Are underground data centers the answer?
Engineer Channing Blackwell is promoting the Renaissance system, an underground data center concept designed to reduce noise, pollution, grid dependence and community water use. The proposal would use geothermal energy and solar panels, but the technology has not yet been proven at scale.
Channing Blackwell, a professional engineer whose firm has designed several Washington monuments, says he has developed an underground data center concept called the Renaissance system. The proposed facilities would be buried beneath a berm topped with solar panels and powered by geothermal energy, potentially reducing noise, fossil-fuel use, electrical-grid demand and water consumption. Blackwell says a hyperscale version could cover about 30 acres and cost less than conventional facilities.
The concept comes as opposition to data centers grows over concerns about power lines, pollution, noise and water use. The U.S. Department of Energy recently highlighted geothermal technology as a possible solution to data centers’ heating and cooling demands. The report also notes that other companies are pursuing similar systems, including a Texas-based company that signed an agreement with Google to provide geothermal energy for one of its data centers in the western United States. The Renaissance system remains unproven at scale.