To harness renewable energy, technology giant Google is monitoring the weather to determine the best time to switch to solar and wind power to run its data centers, according to an online report in TechCrunch.
Currently, Google runs 20 data centers around the world that operate non-stop. The data centers consume a tremendous amount of energy to stay online.
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By keeping an eye on the weather, Google data centers can run on green energy
One new method that the tech company adopted, according to the report, is tracking the weather to determine "the best times are to switch to solar and wind energy," which is both the interest of Google and the planet.
With this, its data centers become greener and more efficient. Tracking the weather has allowed its facilities to schedule its endless data-crunching tasks around those weather patterns. But atmospheric conditions are hard to predict. As a result, there are instances that the centers are mainly powered by carbon sources such as coal or mostly powered by renewable energy.
The report explained that the tech giant is tracking the "schedule of carbon-heavy and renewable-heavy periods on the grid" and are mixing it up to optimize its energy consumption.
Google said in the report that heavy computing tasks are bundled together and put into time slots when renewable energy sources are at its optimum level. This way, the additional power needed can be sourced out from renewable energy and help reduce dependence on a carbon-heavy power source.
"Organizations realize that using electricity at the right time and the right place allows them to reduce both their costs and their carbon footprint," Danish green technology firm Tomorrow explained to TechCrunch.
However, the report also noted that capabilities to do weather tracking to maximize the usage of renewable energy only works for companies that have the same fluid and predictable digital work with that of Google.
Findings soon to be released
According to the report, no estimates on the amount of energy saved or efficiency were released by Google. The tech company declined to give more information about it and said that a full research paper about it will be published.
"Early results for the new system are promising; however, as you note, we are not sharing specific metrics at this time. Our team plans to publish a scientific paper later in the year, which will contain a detailed overview of the load shifting methodology and the observed results from our rollout," said Ana Radovanovic, technical lead for the project, to TechCrunch.
Radonavic added that the volume of renewable energy that a single data center facility or an entire fleet can increase depending on many variables. "We are taking time to conduct additional analysis before we share specific numbers," she continued.
In the last few years, Google has been at the forefront of renewable energy development. It has already invested millions of dollars in solar and wind energy projects around the United States.
