Is Google Building a Floating Data Center In San Francisco Bay?

snydeq writes "CNET's Daniel Terdiman investigates an oversize secret project Google is constructing on San Francisco's Treasure Island, which according to one expert may be a sea-faring data center. 'Something big and mysterious is rising from a floating barge at the end of Treasure Island, a former Navy base in the middle of San Francisco Bay. And Google's fingerprints are all over it,' Terdiman writes. 'Whether the structure is in fact a floating data center is hard to say for sure, of course, since Google's not talking. But Google, understandably, has a history of putting data centers in places with cheap cooling, as well as undertaking odd and unexpected projects like trying to bring Internet access to developing nations via balloons and blimps.'"

Re:"Secret"

[jo_ham]

Why use the seawater as your working fluid?

Just make a closed cycle and put a heat exchanger down there. No need for the seawater to be exposed to anything except the exterior radiators.

Re:"Secret"

[MightyYar]

I assume they'd use some kind of a binary system, with fresh water in the cooling loop and pumping salt water through the heat exchangers. I don't think you'd want to rely on natural heat dissipation, as you'd need a very large radiator, and sea life would love to grow all over it.

Re:"Secret"

[umghhh]

This is not the point actually but even if it were - secret is not that the big artificial island is built but what is its purpose. From all the movies I have seen last few decades, this never ends well - the evil starting from the artificial construction destroys civilization leaving small group surviving if at all. That is actually a good solution because it tends to show idyllic surroundings and Tom Cruise (or other Hollywood world savior) with some nice female over a newly born that is a hope for the human kind etc.

Alternatively James Bonds arrives and destroys the damned thing and the human kind continues its pointless existence. Either way this thing is going to sink. Possibly in flames.

1. Take operations into international waters.

[__aaltlg1547]

2. Deliver all ads from those servers.
3. Evade taxes in every jurisdiction by declaring that all ad revenue is generated in FloatingAdServer1 through FloatingAdServer14.
4. Profit!

Re:"Secret"

[icebike]

Seems like a big investment to build on a barge that can get swamped by the first storm that comes along.

You then have the problem of power, and communications that have to be fed to the barge. If you run your own
generators you have a refueling problem, with risk of spill at every refueling.

Once you get out of the bay, you have a police protection issue. Pretty hard to call the cops. Pretty risky
to start shooting at lookie-lews.

You have transport to and from issues as well. And if you think anyone is going to allow you to avoid taxes this way, well good luck with that.

In the first world, this makes no sense, and even the sea water cooling could be accommodated by cheaply laid pipe to land.
In the third world, this might make sense, because towed to Africa and guarded by some friendly government you
could use it as a base to handle all your balloon wifi or what ever hair brained scheme you might be planning.