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Further study of the “GreenRoom” concept – an approach to sustainable datacenter cooling solution : Identification of improvement possibilities using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and discussion about the effect of the choice of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods on the results

The growing industry of Information and Communication Technology requires higher computing capacity of data centers/technical sites. The air conditioning in data centers is the key to assure a sustainable computing environment. However, the traditional cooling systems cost are responsible for large environmental footprints especially on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, a green innovation of data center cooling solutions is taking place. The telecommunication company Teliasonera is developing a high density data center cooling system - the “Green Room” and has been studying the environmental performance of this system using a Life Cycle approach. As an extension of the previous study, more aspects of the project i.e. the location, life span, alternative cooling solutions, energy recovery possibilities and uncertainty analysis is explored by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The comparison of the locations of the Green Room indicates that the local temperature and electricity production sources are essential factors for the environmental performance of the Green Room. The analysis of the Green Room’s life span reveals that the utilization phase may not always cause the most significant impact during the whole life cycle of the Green Room. If the life span changes, the manufacture phase may predominate the life cycle of the Green Room. The comparative result of alternative cooling technologies addresses that utilizing “natural coolant” (e.g. geo cooling) is a key for sustainable cooling innovation as it would significantly reduce the environmental footprint of the cooling system. Besides, heating a single building (partly) by the waste heat generated from the Green Room could save 30% of cumulative energy input and could reduce more than half of the total environmental impact. Additionally, results uncertainties caused by the choice of different LCIA methods are discussed in the end of the study. / The Teliasonera Green Room Concept for high and mid density of ICT equipment

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-116474
Date January 2013
CreatorsWang, Shan
PublisherKTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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