Towards Sustainable Low Carbon Emission Mini Data Centres

TL;DR

This paper introduces Genesis, a solar-powered technology that extends the lifespan of servers in mini data centres, reducing e-waste and carbon footprint through energy compensation and cooling-free operation.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel solar-powered system, Genesis, that enhances sustainability of mini data centres by reusing older servers and minimizing energy and water use.

Findings

Genesis reduces e-waste by extending server lifespan.

Genesis lowers energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Analytical comparison shows Genesis-based designs are more sustainable.

Abstract

Mini data centres have become increasingly prevalent in diverse organizations in recent years. They can be easily deployed at large scale, with high resilience. They are also cost-effective and provide highsecurity protection. On the other hand, IT technologies have resulted in the development of ever more energy-efficient servers, leading to the periodic replacement of older-generation servers in mini data centres. However, the disposal of older servers has resulted in electronic waste that further aggravates the already critical e-waste problem. Furthermore, despite the shift towards more energy-efficient servers, many mini data centres still rely heavily on high-carbon energy sources. This contributes to data centres' overall carbon footprint. All these issues are concerns for sustainability. In order to address this sustainability issue, this paper proposes an approach to extend the lifespan of older-generation servers in mini data centres. This is made possible thanks to a novel solar-powered computing technology, named Genesis, that compensates for the energy overhead generated by older servers. As a result, electronic waste can be reduced while improving system sustainability by reusing functional server hardware. Moreover, Genesis does not require server cooling, which reduces energy and water requirements. Analytical reasoning is applied to compare the efficiency of typical conventional mini data centre designs against alternative Genesis-based designs, in terms of energy, carbon emissions and exploitation costs.