[Beowulf] BMW Shifts Supercomputing To Iceland To Save Emissions

[Vincent Diepeveen]

It's completely in agreement with what i said. It's under 1 megawatt  
what Iceland can host.

6.31 GWh / 24 hours / 365 days = 720 kilowatt

Note that BMW has a new marketing campaign it seems. In every nation  
in Europe they did do
an announcement on how many jobs they provide in that specific  
nation. This for nearly all nations i checked.

New marketing strategy?

On Oct 15, 2012, at 3:17 PM, Eugen Leitl wrote:

>
> (as we were discussing Iceland -- which has also other advantages,  
> as e.g.
> the German Pirate Party is hosting some of its infrastructure there  
> after
> having been raided on bogus charges).
>
> http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/bmw-hpc-iceland-verne- 
> global-95740
>
> BMW Shifts Supercomputing To Iceland To Save Emissions
>
> BMW saves 3600 tonnes of carbon – while its cars generate millions  
> more On
> October 10, 2012 by Peter Judge 0
>
> Flash German car maker BMW has moved its high performance computing  
> (HPC) to
> a data centre in Iceland powered by renewable energy, to save  
> around 3600
> tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
>
> The firm is moving ten of its HPC clusters, consuming 6.31 GWh of  
> energy each
> year annually, from Germany over to Verne Global’s data centre in  
> Keflavik,
> Iceland which uses electricity from 100 percent renewable sources –  
> Iceland’s
> geothermal and hydroelectric generators.
>
> The move gives Verne its first big name end user customer in its  
> green data
> centre (previous announcements concerned service providers like  
> Colt) –
> though perhaps BMW might not be the first name it would have chosen to
> promote a green data centre.
>
> The ultimate driving machine ?
>
> 3D graphic car CAD CAE HPC © Verticalarray Shutterstock
>
> BMW will save around 80 percent of the power costs of running  
> calculations
> including crash test and aerodynamics simulations, as well as CAD/CAE
> (computer aided design and engineering) calculations.
>
> This is of course a tiny gesture, compared with BMW’s overall  
> contribution to
> climate change. The company makes a million cars a year, each of which
> produces around five tonnes of greenhouse gas every year – so five  
> million
> tonnes from this year’s production alone, and that omits about 100,000
> motorbikes.
>
> So the company saved the equivalent of one year’s emission from 700  
> cars, a
> lot less than one thousandth of the cars the company makes each  
> year, and a
> far smaller proportion of its emissions overall since these cars  
> will have
> several years’ of service.
>
> Iceland geothermal energy © Gislij20 Shutterstock
>
> Still, the reduction is real, and so is the demonstration of the  
> Verne’s
> capabilities, along with the practicality of shifting major computing
> services to a country half an ocean away.
>
> BMW tested the network connections from Munich to Iceland, said  
> Jeff Monroe,
> CEO of Verne Global.  “The test results were a critical factor in  
> their
> decision to place production systems in Iceland.”
>
> The move may also have had as much to do with power costs as the  
> emissions.
> With a big surplus and reliable long-term supplies of renewable  
> energy,
> Iceland’s utilities offer very cheap deals and long term contracts.  
> Monroe
> said this is one of Verne’s “core competitive advantages”, and  
> prices are
> guaranteed: “We can offer customers a low, inflation-protected rate  
> for up to
> 20 years – a significant consideration in light of rising long-term
> electricity costs in Europe, the UK and US.”
>
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