Case study: Data Center located in Colombia. Equipment responsible for expelling air into the environment: Liebert HPC-M cooler and EC-FAN fans – ECblue — model C116. Credit: Scientific reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-74141-w
Two electrical engineers from the Distance University of Madrid, together with a colleague from the Mision Critica-Data Center, ZFB Technology Services, in Colombia, have developed a methodology to produce electricity from artificial wind sources at using small turbines.
In their article published in the journal Scientific reportsIsabel Gil-García, Ana Fernández-Guillamón and Álvaro Montes-Torres describe their methodology and how they used it to produce electricity from wasted wind generated by cooling machines at a data center in Colombia .
Previous research has suggested that there are many ways to capture some of the wind energy wasted by many technologies. Air moving through a ship or train, for example, or wind created by fans used on HVAC cooling systems. In this new study, the research team developed a general methodology to capture some of the energy typically lost by these technologies.
The new methodology begins by identifying a possible artificial resource, such as a ship, truck, train or fan used for general cooling. The second step is to determine how much of the resource is wasted. In the case of wind applications, an anemometer can be used to test wind speed, which can be used to determine how much wind is generated and how much is available for use.
The next step is to estimate the amount of electrical energy that could be harvested from such a resource to ensure the effort is worth it. The final step is to select the technology that can be used to capture the wasted wind, usually a turbine. Once the plan is in place, a first test can be carried out.
To demonstrate their methodology, the research team identified a possible source as wind emanating from cooling devices used to prevent overheating of computers used in a data center in Colombia. The site had three chillers, each equipped with eight fans. The fans were operated at 480 V and rotated at 900 rpm.
The researchers chose to use Tesup V7 wind turbines to capture wasted wind due to their small and lightweight features. They mounted six of them above the fans and were able to produce 513.82 MWh per year. After deducting the energy consumed by the fans, the researchers found that adding the turbines reduced net electricity by 467.6 MWh per year.
More information:
Isabel C. Gil-García et al, Innovation in clean energy from artificial wind power and small-scale wind power generation, Scientific reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-74141-w
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