US20180013049A9 - System and method for energy harvesting in a data center - Google Patents
System and method for energy harvesting in a data center Download PDFInfo
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- US20180013049A9 US20180013049A9 US14/442,645 US201314442645A US2018013049A9 US 20180013049 A9 US20180013049 A9 US 20180013049A9 US 201314442645 A US201314442645 A US 201314442645A US 2018013049 A9 US2018013049 A9 US 2018013049A9
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H10—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H10N—ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H10N10/00—Thermoelectric devices comprising a junction of dissimilar materials, i.e. devices exhibiting Seebeck or Peltier effects
- H10N10/10—Thermoelectric devices comprising a junction of dissimilar materials, i.e. devices exhibiting Seebeck or Peltier effects operating with only the Peltier or Seebeck effects
- H10N10/13—Thermoelectric devices comprising a junction of dissimilar materials, i.e. devices exhibiting Seebeck or Peltier effects operating with only the Peltier or Seebeck effects characterised by the heat-exchanging means at the junction
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- H01L35/30—
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- H01L35/02—
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H05K—PRINTED CIRCUITS; CASINGS OR CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF ELECTRIC APPARATUS; MANUFACTURE OF ASSEMBLAGES OF ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS
- H05K7/00—Constructional details common to different types of electric apparatus
- H05K7/20—Modifications to facilitate cooling, ventilating, or heating
- H05K7/20709—Modifications to facilitate cooling, ventilating, or heating for server racks or cabinets; for data centers, e.g. 19-inch computer racks
- H05K7/20718—Forced ventilation of a gaseous coolant
- H05K7/20736—Forced ventilation of a gaseous coolant within cabinets for removing heat from server blades
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H05K—PRINTED CIRCUITS; CASINGS OR CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF ELECTRIC APPARATUS; MANUFACTURE OF ASSEMBLAGES OF ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS
- H05K7/00—Constructional details common to different types of electric apparatus
- H05K7/20—Modifications to facilitate cooling, ventilating, or heating
- H05K7/20709—Modifications to facilitate cooling, ventilating, or heating for server racks or cabinets; for data centers, e.g. 19-inch computer racks
- H05K7/20718—Forced ventilation of a gaseous coolant
- H05K7/20745—Forced ventilation of a gaseous coolant within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. by air conditioning device
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H10—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H10N—ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H10N10/00—Thermoelectric devices comprising a junction of dissimilar materials, i.e. devices exhibiting Seebeck or Peltier effects
- H10N10/80—Constructional details
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H10—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H10N—ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H10N10/00—Thermoelectric devices comprising a junction of dissimilar materials, i.e. devices exhibiting Seebeck or Peltier effects
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- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02D—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE
- Y02D10/00—Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
Definitions
- the present application is directed to a system and method for energy harvesting in a data center.
- a typical data center operates at around a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of about 2.0 which indicates that the data center's overall power demand is about two times greater than the Information Technology (IT) equipment load.
- PUE power usage effectiveness
- IT Information Technology
- An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for harvesting waste heat generated by data center operations.
- the energy harvesting system generates from the waste heat, electricity usable by computing devices in the data center. In this way, the energy harvesting system is able to recycle waste heat energy that would otherwise be lost, and use that energy to power information technology equipment in the data center.
- the energy harvesting system has one or more collection devices, a thermoelectric device and a controller.
- the one or more collection devices direct waste heat and room temperature air in the data center into a thermoelectric device.
- the thermoelectric device receives the waste heat and room temperature air as input, interprets a temperature gradient between the waste heat and room temperature air, and generates from the temperature gradient an electrical potential as an output.
- the controller directs the conversion of the thermoelectric device-generated electrical potential to usable electricity and combines the usable electricity combinable with utility-input electricity to deliver power to the computing devices in the data center.
- thermoelectric device a. directing waste heat expelled by computing devices in said data center into a thermoelectric device
- FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a first embodiment of a data center having a an energy harvesting system embodied in accordance with the present invention
- FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the energy harvesting system in a data center having a chilled water loop;
- FIG. 3 shows an alternate arrangement of the first embodiment of the energy harvesting system of FIG. 1 ;
- FIG. 4 shows the energy and data flow between the energy harvesting, IT and building management equipment and devices in the data center.
- FIG. 1 A first embodiment of an energy harvesting system 20 for recovering waste heat in a data center 100 is shown in FIG. 1 .
- the energy harvesting system 20 recovers the waste heat generated by data center 100 operations, transforms the waste heat into usable energy, and provides the usable energy for consumption by the electronic devices and other equipment in the data center 100 .
- the data center 100 is comprised of racks of servers 50 such as application, network and other types of servers, devices such as power distribution units, batteries, rectifiers, inverters, computer room air handlers (CRAH), computer room air conditioners (CRAC), transformers, generators and other equipment necessary for conducting the operations of a data center.
- servers 50 such as application, network and other types of servers, devices such as power distribution units, batteries, rectifiers, inverters, computer room air handlers (CRAH), computer room air conditioners (CRAC), transformers, generators and other equipment necessary for conducting the operations of a data center.
- servers 50 such as application, network and other types of servers, devices such as power distribution units, batteries, rectifiers, inverters, computer room air handlers (CRAH), computer room air conditioners (CRAC), transformers, generators and other equipment necessary for conducting the operations of a data center.
- devices such as power distribution units, batteries, rectifiers, inverters, computer room air handlers (CRAH), computer room air conditioners (CRAC), transformer
- the data center 100 occupies an enclosed space such as a room in a building, an entire building, a transportable container such as a shipping container for land or water transport, an underground location or any type of enclosure or environment that protects the computing equipment from heat, moisture, and other factors detrimental to the operation of computing equipment.
- Each server 50 rack is enclosed by a cabinet having a vented front door.
- multiple server racks are provided in a room having four walls, and upon the front wall is mounted a door 10 that is vented.
- the door 10 is formed from fiber-reinforced plastic, metal or another suitable material and may be perforated or otherwise vented for permitting the passage of air between the data center 100 and the surrounding environment or building.
- the data center 100 operates at about a power utilization effectiveness (PUE) of 2.0.
- PUE represented the total power to the data center 100 divided by the power consumed by the IT equipment.
- a second one-Watt of power is used by the facility equipment to cool and otherwise support the computing equipment.
- the energy harvesting system 20 is capable to reduce the energy requirements and/or IT equipment load by generating power from the recovered waste heat.
- the amount of power generated is dependent upon the efficiency of the thermoelectric device 38 .
- a resulting two-Watts of overall power savings for the data center is realized.
- the energy harvesting system 20 is comprised of a thermoelectric device 38 , one or more collection units 22 , 24 and a controller 70 .
- the energy harvesting system 20 produces usable energy from waste heat and combines the usable energy with utility-input energy 60 to power the data center 100 partially or completely depending on the installation.
- the thermoelectric device 38 may be a heat pump, heat exchanger, or any solid state device capable of utilizing a temperature gradient for heat transfer and energy recovery.
- Hot exhaust air, or waste heat 14 is expelled from servers 50 and other IT/computing equipment as the servers 50 consume power during operation and performance of computational tasks.
- the waste heat 14 measures about 45 degrees Celsius.
- the waste heat 14 is contained in the data center 100 by a solid door 12 at the rear of the data center 100 . Further, rack spacers are also used to fill empty positions between servers 50 in the rack, preventing the waste heat 14 from being contained in the empty positions.
- the solid door 12 may be located opposite the vented door 10 in the data center 100 .
- Room temperature air 15 is circulating through the data center 100 at about 25 degrees Celsius at the same time the waste heat 14 is being generated.
- the waste heat 14 and room temperature air 15 are directed over heat sinks 23 , 27 and further into the thermoelectric device 38 by one or more collection units 22 , 24 such as variable speed exhaust fans, outflow fans and fans internal to the servers.
- the one or more collection devices 22 , 24 harness and direct the waste heat 14 and room temperature air 20 into the thermoelectric device 38 .
- the thermoelectric device 38 receives the waste heat 14 and room temperature air 15 and detects a temperature gradient between the waste heat 14 and room temperature air 15 . The greater the temperature gradient between the room temperature air 15 and the waste heat 14 , the greater the direct current (DC) electrical energy that is produced at the output of the thermoelectric device 38 .
- the thermoelectric device 38 converts the waste heat 14 and room temperature air 15 into an electrical potential. The electrical potential is interpreted, conditioned and distributed by a controller 70 .
- the controller 70 is comprised of a central processing unit, memory, communication interfaces, digital and analog inputs and outputs, and a power converter.
- the controller 70 executes purpose built and/or general purpose software which direct the overall operations of the energy harvesting system 20 and general data center 100 operations.
- the communication interfaces of the controller 70 provide serial communication between a pair of redundant controllers and to the data center infrastructure management (DCIM) and other supervisory systems.
- the controller 70 has interfaces and software that collects measurement data from a set of sensors installed in the data center itself and equipment within the data center. The sensors provide environmental, electrical and physical security data.
- the controller 70 has interfaces and software to control the operation of electrical breakers, protection equipment, and fans such as the variable speed exhaust fans referred to above.
- the controller 70 uses an internal electrical bus to combine electrical power from the power feed 60 , with power from the thermoelectric device 38 and the energy storage device 66 to deliver power to the servers 50 using the power distribution functionality.
- the controller 70 also delivers power to the energy storage device 66 .
- a control algorithm determines the amount of electrical energy consumed by the servers 50 , protective equipment, data center cooling equipment, building management system, and other devices in the data center.
- the control algorithm further distributes to each heat sink in the data center in such a way as to minimize the electrical energy from the power feed 60 .
- Another control algorithm determines the appropriate fan speed to ensure the internal pressure of the server 50 cabinet is equal to the ambient air pressure in the data center 100 , room, or compartment within the data center 100 housing the server 50 cabinet in order to optimize the flow of air through the computer servers 50 and thermoelectric device 38 .
- the software stored in a computer-readable medium or otherwise in the controller 70 further collects and measures data, computes analytics of the data and records both the raw measurements and the analytics in a database arranged to preserve historical records of the data.
- the controller 70 software provides communication protocols which allow the transmission of measurement data and analytics to other systems as well as accepting supervisory control commands from other systems such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and building management systems (BMS).
- SCADA supervisory control and data acquisition
- BMS building management systems
- thermoelectric device 38 The electrical energy recovered by the thermoelectric device 38 at the direction of the controller 70 is then added to an input energy source such as a utility-provided energy input 60 .
- an input energy source such as a utility-provided energy input 60 .
- a portion of the DC power generated by the thermoelectric device 38 is stored in an energy storage module 66 .
- the energy storage module 66 provides at least sixty (60) seconds of backup power to the data center 100 servers 50 and other equipment in the event of loss of primary and secondary power feeds to the data center 100 .
- an inverter 64 is required at the output of the thermoelectric device 38 .
- the inverter 64 converts the DC electric potential into AC power, thereby synchronizing the AC power to a power line frequency 60 .
- the inverter 64 it is necessary to pass the output power of the inverter 64 through a filter 62 before combining the recovered energy (recovered from the conversion of the waste heat to usable energy) with utility-input power.
- the AC power at the output of the inverter 64 is then fed back into the data center 100 to power the servers 50 and other equipment in the data center 100 such as CRAHs and CRACs.
- the data center 100 contains servers 50 and other equipment capable of operating with a DC power input.
- the DC power generated by the thermoelectric device 38 is directed immediately to the servers 50 and other equipment by the controller 70 without requiring an inverter 64 .
- a rectifier may be used to convert the utility-input AC power to DC power, at which point the recovered DC power from the energy harvesting system 20 is combined with the rectified utility-input power 60 .
- the resulting DC power feed having utility-input 60 and waste heat-recovered power is then fed back to the data center 100 servers 50 and other equipment for consumption.
- thermoelectric device 38 expels exhaust air streams 26 , 28 that are further directed into a return plenum 40 .
- the return plenum 40 routes the now-combined exhaust air streams 26 , 28 to the CRAH or CRAC, thereby forming a closed cooling loop.
- the second embodiment of the energy harvesting system 20 utilizes a chilled water loop 48 to create a greater temperature gradient across the thermoelectric device 38 .
- the chilled water supply 48 is about 10 degrees Celsius and the waste heat 14 generated at the output of the computer (IT) equipment in the data center 100 is about 45 degrees Celsius.
- the greater temperature gradient allows to the thermoelectric device 38 at the direction of the controller 70 to generate more power from the conversion of the input streams 48 , 14 .
- the exhaust air 26 is directed from the thermoelectric device 38 into a return plenum 44 .
- the chilled water supply 48 is returned to a chiller for further cooling.
- the third embodiment uses cool air 27 generated by a CRAH or CRAC located inside the data center 100 .
- the cool air 27 may be generated in a room separated from the data center 100 main operational room by walls or partitions.
- the data center 100 has primary and secondary power feeds.
- the secondary power feed is a redundant energy branch that is powered by a diesel generator, flywheel or other suitable equipment for providing backup power to the data center 100 in the event of interruption to the primary power feed.
- the primary power feed enters the data center 100 at the primary power protection and monitoring section.
- the primary controller directs the distribution of power to the energy storage module and the primary power distribution system.
- the servers 50 are powered by the primary power distribution system.
- the energy storage module is available to provide backup power, the distribution of which is directed by the primary and secondary controllers in the event of power interruption in the primary and secondary power feeds.
- the data flow in the data center 100 follows a path wherein all devices (servers, fan drivers, thermal, environmental, power and security sensors) transmit data and/or signals to the primary controller 70 .
- the primary controller 70 uses Ethernet communications to enable direct integration into a Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) system and thereby control the power distribution, energy management, server rack monitoring, and building management conditions (such as power, temperature, humidity, airflow, smoke detection, leak detection and data center entry security).
- DCIM Data Center Infrastructure Management
- Air flow data collected by the primary controller is used by the DCIM system to create a feed forward closed loop control over the CRAH, CRAC, and other cooling equipment.
- the air flow data is further used to create an air balance in the data center to prevent hot spots where the computing equipment is operating within safe temperature thresholds.
- the primary controller 70 interprets the sensor data and directs the power distribution modules and operation of the fan drives of the one or more collection devices 22 , 24 and thermoelectric device 38 .
- the method for harvesting energy from waste heat in the data center 100 has the following steps: a) directing server exhaust air and another air stream in the data center using one or more collection devices into a thermoelectric device; b) using the thermoelectric device to convert the air streams to usable energy; c) combining the usable energy with utility input power; and d) providing the combined power source to operate the servers 50 and other equipment in the data center 100 .
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Abstract
Description
- The present application is directed to a system and method for energy harvesting in a data center.
- Modern data centers consume tens of Megawatts of power with little regard for energy efficiency. On average, each server rack in a typical data center consumes electricity on the order of 8 kW. In a data center utilizing higher density server racks, the electricity consumed by data center operations may exceed 30 kW per server rack.
- A typical data center operates at around a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of about 2.0 which indicates that the data center's overall power demand is about two times greater than the Information Technology (IT) equipment load. In an average data center, that equates to for each one Watt of power consumed by the IT equipment, an additional one Watt of power is utilized for cooling and delivering power to the IT equipment.
- Most of the electrical energy utilized by the data center is consumed by the computing units and temperature control equipment in the data center, and expelled as waste heat. Additional power is used to expel the waste heat from the data center into the surrounding environment.
- An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for harvesting waste heat generated by data center operations. The energy harvesting system generates from the waste heat, electricity usable by computing devices in the data center. In this way, the energy harvesting system is able to recycle waste heat energy that would otherwise be lost, and use that energy to power information technology equipment in the data center.
- The energy harvesting system has one or more collection devices, a thermoelectric device and a controller. The one or more collection devices direct waste heat and room temperature air in the data center into a thermoelectric device. The thermoelectric device receives the waste heat and room temperature air as input, interprets a temperature gradient between the waste heat and room temperature air, and generates from the temperature gradient an electrical potential as an output. The controller directs the conversion of the thermoelectric device-generated electrical potential to usable electricity and combines the usable electricity combinable with utility-input electricity to deliver power to the computing devices in the data center.
- A method for generating from waste heat in a data center, electricity usable by computing devices in said data center, comprising:
- a. directing waste heat expelled by computing devices in said data center into a thermoelectric device;
- b. determining a temperature gradient between said waste heat generated by computing devices in said data center and room temperature air in said data center;
- c. converting said temperature gradient into electric potential;
- d. converting said electrical potential into electricity usable by computing devices in said data center;
- e. combining said usable electricity with utility-input electricity; and
- f. operating said computing devices using said combination of usable electricity with utility-input electricity.
- In the accompanying drawings, structural embodiments are illustrated that, together with the detailed description provided below, describe exemplary embodiments of a system and method for energy harvesting in a data center. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that a component may be designed as multiple components or that multiple components may be designed as a single component.
- Further, in the accompanying drawings and description that follow, like parts are indicated throughout the drawings and written description with the same reference numerals, respectively. The figures are not drawn to scale and the proportions of certain parts have been exaggerated for convenience of illustration.
-
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a first embodiment of a data center having a an energy harvesting system embodied in accordance with the present invention; -
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the energy harvesting system in a data center having a chilled water loop; -
FIG. 3 shows an alternate arrangement of the first embodiment of the energy harvesting system ofFIG. 1 ; and -
FIG. 4 shows the energy and data flow between the energy harvesting, IT and building management equipment and devices in the data center. - A first embodiment of an
energy harvesting system 20 for recovering waste heat in adata center 100 is shown inFIG. 1 . Theenergy harvesting system 20 recovers the waste heat generated bydata center 100 operations, transforms the waste heat into usable energy, and provides the usable energy for consumption by the electronic devices and other equipment in thedata center 100. - The
data center 100 is comprised of racks ofservers 50 such as application, network and other types of servers, devices such as power distribution units, batteries, rectifiers, inverters, computer room air handlers (CRAH), computer room air conditioners (CRAC), transformers, generators and other equipment necessary for conducting the operations of a data center. - The
data center 100 occupies an enclosed space such as a room in a building, an entire building, a transportable container such as a shipping container for land or water transport, an underground location or any type of enclosure or environment that protects the computing equipment from heat, moisture, and other factors detrimental to the operation of computing equipment. Eachserver 50 rack is enclosed by a cabinet having a vented front door. - Alternatively, multiple server racks are provided in a room having four walls, and upon the front wall is mounted a
door 10 that is vented. Thedoor 10 is formed from fiber-reinforced plastic, metal or another suitable material and may be perforated or otherwise vented for permitting the passage of air between thedata center 100 and the surrounding environment or building. - In one embodiment, the
data center 100 operates at about a power utilization effectiveness (PUE) of 2.0. PUE represented the total power to thedata center 100 divided by the power consumed by the IT equipment. In that same embodiment, for each one-Watt of power used by thedata center 100 computing equipment, a second one-Watt of power is used by the facility equipment to cool and otherwise support the computing equipment. - The
energy harvesting system 20 is capable to reduce the energy requirements and/or IT equipment load by generating power from the recovered waste heat. The amount of power generated is dependent upon the efficiency of thethermoelectric device 38. In one embodiment, for each one-Watt of waste heat recovered using theenergy harvesting system 20, a resulting two-Watts of overall power savings for the data center is realized. - The
energy harvesting system 20 is comprised of athermoelectric device 38, one ormore collection units controller 70. Theenergy harvesting system 20 produces usable energy from waste heat and combines the usable energy with utility-input energy 60 to power thedata center 100 partially or completely depending on the installation. Thethermoelectric device 38 may be a heat pump, heat exchanger, or any solid state device capable of utilizing a temperature gradient for heat transfer and energy recovery. - Hot exhaust air, or
waste heat 14, is expelled fromservers 50 and other IT/computing equipment as theservers 50 consume power during operation and performance of computational tasks. Thewaste heat 14 measures about 45 degrees Celsius. Thewaste heat 14 is contained in thedata center 100 by asolid door 12 at the rear of thedata center 100. Further, rack spacers are also used to fill empty positions betweenservers 50 in the rack, preventing thewaste heat 14 from being contained in the empty positions. Thesolid door 12 may be located opposite the venteddoor 10 in thedata center 100. -
Room temperature air 15 is circulating through thedata center 100 at about 25 degrees Celsius at the same time thewaste heat 14 is being generated. Thewaste heat 14 androom temperature air 15 are directed overheat sinks thermoelectric device 38 by one ormore collection units more collection devices waste heat 14 androom temperature air 20 into thethermoelectric device 38. - The
thermoelectric device 38 receives thewaste heat 14 androom temperature air 15 and detects a temperature gradient between thewaste heat 14 androom temperature air 15. The greater the temperature gradient between theroom temperature air 15 and thewaste heat 14, the greater the direct current (DC) electrical energy that is produced at the output of thethermoelectric device 38. Thethermoelectric device 38 converts thewaste heat 14 androom temperature air 15 into an electrical potential. The electrical potential is interpreted, conditioned and distributed by acontroller 70. - The
controller 70 is comprised of a central processing unit, memory, communication interfaces, digital and analog inputs and outputs, and a power converter. Thecontroller 70 executes purpose built and/or general purpose software which direct the overall operations of theenergy harvesting system 20 andgeneral data center 100 operations. - The communication interfaces of the
controller 70 provide serial communication between a pair of redundant controllers and to the data center infrastructure management (DCIM) and other supervisory systems. Thecontroller 70 has interfaces and software that collects measurement data from a set of sensors installed in the data center itself and equipment within the data center. The sensors provide environmental, electrical and physical security data. - The
controller 70 has interfaces and software to control the operation of electrical breakers, protection equipment, and fans such as the variable speed exhaust fans referred to above. Thecontroller 70 uses an internal electrical bus to combine electrical power from thepower feed 60, with power from thethermoelectric device 38 and theenergy storage device 66 to deliver power to theservers 50 using the power distribution functionality. Thecontroller 70 also delivers power to theenergy storage device 66. - A control algorithm determines the amount of electrical energy consumed by the
servers 50, protective equipment, data center cooling equipment, building management system, and other devices in the data center. The control algorithm further distributes to each heat sink in the data center in such a way as to minimize the electrical energy from thepower feed 60. - Further, another control algorithm determines the appropriate fan speed to ensure the internal pressure of the
server 50 cabinet is equal to the ambient air pressure in thedata center 100, room, or compartment within thedata center 100 housing theserver 50 cabinet in order to optimize the flow of air through thecomputer servers 50 andthermoelectric device 38. - The software stored in a computer-readable medium or otherwise in the
controller 70 further collects and measures data, computes analytics of the data and records both the raw measurements and the analytics in a database arranged to preserve historical records of the data. Thecontroller 70 software provides communication protocols which allow the transmission of measurement data and analytics to other systems as well as accepting supervisory control commands from other systems such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and building management systems (BMS). - The electrical energy recovered by the
thermoelectric device 38 at the direction of thecontroller 70 is then added to an input energy source such as a utility-providedenergy input 60. In one embodiment, a portion of the DC power generated by thethermoelectric device 38 is stored in anenergy storage module 66. Theenergy storage module 66 provides at least sixty (60) seconds of backup power to thedata center 100servers 50 and other equipment in the event of loss of primary and secondary power feeds to thedata center 100. - As the utility-provided input power is typically alternating current (AC) power and the output of the energy harvesting equipment is DC power, an
inverter 64 is required at the output of thethermoelectric device 38. Theinverter 64 converts the DC electric potential into AC power, thereby synchronizing the AC power to apower line frequency 60. - In one embodiment, it is necessary to pass the output power of the
inverter 64 through afilter 62 before combining the recovered energy (recovered from the conversion of the waste heat to usable energy) with utility-input power. The AC power at the output of theinverter 64 is then fed back into thedata center 100 to power theservers 50 and other equipment in thedata center 100 such as CRAHs and CRACs. - Alternatively, the
data center 100 containsservers 50 and other equipment capable of operating with a DC power input. In that same embodiment, the DC power generated by thethermoelectric device 38 is directed immediately to theservers 50 and other equipment by thecontroller 70 without requiring aninverter 64. A rectifier may be used to convert the utility-input AC power to DC power, at which point the recovered DC power from theenergy harvesting system 20 is combined with the rectified utility-input power 60. The resulting DC power feed having utility-input 60 and waste heat-recovered power is then fed back to thedata center 100servers 50 and other equipment for consumption. - During operation, the
thermoelectric device 38 expels exhaust air streams 26, 28 that are further directed into areturn plenum 40. The return plenum 40 routes the now-combined exhaust air streams 26, 28 to the CRAH or CRAC, thereby forming a closed cooling loop. - Referring now to
FIG. 2 , a second embodiment of theenergy harvesting system 20 is depicted. The second embodiment of theenergy harvesting system 20 utilizes achilled water loop 48 to create a greater temperature gradient across thethermoelectric device 38. In one embodiment, thechilled water supply 48 is about 10 degrees Celsius and thewaste heat 14 generated at the output of the computer (IT) equipment in thedata center 100 is about 45 degrees Celsius. The greater temperature gradient allows to thethermoelectric device 38 at the direction of thecontroller 70 to generate more power from the conversion of the input streams 48, 14. - Following the conversion of input streams 48, 14 to usable energy, the
exhaust air 26 is directed from thethermoelectric device 38 into areturn plenum 44. Thechilled water supply 48 is returned to a chiller for further cooling. - Referring now to
FIG. 3 , a third embodiment of theenergy harvesting system 20 for thedata center 100 is shown. The third embodiment usescool air 27 generated by a CRAH or CRAC located inside thedata center 100. Alternatively, thecool air 27 may be generated in a room separated from thedata center 100 main operational room by walls or partitions. - With reference to
FIG. 4 , data and power flow through thedata center 100 andenergy harvesting system 20 is shown. Thedata center 100 has primary and secondary power feeds. The secondary power feed is a redundant energy branch that is powered by a diesel generator, flywheel or other suitable equipment for providing backup power to thedata center 100 in the event of interruption to the primary power feed. - The primary power feed enters the
data center 100 at the primary power protection and monitoring section. The primary controller directs the distribution of power to the energy storage module and the primary power distribution system. Theservers 50 are powered by the primary power distribution system. The energy storage module is available to provide backup power, the distribution of which is directed by the primary and secondary controllers in the event of power interruption in the primary and secondary power feeds. - The data flow in the
data center 100 follows a path wherein all devices (servers, fan drivers, thermal, environmental, power and security sensors) transmit data and/or signals to theprimary controller 70. Theprimary controller 70 uses Ethernet communications to enable direct integration into a Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) system and thereby control the power distribution, energy management, server rack monitoring, and building management conditions (such as power, temperature, humidity, airflow, smoke detection, leak detection and data center entry security). - Air flow data collected by the primary controller is used by the DCIM system to create a feed forward closed loop control over the CRAH, CRAC, and other cooling equipment. The air flow data is further used to create an air balance in the data center to prevent hot spots where the computing equipment is operating within safe temperature thresholds.
- The
primary controller 70 interprets the sensor data and directs the power distribution modules and operation of the fan drives of the one ormore collection devices thermoelectric device 38. - The method for harvesting energy from waste heat in the
data center 100 has the following steps: a) directing server exhaust air and another air stream in the data center using one or more collection devices into a thermoelectric device; b) using the thermoelectric device to convert the air streams to usable energy; c) combining the usable energy with utility input power; and d) providing the combined power source to operate theservers 50 and other equipment in thedata center 100. - While the present application illustrates various embodiments, and while these embodiments have been described in some detail, it is not the intention of the applicant to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention, in its broader aspects, is not limited to the specific details, the representative embodiments, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of the applicant's general inventive concept.
Claims (10)
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US14/442,645 US10693052B2 (en) | 2012-11-26 | 2013-11-25 | System and method for energy harvesting in a data center |
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PCT/US2013/071603 WO2014082028A1 (en) | 2012-11-26 | 2013-11-25 | System and method for energy harvesting in a data center |
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US10998483B1 (en) * | 2019-10-23 | 2021-05-04 | Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc | Energy regeneration in fuel cell-powered datacenter with thermoelectric generators |
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US11024789B2 (en) | 2013-12-06 | 2021-06-01 | Sridhar Kasichainula | Flexible encapsulation of a flexible thin-film based thermoelectric device with sputter deposited layer of N-type and P-type thermoelectric legs |
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CA2892354A1 (en) | 2014-05-30 |
GB201508244D0 (en) | 2015-06-24 |
GB2525325B (en) | 2017-06-14 |
GB2525325A (en) | 2015-10-21 |
US20160284962A1 (en) | 2016-09-29 |
US10693052B2 (en) | 2020-06-23 |
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