Greenpeace has recently taken website Facebook to task for locating a new data center in Prineville, Oregon, where the system will be largely powered by coal energy. While coal energy is far from close to anything efficient so far as energy is concerned, an interesting fact complicates matters: Greenpeace also distinctly hates natural gas and even nuclear power.
Greenpeace’s typical energy recommendations? Solar power or wind power, or sometimes earth heat power. None of which are remarkably cheap, available in copious amounts, or (in many cases) stable enough to maintain 24/7 server uptime without some form of gas/coal/nuclear backup available. On top of that, would Facebook locate somewhere else, as the first article notes, they would likely have to install extensive cooling systems for their servers, which would draw lots more power.
Of course, Greenpeace thinks Facebook should demand that the Oregon power company replaces their energy sources with renewable sources before they work with them. You know, because people should just spend copious amounts of money because Greenpeace says so.
Tags: controversy, economy, facebook, global warming, greenpeace, science, servers, Technology, web 2.0
