Volume 32: A Sustainable, Clean and Carbon-free Energy Future

Comparative performance analysis of two hybrid energy systems for data centers with different replenishment energy sources Wei He, Qing Xu, Shi Zhao, Tao Guo, Shengchun Liu

Abstract

With the advent of the digital economy era, data centers are developing rapidly, and energy consumption has become a key factor in their high operating costs. Due to the explosive growth of servers, data centers require more and more power, resulting in power shortages and significant carbon emissions. Using renewable energy to power data centers is a promising solution. In this paper, we compared the performance differences of a hybrid renewable energy system using two different supplemental power sources, natural gas,and conventional diesel, to power a data center. Based on the power required by the data center and the supply of different energy sources, simulations are performed to obtain the system penetration capacity, economic costs, and carbon emissions for comparative analysis.The results show that the system has lower carbon emissions and cost in the natural gas mode, however, the penetration capacity is the same in both modes. With the same battery capacity of 3,000 kWh, the natural gas model costs 0.05 $/kWh less than the diesel model and reduces carbon emissions by 600 tCO2.

Keywords distributed energy system, renewable energy, renewable penetration, Levelized Cost of Electricity, carbon emissions