Application of Geothermal Power For Data/Comm Centers

Abstract

Two industries, not historically connected, are likely to find common ground. To date, data centers and geothermal plants have never been co-located on the same site. Co-locating them together completely eliminates the need for a connection to the electric grid. Trends and requirements in each industry strongly suggest the time to co-site them together is now.
Data centers use much of the world’s electricity (Figure 1). Their appetite for more power continues to grow. A major factor driving the siting of new centers is low-cost power.
One geothermal field can produce sufficient baseload power to drive a large data center. Ideal candidates for such an application would be the hundreds of “stranded” resources. These are untapped, geothermal fields far from available electric transmission. If that power is completely consumed locally, than there is no need to connect to the electric grid (Figure 2).
Data centers, however, need to connect to data networks such as the Internet. They do so through fiber-optic cable, satellite, microwave, and other communications technologies. Installing and operating data networks is far cheaper and easier than electric networks.
Siting the data center on the geothermal field opens new markets for the geothermal industry. It similarly changes the risk factors for geothermal developers. Most notably, this model moves bits, not megawatts.