Let’s Build A Data Centre From Straw!

Dell packs its devices in wheat straw. That’s certainly greener than using  polystyrene or virgin wood pulp, But what else could we do with the material? How about a data centre built from straw?

For small items, the amount of energy and materials consumed in the packaging can be significant, even compared to the device itself. So it’s good to see Dell packing and shipping its tablets and laptops in materials made from waste, which can be dropped straight in the recycling.

Dell plans to make all its packaging out of waste material, and has so far used mushroom waste and bamboo byproducts, saving some $18 million so far. The next step Dell’s global head of packaging Oliver Campbell told me, is to bring in wheat straw.

Inedible wheat straw is a waste material, and in China it is often burnt, leading to air pollution, and greenhouse gases. Dell has helped YFY, a Taiwanese paper firm, develop a biotech process which breaks down the lignin in the straw using enzymes similar to those in a cow’s stomach.

Dell plans to expand this to more of its products – even up to data centre products such as rackmount and blade servers, but it strikes me that packaging makes up a very small percentage of the embodied energy and materials of these more sizeable products.

But what about using waste materials elsewhere in the building? Most new data centers get LEED certified, so they count as green, but it’s possible to push for more renewable or waste material in the actual building structures.

Recycled stone and metal can be used in buildings, That’s something that data center owners might be able to feel good about.

It’s even possible to use straw bales in permanent constructions. They are stable, solid and have great thermal properties.
I’m not sure I can imagine a data center hall made from hay bales, but I know a group using them to build a church hall. They have also been used to build offices.

And it would be kind of cool to take a server out of a box made of straw, and install it in a room made of straw.

As long as the Big Bad Wolf doesn’t happen to come by.

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