[Beowulf] Liquid air for power storage

[Hearns, John]

An intriguing concept:


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/03/liquefied_air_power_storage/

Using tanks of liquefied air to store energy from wind/tidal power, so it can even out the
fluctuations of these power sources.

Heat is needed to warm up the liquefied air - when then goes to spin a generator (at 25% efficiency)
Blue skying slightly, would it make sense to co-locate your exascale supercomputer with such an installation?
Plenty of heat looking to be extracted from the supercomputer.

Then again, the supercomputer uses electricity, so you would probably use up all the generator output, and more.

And why not just cut out the middleman and hook up the supercomputer to the wind farm?
I suppose then you have a whole new set of problems dealing with your users - "Wellll....... your jobs hasn't run
because the wind hasn't been blowing for two days....."



John Hearns | CFD Hardware Specialist | McLaren Racing Limited
McLaren Technology Centre, Chertsey Road, Woking, Surrey GU21 4YH, UK

T:  +44 (0) 1483 262000
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E:  john.hearns at mclaren.com
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