The lean data center, or how your next movie could come from an oil well
The British Empire managed to span all continents by abolishing distance through the steam engine. Similarly, the information revolution has allowed us to transmit any volume of information between two places at a modest cost in materials and infrastructure. How are these expectations going to evolve in the coming decades?
One often overlooked aspect of our sustainability crisis is the looming scarcity of materials we take for granted. Our high-power electrical grids rely heavily on copper, a metal that is becoming scarcer. Future copper production may not suffice for electrifying our economy. Installing a new power line already costs around $700,000 per kilometer[1], whereas optical fiber costs between $1,000 and $20,000 per kilometer.
In the context of rapid electrification, our ability to mine copper (or find cost-effective substitutes) may not keep pace with the demand for electrifying industries. Building a data center in one location and a windmill park in another becomes futile if they cannot be connected. Lack of progress in mining copper or developing substitutes such as high-temperature superconductors may prompt a shift toward co-locating electricity producers and consumers. This transformation could reshape the data center landscape, as data centers can be relocated with minimal impact. Unlike electrical blast furnaces that process iron ore, data centers do not require large material inflows, allowing them to be situated in remote, energy-rich regions.
Crusoe Systems exemplifies this approach by installing computing pods in gas and oil fields. Oil wells naturally release a certain quantity of the methane gas, which is not (yet) economical to recover. This flare gas is typically burned (bad for the environment) or leaked (even worse). Some operators explore burning this gas in small turbines to resell the electricity, but the rising costs of electrical transmissions may hinder this recycling. Instead, Crusoe Systems installs small data centers on-site, utilizing the generated electricity for edge computing, which then only needs a data connection rather than a costly electrical connection.
While the economics are still in flux, this strategy may offer a promising solution for the dematerialized sectors of our society. We may soon witness a rush to relocate data and computing assets near energy sources.