A supercomputer used by Britain’s Met Office (the equivalent of Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology) is now powered by solar panels.
The solar panel array will generate 221,000 kW hours of electricity per year – enough energy to power 67 UK households – and will avoid around 116 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
Installed on the rooftop of the Met Office’s Exeter HQ Energy Centre, the array is linked to an electricity management system allowing for real-time monitoring of the panels’ performance.
The 250kW solar power system consists of 1,000 solar modules. The system was installed by UK company Sungift Solar.
Drawing on more than 10 million weather observations each 24 hours, an advanced atmospheric model and three high performance supercomputers are used to create 3,000 tailored forecasts and briefings a day.
Among the Met Office’s other sustainability efforts in relation to its supercomputers is a Direct Current (DC) power project; a system that is delivering a 10% power reduction and a £200,000 electricity cost saving per year.
The organisation has also invested in evaporative free cooling for its supercomputers. Large tanks installed on the roof of its headquarters in Exeter allow for cooling at ambient temperature outside the building for much of the time, rather than total reliance on mechanical cooling.
The Met Office will also be investigating the possibility of running supercomputers at higher temperatures without losing efficiency and expanding cold aisle containment that traps and vents warm air in curtained-off IT areas.
Other sustainability initiatives at Exeter HQ include harvesting rainwater from facility’s rooftop and from porous car park surfaces for use in flushing toilets and other applications.
In 2011, the Met Office’s efforts were recognised with the award of a gold ranking in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index – the UK’s leading voluntary benchmark.
