Sun to Create Underground Japanese Datacenter 131
Kurtz'sKompund writes with word of a Sun project in Japan, one that's taking a somewhat non-standard approach to data center construction. To save on power, heating, and water costs, the consortium is going to be building their center in an abandoned coal mine. The outpost will be created by lowering Blackbox systems into the ground; estimates on savings run to $9 million annually in electricity alone.
doesn't make much sense... (Score:0, Informative)
the site's temperature is a constant 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) all year
That is below the recommended temperature for some gear.
The Blackbox containers are robust enough to withstand earthquakes, being capable of withstanding a quake of magnitude 6.7 on the Richter scale.
I'm sure the box will survive an earthquakes, but what about the contents? Most servers don't like to be shaken very hard. You also need to worry about the roof caving in.
Savings in Electricity... (Score:3, Informative)
You can do lots with an old mine (Score:5, Informative)
The Government of Canada marijuana farm is located in an old copper mine in Manitoba. You can't beat the security, which is something mentioned in tfa. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2001/08/02/marijuana_010802.html [www.cbc.ca]
A solar neutrino observatory is installed in an old mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canads. It has the advantage of being impervious to almost all kinds of radiation, except of course for neutrinos. http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/ [queensu.ca]
As I look at the other posts, I see lots of naysayers. Well there are at least a couple of cases where old mines have been used successfully for other things.
NORAD (Score:3, Informative)