Within energy storage, there is talk of Lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen, or flywheel storage (you can read more about energy storage here). Now, American researchers have come up with a non-physical solution suitable for large-scale storage - on data servers.
The international solar energy magazine PV Magazine writes and explains that these "information batteries" are a method adapted to larger server halls that are largely powered by renewable energy.
It is designed to store the results of solar and wind energy production for later use, specifically when there is less renewable energy on the grid.
– We support pre-calculation of many fragments of different calculations and can then select small pieces that have been done before, like puzzle pieces, and put them together to quickly calculate a completely new task, says Barath Raghavan, assistant professor of computer science at USC Viterbi School of Engineering, according to PV Magazine.
The future of energy storage in server halls
Those who could likely implement such a technology are larger data halls from companies like Google and Facebook. The article highlights an example about YouTube, where more than 700,000 hours of video are transcoded every day. These calculations are therefore predictable and can be performed at a time when there is a surplus of green energy.
However, there are challenges in developing such a method. Primarily, it concerns which calculations, as well as where and when, should be performed. It is also only possible to apply in certain types of loads and in specific contexts. However, the researchers are convinced that it is possible to develop a predictability that makes the technology promising as a future alternative for storing green energy.
– In the civilization-scale challenge of sustainability, we need all the tools we can get, says Professor Raghavan.
