Google tips for getting to a PUE of 1.5

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Ted Samson writes about comments that Google Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl made at last weeks’ GreenNet 2010 conference in San Francisco.

The most interesting tip Weihl shared pertained to power infrastructure. Whereas most companies use large PDUs (power distribution units) to provide backup power for their data center hardware, Google instead equips each server with a 12-volt battery. Google claims this approach is far more efficient. A large UPS is around 92 to 95 percent efficient, whereas Google says batteries help it achieve better than 99.9 percent efficiency.

Samson also recaps other Google comments which, in general, weren’t all that revealing. Strip superfluous components from server boards, hot aisle/cold aisle isolation, raise inlet temperature closer to rated levels, and think about free cooling. I suspect that Google is keeping the good stuff, things that would get you down to 1.1, is being treated as a state secret in the ‘plex.

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