Something is going to make the planning of regional power generation and associated markets even harder: the ability of big data users to shift their demand across the globe quickly, based on price. Ira Joseph at CGEP peers into the near future to ask some difficult questions. When such power demand can “at the push of a button” migrate long distances, how do you make predictions for local capacity needs? And today, market design in most … [Read more...]
“Magnetisation switching” can replace transistors, cutting energy demand from computing by an order of magnitude
Globally, energy demand from computing is growing so fast the search is on to find fundamental ways to make it more efficient. “Magnetisation switching” has long been seen as a more efficient way than using transistors to create the 1s and 0s in memory chips and processors. But existing solutions operate only at very low temperatures. Also, they are controlled by magnetic fields which are harder to manage than switches controlled electrically. … [Read more...]
Simple superconducting diode can dramatically cut energy use in transistors, data centres
Some estimates say data centres could be consuming up to 20% of all power globally in ten years. That’s largely because the billions of transistors have to be cooled. Elizabeth Thomson at MIT describes breakthrough research that has made a superconducting diode that’s twice as efficient as the standard, therefore generating and wasting far less heat. What’s surprising is that some straightforward physics of materials was utilised, in contrast to … [Read more...]
“Exascale” computing algorithms can deliver new Wind Turbine designs and on-site power-maximising strategies
Advances in exascale computing algorithms and models for multiscale atmospheric flows are leading to new wind turbine designs and on-site power-maximising strategies previously not possible, explains Brooke Van Zandt at NREL. The models can contain and process two billion grid points, simulating the air flow around turbines in a large wind farm with unprecedented accuracy. Van Zandt describes how the new tools are being used to deal with highly … [Read more...]
The nexus between data centres, efficiency and renewables: a role model for the energy transition
How much will electricity consumption from data centres grow from today’s 1% of the global total? 40-fold by 2030? Or a more manageable 5-fold? Or less? Sean Ratka and Francisco Boshell at IRENA try to answer this question by looking at the innovations being made by the tech industry to drive down power costs and emissions. The evidence is promising. Though data centre computing output jumped 6- fold between 2010 and 2018, their energy … [Read more...]
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