunki ;););)

[piuthemagicman]

FINLAND FTW :D

[xXSCARFACE1983Xx]

They could actually use the warm water to gain energy :)

However, this is a wonderful project. :)

[Bitwaba]

@12345vickycool It would blow up.

[iTuomash]

Really proud to be from Hamina!

[nova3310]

Using a Mac :D 1:56



[supercoolguyT]

@nova3310 And whole rest of the complex is linux. haha

[drkapil79]

This is not an entirely new concept.

The Sydney Opera House also uses seawater cooling for its Air-conditioning system.

[EiToCi0to9]

Love it! Proud that it is in Finland too. I just wonder how they're dealing with corrosion, salt water can be a major PIA.

[kkakas]

@EiToCi0to9

I suppose they use fiberglass pipes !

[trampho]

@EiToCi0to9

The Baltic sea is not a "proper" sea as it has very low salinity (0.5 to 0.7 percent, compared to the average 3,5 %)

[kkakas]

@trampho That amount of salt is also very bad for steel pipes!

You can see fiberglass pipes on the video ie. 1:20 ->

[EiToCi0to9]

@trampho, actually it's gulf of Finland. It's salinity is even lover.

[TheTuamas]

"free cooling" at tags :P

[ferodynamics]

Partner with Six Flags, open some water parks in cold climates.

[tormentalous18]

Wow!!

[joepic19]

<3

[chrisleighton3]

This is why I love you, Google.

[pollot3ch]

Look a fish in that server .....

[izzatazizvlog]

now i know, where they put the data.

[MrD1M1M1]

@izzatazizvlog And what do you plan on doing with this knowledge? ; )

[fernandomfernandes]

Amazing.

[n9986]

I don't get one thing. They say that they mix more water 'from the gulf' with the hot water coming out of the data center to ensure they don't heat up the gulf and cause the environment to go bad. But by energy conservation law, since both the sink and the source are from the same location, that is the water used to cool the heated water is coming from the gulf and mixing with the hot water and again going back to the gulf, it actually just takes the heat back to the gulf?

[SterileNeutrino]

@n9986 Yes. The "water mixing" is just good for avoiding too-hot water spots, presumably causing the fauna/flora to become confused and/or heavy evaporation during the winter [think nuke cooling tower]. You still dump the same amount of waste heat of course. What you have here is a device for transforming electrical energy into warm water, with computation as a side effect.

[SimplyAsian1206]

@SterileNeutrino Has Google researched about the effects of this 'new' thermal pollution on the surrounding environment?

[SterileNeutrino]

@SimplyAsian1206

I have no idea man. In any case, research would mean comparing to other industrial installation that have similar probems of waste heat disposal [smelters, gas turbines, nuclear industry]. There should be tons of info there, but in the end, you still have to do it and see what happens.

[avleenvig]

@n9986 Yes, it would make a huge difference.

The sink and source for the water are the same, but in transit you are adding a massive amount of energy. If you dump that back into the gulf without cooling it, it will dump all that heat into the gulf.

[Charbax]

@n9986 I think that the idea is that there is much more water in the gulf than needed to cool this datacenter. So instead of just sending hot water back, Google can pump a whole bunch of more water to mix with the datacenter water, thus overall the hot water does not affect the environment much. The idea is that the environmental effect of such type of cooling is much lower than just cranking up power consumption on cooling systems, they can create more dense data centers, yet use less power.

[paucceri]

@n9986 it's less dramatic when the runoff water is at a temperature closer to that of the gulf. rough example: 100 units of water at 30 C compared to 150 units at 20 C. Even though theres more of the 20 C water, its environmental impact is lower, even though the total energy added to the gulf water is equal.

[kerdezixe]

Wonderfull ! Good job (again) Google \o/