In a recent Economist there's a story on cooling processors by water instead of air. Liquid cooling is apparently much more efficient than air cooling. Further, the hot water can be pumped to homes in the area to provide their heating needs. Sounds pretty cool. They also talked about putting computer farms offshore to take advantage of wave energy to power them. Isn't innovation neat?

Nice post! I'm associated with Recycled Energy Development, the company featured in the Orion article to which you link. The Notre Dame effort on computer servers sounds like a great idea. And you're right that energy recycling (particularly recycling waste heat) has an awful lot of untapped potential. Actually, according to DoE and EPA estimates, energy recycling could slash greenhouse emissions by 20% in the U.S. That's as much as if we pulled every passenger vehicle off the road. And as far as I know, that doesn't even count waste heat from computers.

So why isn't more being done? The problem is regulations that protect monopoly utilities from competition. If everyone buys less power, utilities lose money -- so the regulations make it hard for more efficient competitors to emerge. Crazy, isn't it?

This is the type of "out of the box thinking" (sorry:)) we need to do more of. My only thought for this particular solution was, do the plants hate the noise of the servers as much as I do?

It's an interesting idea, but how many self-contained desert environments are there out there? The reason this works well is because it's supposed to be dry. If there's too much humidity, condensation may start to form on circuit boards within a server, and that can cause failures. Server rooms are normally air-conditioned because that keeps it dry. Also, in the past some liquid cooling was used on Univac/Burroughs mainframes, and that poses some interesting engineering challenges. Their engineers got away from that in the 1980s.

Though using wasted heat is a great idea. There's a co-generation power plant in St. Paul, near where I live, and it's extremely efficient.

Love the word, "smoosh". Colorful and meaningful.
Hate the term, "hot" water heater. Redundant and jarring. File with "pre" perhaps?

A few years ago Cornell University completed the Lake Source Cooling program to pump cold water from deep in Cayuga Lake to cool the campus via counter-current heat exchange. (http://www.utilities.cornell.edu/utl_ldlsc.html) To my knowledge, it has been a success, with no apparent ill effects on the lake itself. Another triumph for green thinking!

Now this is a superb example of the kind of "out-of-the-box" thinking that will eventually change how we think of energy. In elementary school science classes we all learned the basics of thermodynamics. Maybe it's time that all Americans had a refresher course.

America Wastes over 70% of the Energy it Consumes !
The Energy Waste is Everywhere !
(1) We consistently over heat and over cool our homes, businesses,
offices, schools, churches, etc...
(2) 100's of millions of lights are on unnecessary every day and every night.
(3) Landfills are busier than ever. Over packaging with plastics is
the norm. Recycling is optional and thereby inadequate.
(4) Most Americans do not minimize their driving. Therefore,
congestion on roads is horrendous.
(5) Road construction is the ultimate contradiction!

Until the price of gas is $7 to $8 per gallon, Americans will not
significantly reduce their waste and over demand for energy.
The economic impact of taxing energy is the way to eliminate energy
waste and over demand. Only with a tangible dollar reward /
consequence will America care and act to conserve. Crude oil must be
taxed at $200 per barrel (55 gal) and 'offset' by making Federal
Income Tax begin at $70k. High energy costs are also the incentive by
which sustainable energy supplies will be developed. In the mean time,
the USA continues its incredible energy waste and gives away its
economic and political wealth to the Islamic Middle East via OPEC.
Know that the Islamic dominated OPEC cartel is glad to allow supply
and demand market forces to drive energy prices to $8/gallon. Our
hedonist energy waste empowers the Islamics who desires our demise.

China, India, and other 'developing countries' have only begun to
compete for the world's remaining fossil fuels. Unless global demand
for fossil energy is dramatically reduced, world war is inevitable
(future geopolitical unrest will be directly related to global
competition for energy and natural resources).
Ford and General Motors are headed for bankruptcy, which will leave
100,000,000 Americans unemployed, ruin our economy, and lead to
anarchy. America can no longer continue to 'do business as usual'.
Ford and GM must quickly transition to the lucrative business of
building solar and wind 'energy producers' for the world's 6.7 BILLION
people reason$. The world cannot continue to support all the
automakers. We are running out of petroleum !
Mass transit must reward those who reduce their driving and thereby
become FREE, SAFE, CLEAN, and CONVENIENT.
The incentive necessary to create renewable and sustainable energy
supply can ONLY occur when we implement the economics of TAXING ENERGY in lieu of income taxes.

The last post sounds so dismal, but IT IS REALITY. I have recycled newspaper, aluminum and plastic; for 30 years. I've seen many recycle centers shutdown, after a lack of use.

My trash dumpster doesn't have to go to the curb every week. So there some time and effort saved, with the other efforts to sort, collect, and return items to a center.

Most water enters our homes from the ground, so it's close to 55 degrees F, and the water heater heats it more than 120 deg F. It saves money to preheat 40 gallons to 65-70 degrees, yet my city says, "Violates the code!"

Waste heat can be used to preheat our water before it goes into a hot water tank. Recently I needed a new gas water heater, and the city codes required me to disconnect my preheat tank.

It was simply an old water heater tank, with no insulation and no flame. The city inspector said I could not re-attach it; after the plumber ruined my setup. So in many areas our codes are there to BREED inefficiency.

Wow what a great idea!