Texas is getting a new sustainable data centre. And it’s being built by a publicly traded company focused on disrupting the way renewable energy can power artificial intelligence cloud computing and Bitcoin mining.
What’s happening:
- Soluna Holdings (NASDAQ: SLNH) has begun construction of their new data centre located in Texas that is powered entirely by excess renewable energy generated by a nearby wind farm
How it works:
- Soluna Holdings constructs purpose built data centres that are co-located near renewable energy facilities in order to power their data centres through excess energy that would otherwise be wasted due to being out of sync with demand from the larger grid or grid inflexibility
- Through their proprietary data centre design known as Soluna Modular Data Centres, Soluna is able to deploy data centres anywhere there is a renewable energy power plant and also purchase all excess megawatts of renewable energy being produced directly on-site
Why it matters:
- There has been a surge in demand for new data centre infrastructure caused by artificial intelligence cloud computing and Bitcoin mining, which has put new found importance on finding low carbon emission sources of electricity and even led technology giants such as Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) to start exploring new power sources such as geothermal energy
By the numbers:
- Approximately 30% of renewable energy production is ultimately wasted as it is out of sync with the demand from the grid
- The data centres operated by Soluna Holdings produce approximately 18% less carbon dioxide emissions than traditionally built data centres
Going deeper:
- Soluna Holdings currently operates three data centres in the United States which are all purpose built to be able to host Bitcoin mining hardware and GPUs for artificial intelligence cloud computing
- Building data centres that are co-located near renewable energy facilities also brings significant benefit to renewable energy companies who do not have power purchase agreements for all of the low carbon power they produce, as long duration energy storage is not always scaleable or profitable to own and operate on location
The intrigue:
- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) recently announced their largest investment ever into the construction of new data centres and previously acquired a data centre campus in Pennsylvania that is powered entirely by nuclear energy
