We have all read stories about the enormous about of electricity being soaked up by data centers. These data centers are removing green energy from the grid faster than it can be produced. So what is the solution?
How about solar-powered data centers in space?
In a recent white paper, Lumen Orbit highlights the advantage of such an approach, including the use of renewable energy, the elimination of fresh water cooling, and unlimited scaling up. In the paper, we read:
Significant operational cost savings can be achieved by using inexpensive solar energy without the limitations of terrestrial solar farms discussed below. Orbital data centers can leverage lower cooling costs using passive radiative cooling in space to directly achieve low coolant temperatures. Perhaps most importantly, they can be scaled almost indefinitely without the physical or permitting constraints faced on Earth, using modularity to deploy them rapidly. All of this will have a net benefit on the environment – a recent study by the European Commission concluded that orbital data centers will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from grid electricity and eliminate fresh water usage for cooling.
The European Commission financed the Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty (ASCEND) – a 16-month-long study on the feasibility of placing data centers into orbit. The study found that such data centers are technically, economically and environmentally feasible.
Pushing data centers as well as cryptocurrency data mining into space is a great idea as these processes are not going away. Just ask the Texans about the problems of sharing the state’s electricity grid with these centers. Texas may soon as these data centers to find a new home.
This is something that deserves more attention as we hit our energy limits here on Earth.
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