Facebook shares green data centre technology

Facebook has announced that it will share the design secrets behind its new energy-efficient data centre with rival companies, the BBC News reported.

The social network's facility in Prineville, Oregon is said to use 38% less power than existing centres.

It hopes, by making the innovations public, to cut the amount of electricity the industry consumes.

Despite Facebook's advances, some environmental groups have criticised the firm over its green credentials.

Working under the title Open Compute Project, Facebook will release specifications and mechanical drawings of the building and its servers.

"It's time to stop treating data centres like Fight Club [do not talk about them]," said Jonathan Heiliger, the company's vice president of technical operations.

His comments are likely to be interpreted as a dig at other web firms, such as Google, Twitter and Amazon which have kept their own designs under wraps.

Data centres use vast amounts of electricity to run their computer equipment and also to keep it cool.

Environmental group Greenpeace has estimated that their total global energy use will have reached 2 trillion kw/h by 2020.
Until now, Facebook has paid to lease its servers and storage space from other companies.

The Prineville plant is its first custom-built facility and cost $188m. Much has been made of its environmentally friendly specifications.

Among the innovations, the centre makes extensive use of outside air, as opposed to air conditioning, to cool the rows of servers.
The machines themselves are also specially designed to maximise the new cooling system.

"The best way to reduce CO2 and improve the environment is to cut energy consumption and that is what we are doing," said Heiliger.

Facebook has stripped out nonessential parts, paint, logos and stickers - saving, it claims, more than 6 pounds of materials per server.

However, Greenpeace said the company could have gone further to prove its commitment to sustainability.

"If Facebook wants to be a truly green company, it needs to reduce its gas emissions," said Casey Harrell, a climate campaigner.

"The way to do that is decouple its growth from its emissions footprint by using clean, renewable energy to power its business instead of dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power."

Greenpeace launched a campaign last year calling on Facebook to stop powering its business with energy from suppliers that use coal.

More than 101,000 Facebook users have so far clicked the "like" button on Greenpeace's campaign, dubbed "Facebook: Unfriend Coal" .