新华网北京11月14日电 据美国科技博客网站Gizmodo报道，继微软和谷歌之后，Facebook也开始建设以可持续能源供能的数据中心，目前正在艾奥瓦州建设一座以风能供电的数据中心。
社交网站Facebook的数据中心大楼的能源经理 文森特·冯·松在其主页上宣布，位于艾奥瓦州的Facebook新数据中心将实现完全以风能为动力，风能采自周边的一个农场。看到这个消息，我们可以得出一个结论：我们对互联网数据无止境的需求间接地支持了一个绿色能源。
在建的这座数据中心位于艾奥瓦州阿尔图纳市，首府得梅因郊区，为其供能的风能发电厂位于数据中心70公里以北，向外延伸至风能丰富的大平原地区（届时该风力农场将为艾奥瓦州输送138兆瓦的电力）。这将是Facebook的第四个数据中心，计划于2015年建成投入使用，它有两个超级可持续的“前辈”，分别坐落在俄勒冈州和瑞典。
Facebook不是美国追求绿色能源为自己的数据中心功能的唯一一家公司，微软和谷歌早就开始推行类似的能源计划了《连线》杂志将科技大公司争相追求可持续能源的做法成为一场“军备竞赛”。其实，有点竞争蛮好的，毕竟可持续能源及相关技术手段最终将造福全人类。
译者：张艺
百度新闻与新华网国际频道合作稿件，转载请注明出处。
Facebook's Giant New Data Center Will Be Powered By Wind Alone
In a post today on Facebook, the company's Data Center Energy Manager Vincent Van Son announced that its new data center in Iowa will be powered solely by wind energy drawn from a nearby farm. That's right: Our insatiable hunger for online validation is indirectly helping to support sustainable energy.
Facebook's fourth data center—which will join its super-sustainable predecessors in Oregon and Sweden—is currently under construction in Altoona, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. The wind farm it will use is located roughly 70 miles north—further out into the sweeping Great Plains, where the winds are plentiful (the farm itself will eventually contribute 138 MW of power to the Iowa grid). The building is scheduled to open in 2015.
Facebook isn't alone in pursuing sustainable ways to power energy-hogging data centers, since Microsoft and Google are exploring similar projects (Wired calls it an "arms race"). And there's nothing wrong with a little rivalry—especially when it comes to a technology that's actually going to benefit the world at large. [Wired; Facebook]
热门跟贴