(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — IT technology provider Intel (www.intel.com) announced that it will test its first solar technology installation in New Mexico this weekend, which the company hopes will demonstrate the potential to power data centers.
The installation is located in a parking lot just north of the company’s Rio Rancho manufacturing plant that mostly develops flash memory chips and its Celeron and Pentium lines.
Project manager Tom Soloman says the $200,000 installation could potentially pay for itself in 15 to 20 years.
Comprised of 64 solar panels, the array can produce 10KW of electricity, or enough energy to heat four houses.
And while most large data centers would require significantly more power than this, Intel hopes the array will help the company to learn how to make larger arrays that are able to power data centers.
Intel also plans to run one test that will gauge the effectiveness of solar energy in reducing energy costs in the summer, a time when cooling costs are at their highest.
The company says it plans to eventually use solar arrays in their plants and data centers across the US.
In addition to this project, Intel has made other significant investments on solar energy technology.
Last October, the company dished out $20 million to fund the Chinese solar energy systems provider Trony Solar Holdings (www.trony.com/eg/default.asp).
Meanwhile, other companies have announced their own solar energy projects.
In December, Green Rack Systems launched a new green data center equipment line. The company says it hosts its own website at a solar powered data center.
