UK Start-Up Plans Pedal-Powered Green Data Centre
Financial services companies looking to cut IT costs could make use of pedal power
UK based Loof Technologies is planning to make use of the growing ranks of unemployed bankers and other victims of the recession to provide green energy.
In a statement issued on April 1, the London based start-up announced plans to launch its take on the green data centre which will go one step further than existing moves by Google and Microsoft to make use of cheap hydroelectric power. Loof’s plan is to use pedal power.
The company claims that its technology is based on existing “data centre in a box”designs launched by Sun and others with multiple servers built into a truck trailer or shipping container.
But rather than the data centre in a box being connected to the mains power in the usual way – Loof has developed a generator add-on powered by a series of stationary bikes.
Loof founder and chief executive April Thurst claims that her company’s pedal powered data centres can be delivered to financial centres around the world where companies can then make use of staff who would otherwise be facing redundancy.
“Right now banks and other financial institutions need to cut IT costs and using pedal power to run data centres just makes so much sense,” she said. “Staff who might have been working on sophisticated financial instruments this time last year are now probably facing redundancy so why not make use of them and kill two birds with one stone.”
Staff on the bicycles may even have their performance (in kiloWatts) linked to bonuses, she suggested.
