AliCloud has opened the AliCloud Qiandao Lake Data Center. The data center, which is near Qiandao Lake in China’s Zhejian Province, aims for an average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio below 1.3 and a Water Usage Effectiveness Ratio below 0.2, according to the company, which is Alibaba Group’s cloud computing arm.
The data center’s on-demand cooling relies on real-time monitoring of server power consumption and operating temperatures to maximize energy savings. It also aims for a 90 percent reduction in the use of mechanically cooled lake water. This will cut energy costs about 80 percent compared to data centers that use mechanical cooling. The data center features solar energy and hydraulic power and reuses water heated by the servers to heat offices.
Data centers are huge users of energy. Last month, the Japanese government and the University of Texas at Austin signed an agreement to conduct data center energy research, according to The Texas Tribune. The project will be hosted at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. The center will get more computing power and the Japanese government – which is funding the project through its New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization -- will get to study the technology. The contract is worth about $13 million.
