One Response to UK in need of drastic measures for future energy generation »»

1. Michael Owen
   Comment by Michael Owen | 2010/09/29 at 12:02:45

   Another approach is to reduce input power consumption in areas where power consumption is high. A study by the previous UK administration suggested that 40% of the UK Government’s carbon emmissions were linked to ICT use. Clearly, these emmissions equate to power consumption so there are two good reasons to see how emmissions can be reduced and power consumption lessened also. One area Galleon has looked at is the role of Storage media, the Hard Disk Drive is often overlooked because it accounts for only around 7 watts per hour of power consumption, however, in large server farms one server can host many hard disk drives.

   The UK Government is hoping to virtualise systems so that it has around 100,000 servers in operation, assuming data growth as we have seen it over the past 10 years, it is logical to assume that 100,000 servers could host as many as 1 million hard disk drives. Our humble 7 watt Hard Disk Drive has now morphed into a 7 megawatt per hour behemoth before our eyes.

   The ability to save over 50% of the input power consumption means a saving of around £3.5 million per annum but also a saving of around 0.3Kg/KwHr in Carbon too, or 21Kg of Carbon per hour at a consumption rate of 7 megawatts per hour. If we were to collect up the numbers of servers and Hard Disk Drives in oerpation in the public sector for the whole of the EU, the amount of carbon that could be reduced would be significant when viewed as an annual figure, not to mention the money saved.

   As with all things, when we asked a leading producer of Spindle Motors why they were not moving ahead with our technology to reduce input power consumption technology, they replied that “none of their customers has asked them for it”. The CEO of this German company is right, why should he commit resources to development until he knows customers want the technology he can offer?

   The issue is that the Hard Disk Drive Companies know about the technology but see it as a threat, the same technology also allows the product life to be extended and the heat output to be reduced plus it makes components like Spindle motors more reslient to impact damage form being dropped whilst operating, such as in a ‘hot swap’ situation where the disk can be removed whilst still spinning. Reduced wear means less replacement business for the manufacturers and as such is a disincentive to development unless large customers like Governments, demand new products with these technologies.

   At Galleon we are aware that stating a requirement does not imply a committment to buy, everything is subject to budgets, testing and approval, but it is impossible to approve a technology that is not on the table as a product and this is one in which the coating technology is replaced and this does not affect the cost of production. The other benefit for everyone is the replacement of toxic lubrication oils with nitrogen gas, nitrogen is inert and does not damage the environment if released, it makes up 70% of our atmosphere and means that toxic oils are not released when the end of life drive is recycled to recover the metals for a new application. Everyone wins since the growth in data storage means incresing demand for data storage and Hard Disk Drives still provide the most cost effective direct access data storage on the market.

   What he would like to see is the EU and EU Governments issue letters to their ICT suppliers requesting a response detailing how they plan to address the requirement to reduce Direct Input Power Consumption, other than using existing virtualisation and cooling technologies. We would like to receive copies of this requirement so we can show our customers, the component makers, what you as their eventual customers are looking for.

   This appraoch means that we can tell the industry at all levels what the end user community want from technology development in the immediate future, we anticipate that form issuing the letter, initial product offers could be ready to test in as little as six months, allowing customers to opt to start saving money and carbon in under a year from asking for a response. Because we don’t manufacture these products, we have no view on who should supply them, therefore your existing suppliers will be the channel through whom the new development reach the market as our role is as the company who licences the technology into the manufacturing chain.

   We are already working with customers using friction reduction technology in the Aerospace, Automotive, Defence and metal sciences development sectors and ICT is another sector we can help to deliver significant power reduction technology to.

   Find out more from:-
   Michael J Owen, Galleon International,
   +44 786 599 7510, Email m.owen@galleonintl.com

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