In energy storage, we talk about lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen or flywheel storage (you can read more about energy storage here). Now US researchers have come up with a non-physical solution suitable for large-scale storage - on computer servers.
So writes the international solar energy magazine PV Magazine and explains that these "information batteries" are a method adapted to larger server halls powered largely by renewable energy.
It is said that they 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 then can select small pieces that have been done before, like puzzle pieces, and put them together to quickly calculate a whole new task, says Barath Raghavan, assistant professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, according to PV Magazine.
The future of energy storage in server rooms
Those likely to implement such technology are major data warehouses such as Google and Facebook. The article highlights the example of Youtube, where more than 700,000 hours of video are transcoded every day. These calculations are thus predictable and can be performed at a time when there is a surplus of green energy.
However, there are challenges in developing such an approach. Mainly, it concerns which calculations, and where and when, should be performed. It is also only possible to apply it to 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 option for green energy storage.
- In the civilization-wide challenge of sustainability, we need all the tools we can get, says Professor Raghavan.
