Over the past few years, an increasing number of Web hosting companies have chosen to power their facilities with alternative forms of energy—either directly through solar panels on their buildings, or by purchasing power from solar or wind farms.

Here comes the sun

Solar power – the next big thing?
Over the past few years, an increasing number of Web hosting companies have chosen to power their facilities with alternative forms of energy—either directly through solar panels on their buildings, or by purchasing power from solar or wind farms. This has all been done in an effort to not only save money, but also offer a “green” method of Web hosting.

Solar panels and green data centers are increasing in popularity, but it is too soon to determine how far this technology will go. For many providers, a solar-panel system just isn’t possible due to space restrictions, or because a very high number of panels would be needed to generate enough electricity for the facility.

For example, a data center of about 1,000 square feet requires about 200,000 watts of power for service. Solar panels, however, would provide about 10,000 watts (on a clear day). This is one of the issues that Web hosting providers, looking into green energy, are thinking about.

Solar panels do, however, allow Web hosting companies to promote their facilities as green (natural)—something customers all over the world are increasingly becoming interested in. It is now popular to see website tag lines promoting the site as green (energy provided from a naturally occurring energy source).

A solar-powered view
One U.S.-based company that originally went green in 2001 is AISO.net. Established in 1997, AISO.net serves clients from over 150 countries worldwide through the power of the sun. So what does AISO.net do to ensure their services are provided by natural power?

“We have over 120 solar panels that generate 100 per cent of our electricity, and we are planning on adding a green roof in 2007,” said Phil Nail, technology manager with AISO.net. “The green roof will cut down cooling energy by as much as 60 per cent during the hot summer months.”

They are also in the process of adding another 200 solar panels to the data center in order to have some extra power as the company expands. This is on top of the fact that they already use large solar tubes to bring in natural light to the data center which means there is no need for conventional lighting.

These practices aren’t just economically sound, but they saving the company money.

“Our current solar panels save us approximately $3,000 per month,” said Nail.

But providing natural light and power to the facility isn’t the only thing AISO.net has to brag about—they also often use outside air to keep the facility cool.

“We use redundant energy star air units to keep our servers cool,” explains Nail. “When the outside temperature is 60 degrees or cooler, then we bring in the cool outside air to cool out the center. When it gets hotter, then our air units kick on and keep our centre at a nice, crisp 65-degree temperature.”

AISO.net has even gone as far as to ensure that the one-and-a-half-foot-thick walls of the data center are filled with environmentally friendly insulation.

It is because of these numerous ecologically friendly choices that many businesses have chosen to host their websites through AISO.net.

“Clients all over the world come to AISO.net because we are a true environmentally friendly hosting company that generates all of its electricity by the sun—not by energy credits,” said Nail.

And just because the power source is untraditional, it doesn’t mean that customers have to worry about their websites going down in an emergency situation. A back-up generator is available to power the facility and is tested each day for assurance.