As i3 celebrates its 10th birthday, Ed Ansett, Founder & Chairman, reflects on some of the major changes he has witnessed in the data centre industry over the past 10…

i₃ Solutions Group secures two US patents for Adaptable Redundant Power and greater Data Centre resiliency

We won the Data Centre Sustainability Innovation of the Year category at this years DCS Awards!

Across the globe, activity in the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) space is gathering pace. Governments, regulators, atomic agencies and authorities, global power manufacturers, research bodies and new market entrants are busy. For the data centre industry, the question is whether SMRs are applicable to the sector? Could they change how data centres are powered?

A: ‘Yes.’

Heatwaves are changing the risk appetite for data centre operators when thinking about a safe operating temperature.

Despite the evidence of numerous data centres piloting fuel cells, as well as predictions for strong growth of the technology in data centre applications, actual use remains low. The industry needs a greater understanding of fuel cells to drive wider adoption of a technology which could accelerate the effectiveness of the sector’s GHG Abatement efforts.

Read the different battery storage options available for data centres to support energy storage systems following the release of the latest GHG Abatement Group white paper – Sustainability Considerations for Battery Option Selection in Data Centre Energy Storage Systems

Ed Ansett, chairman and founder, i₃ Solutions Group explains how data centre power demand is set to grow, leading to increasing public awareness and why it requires a response through greater grid interactivity.

In this article Ed Ansett shares how the data centre sector can address public concerns over data centre power usage in the UK and Ireland with demand response solutions.

Untold riches await whoever can provide long term energy storage without a high GHG tariff, says Ed Ansett, founder and chairman of i₃ Solutions Group, as he examines the complexities of the emerging energy storage technology scene.

Why trends in data centre location and scale make Combined Heat and Power (CHP) designs a viable option for grid level GHG abatement. Author: Ed Ansett, Chairman at i₃ Solutions Group

A piece written by Ed Ansett, Founder, i₃ Solutions Group, on how data centres can expect to engage with utilities in 2022 and onwards.

For data centres the journey to carbon net zero operations began over ten years ago. With the pace now accelerating, Ed Ansett explains how the sector has built upon the imperative for energy efficiency and is today deploying strategies which put data centres at the heart of sustainable energy supply and distribution.

Data centre developers will need to demonstrate policies that address climate change, with power saving and a commitment to net zero a cornerstone of all future builds, says Ed Ansett.

To date much of the data centre sector has declared itself unready to consider demand response– otherwise called demand side response (DSR). There has often been a refusal to engage because prevailing attitudes are that it is too much trouble.

Perhaps attitudes may change now that individuals and associations representing a wide range of energy intensive industries such as glass and steelmaking are on TV news programmes warning governments that high energy costs could bankrupt them…

How a sustainable data centre design using CHP could set us on the right path for lowering emissions towards net zero carbon operations

For their recent talk at Host in Scotland, Director Kerr Johnstone & Associate Director Joe Sheehan shares how our work with EYP Mission Critical Facilities to form the GHG abatement Group can support the diverse demands of reducing CO2 in grid emission factors. 

As a general rule of thumb, data centres don’t tend to be operated utilising above 70 percent of their total power. In addition to this headroom maintained for reasons of, e.g., redundancy, some data centre power can also become stranded, or trapped as a result of IT deployments when equipment is added, shifted or replaced in the racks.