The Future Is In The Past

The Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana stated, in the 1905 book ‘The Life of Reason’, that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. How relevant is this 118 years later?

Extremely relevant!

As I look over industry and in particular the data center industry, I see many ideas being proposed that are routed in history, some very old ideas and some of more recent vintage. Often these ‘new ideas’ have forgotten what has gone before, but what have we learnt? Let’s look at some examples:

Electric vehicles: In 1897 the Great Horseless Carriage Company produced the Walter Bersey Electric Taxi Cab, range of about 30 miles and a top speed of around 10mph. The battery could be changed in under 5 minutes. In central London today there is an average traffic speed of 7-8mph, 11-12mph in inner London. A hybrid black cab today has a pure electric range of around 60 miles. Recharge time is around 3.5hours. So, in 126 years the electric range has managed to be doubled. However, what does this show? Range has improved, recharge time has lengthened, top speed has not. This shows that electric cars are not new, range anxiety remains so much work needs to be done, not only to improve range, but longevity and an effective battery type.??

?Construction Methods: Timber is one of the oldest building materials known to man. In the UK, and around the world, many buildings still exist and in constant use for over 500 years. The same cannot be said of concrete and steel. Why, however, is timber not used in the building of data centers? Usually the answer is, ‘because we have always built using concrete and steel’. However, concrete accounts for up to 8% of the worlds CO2 emissions. There are, however, data centers that have been constructed using glulam and CLT for their superstructure and flooring as can be seen below use cases by EcoDataCenter in the Nordics and a facility designed inside an old Victorian Bathhouse by Sudlows in Manchester UK.

Many other asset classes have also moved to timber including office buildings and airport terminals. Why is timber being used, foremost it provides a good route to reducing carbon, especially in the superstructure, by up to 40% in many cases. Good clear spans of up to 50m are possible, only limited by logistics and jointing technology. Some fear that timber is a fire risk, however, in a fire mass timber does not burn but will char at a known rate.

Most importantly timber, from managed forests is a sustainable resource which will sequester carbon throughout its growing cycle up to the point of harvest at maturity. Surplus material and trimmings can be used in biomass to provide energy for the production processes.?

Hydrogen: There is much press about hydrogen as the means to achieve carbon reduction in fuels. It is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe and has long been looked at for its clean energy potential. In 1980 the BBC produced the film ‘Hydrogen The Forever Fuel’ which showcased hydrogen being used for cars, cooking, heating etc. In 43 years we still do not seem to of moved much beyond this.

Hydrogen has its challenges, currently green hydrogen isn’t available at scale, to power a 30MW data center for 48 hours you would need 100,000kg of hydrogen, which would see and endless track of tankers bringing this to site. As can be seen the land take for a 3MW test facility below is extensive as it is a test unit, although a production unit would be much smaller.

Cooling: Centuries old buildings have used techniques to keep them cool, long before the invention of air conditioning in the 1800’s, Willis Carrier developed the first real air conditioning system in 1902. However, in the times of increasing temperature and the stresses this puts on AC systems in data centres are their techniques that we have overlooked.

The 14th Century ‘wind catchers’ in Iran use cooler winds blowing at higher elevations are directed downwards through the narrow, vertical slits, subsequently pushing warm air inside the buildings up and out through an opening on the opposite side of the wind catcher. Even in the absence of a breeze, wind catchers work as solar chimneys, creating a pressure gradient that pushes warm air up and out through the tower, leaving the interior of the building feeling cooler than the exterior.

Perhaps a more modern example was with the patented Yahoo Chicken Coop design, aided with evaporative coolers, which saved approximately 36 million gallons of water compared to traditional water cooler chiller plant designs. The principals of passive stack ventilation are employed in both examples and with increasing emphasis on the use of less water should continue to be considered.?

Yes, Santayana was correct “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. We are now at that stage, reinventing that which has gone before. Let us look to the past for the inspiration for the ideas of today. If not, we will not be able to move ahead.

Want to know more - contact me by private direct message here or arrange to meet me at Platforms Global, Antibes, 3-5 September 2023.