The rapid growth of power-hungry applications like Artificial Intelligence (AI) has led to a significant increase in large-scale data centre facilities worldwide. With the pressure to reduce carbon emissions, data centres are turning to renewable energy sources as a solution. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Cloud and Autonomic Computing (CAC) Centre is at the forefront of this effort, focusing on developing industry standards for data centre automation, analytics, and control in remote and renewable-energy-powered settings.
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By leveraging wind power and solar energy, data centres can break the cost curve for large-scale computing. However, the variable availability and cost of renewable energy sources require data centres to be highly automated and located near these sources to reduce transmission costs. The NSF CAC Centre collaborates with leading global standards developing organisations to develop and implement standards that achieve global adoption. These standards are crucial for achieving practical adoption of renewable energy in data centre operations.
The NSF CAC Centre works closely with Texas Tech University’s Global Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing (GLEAMM) to conduct research in renewable energy and power grid infrastructure. GLEAMM has a wide range of capabilities, including a solar array, wind turbines, and an energy storage system, which can simulate different energy sources encountered in data centre deployments.
In addition to its hardware capabilities, GLEAMM also utilises OPAL-RT’s Real-Time Digital Simulator to model and understand the behaviour of larger data centre facilities. This allows researchers to test and validate controls in a virtual environment without compromising the real electrical system.
The CAC also brings extensive experience in data centre computing, storage, networking, and distributed operations. The DAVinci™ instrumentation and automation suite developed by the CAC provides an integrated approach to data gathering, flow, and efficiency. Leveraging the Redfish protocol, DAVinci optimises data collection and offers interactive visualisations for situational awareness and monitoring of data centres.
Through partnerships with international standards organisations and industry members, the NSF CAC Centre is well-positioned to help organisations reduce emissions while meeting the demands of AI, data centre operations, and data processing. By leveraging renewable energy and implementing industry standards, data centres can play a significant role in reducing carbon emissions and contributing to a more sustainable future.
