Could Liverpool Develop A Massive Zero-Carbon Data Centre?
There is an article in The Sunday Times today, which is entitled Google Signs Nuclear Deal To Power AI Data Centres.
These are the first three paragraphs of the article.
Google has struck a deal with a nuclear power start-up to provide low-carbon energy for its data centres and AI operations, marking a world-first in the tech industry.
The California-based company said the agreement to buy energy from multiple small modular reactors developed by Kairos Power could help spur a nuclear revival in America.
The first reactor is scheduled to come online in America by 2030, followed by additional deployments through 2035.
I am not against nuclear-powered data centres, but could Liverpool build a massive zero-carbon data centre?
This Google Map shows Liverpool Bay, which is a vast expanse of water that stretches along the North Wales coast to Anglesey and all the way to the Isle of Man.
Note.
- The Isle of Man in the North-West corner.
- Liverpool, Birkenhead and the River Mersey in the South-East corner.
- Anglesey in the South-West corner.
- Blackpool with Morecambe Bay to its North in the North-East corner.
Liverpool Bay could be one of Europe’s zero-carbon energy powerhouses.
Wind Farms In Liverpool Bay
At the present time, these wind farms are producing electricity or planned in Liverpool Bay.
- Barrow – 90 MW – Commissioned in 2006
- Burbo Bank – 90 MW – Commissioned in 2007
- Burbo Bank Extension – 258 MW – Commissioned in 2017
- Gwynt y Môr – 576 MW – Commissioned in 2015
- North Hoyle – 60 MW – Commissioned in 2003
- Ormonde – 150 MW – Commissioned in 2012
- Rhyl Flats – 90 MW – Commissioned in 2009
- Walney – 367 MW – Commissioned in 2010
- Walney Extension – 659 MW – Commissioned in 2018
- West if Duddon Sands – 389 MW – Commissioned in 2014
- Awel y Môr – 500 MW – Planned
- Morecambe – 480 MW – Planned
- Mona – 1500 MW – Planned
- Morgan – 1500 MW – Planned
Note.
- 2509 MW has been commissioned.
- 3980 MW is being planned.
- That is a total of 6489 MW
I suspect more space in Liverpool Bay could be developed with wind farms.
Mersey Tidal Power
The Mersey Tidal Power project has a web site.
If it is built, it will probably be built by the South Korean company; K-Water and use some of the design principles of the Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station.
It will likely have an output of around 1 GW and take ten years to build.
In the 1970s, I did some project management consultancy for Frederick Snow and Partners, and they showed me their plans for a Severn Barrage.
Their futuristic vision for the Severn Estuary was never built, as the Prime Minister of the time; Harold Wilson, felt coal was the future. See Last Of The Many!
I suspect that the Mersey Tidal Power project will be another variation on a proven theme.
Morecambe Bay Bridge And Tidal Barrage Proposal
In the Wikipedia entry for Morecambe Bay, there is a proposal for a bridge and tidal barrage across the bay, where this is said.
In 2004, a proposal was made to build a bridge across the bay flanked by wind turbines and using tidal power. Proposals from Northern Tidal Power Gateways in 2019 outlined a tidal barrage with a road running along on top.
If the Mersey Tidal Power project is a success, then why wouldn’t one across Morecambe Bay, be one too?
500 MW of zero-carbon tidal power would do nicely!
Nuclear Sites At Calder Hall, Heysham And Wylfa
These three nuclear stations have supplied electricity to the North-West of England.
- Calder Hall was the original Magnox site, which the Wikipedia entry says had a nameplate capacity of 240 MW and was decommissioned in 2003, after running for 47 years.
- Heysham is a powerful site which the Wikipedia entry says has a nameplate capacity of 2452 MW and will be decommissioned in 2028.
- Wylfa is an older, smaller Magnox site which the Wikipedia entry says had a nameplate capacity of 1190MW and was decommissioned in 2015.
As the sites are cleared, I am sure that we’ll see more nuclear power stations built on the sites.
How Much Electricity Does A Data Centre Use?
I found this paragraph in an NESO document.
Regardless of this, if we were to use existing market data and modelling projections, this could point to annual data centre electricity consumptions of between 3.6 TWh in 2020 to as much as 35 TWh by 2050.
Dividing by the hours in a year, indicates that an individual data centre could use between 0.4 and 4 GW of electricity.
Using my rough figures here from wind, tidal and nuclear, I suspect that the power on the Mersey will generate enough power for at least one data centre.
Liverpool Is On The Right Side Of The Country For Cables To North America
Cables will go straight out of Liverpool Bay, pass to the North of Ireland and across the Atlantic to somewhere like Puget Sound.
Liverpool has a superb location for a Transatlantic data centre, that connects to networks on both sides of the pond.
Could Underwater Data Centres Be Developed In Liverpool Bay?
This page on the Microsoft web site is entitled Microsoft Finds Underwater Datacenters Are Reliable, Practical And Use Energy Sustainably
These three paragraphs detail the research.
Earlier this summer, marine specialists reeled up a shipping-container-size datacenter coated in algae, barnacles and sea anemones from the seafloor off Scotland’s Orkney Islands.
The retrieval launched the final phase of a years-long effort that proved the concept of underwater datacenters is feasible, as well as logistically, environmentally and economically practical.
Microsoft’s Project Natick team deployed the Northern Isles datacenter 117 feet deep to the seafloor in spring 2018. For the next two years, team members tested and monitored the performance and reliability of the datacenter’s servers.
I would assume that Microsoft have continued the research, as with something like this you can’t be too careful.
But it would appear, that data centres and their servers could be submerged under the waters of Liverpool Bay.
London And Liverpool Will Be Under Two Hours By Train Within A Year
New Class 807 trains, which will be delivered within a year, will improve the train service between the two cities.
- Train times will be brought to around or even below two hours.
- , The extra trains will allow a second hourly service to be added.
- The extra service will additionally stop at Liverpool South Parkway station, for the airport.
- High Speed Two is claiming one hour and fifty minutes, between London and Liverpool.
Liverpool already has one of the best rail terminals in the North of England, as these pictures show.
With these service improvements, it will have a service to London and the South, that will be second to no other Northern station.
Liverpool Has A Refurbished Partly-Underground Suburban Railway With New Trains
Liverpool’s Metro is one of the best in Europe for a medium-sized city.
The Metro is also expanding with new routes and stations.
These pictures show the new Headbolt Lane station, which is swerved by the UK’s first battery-electric trains.
Liverpool Has Easy Access To Two International Airports
There are two international airports close by; Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester International.
- For Liverpool Airport, it’s a bus from Liverpool South Parkway station or an express bus from Liverpool city centre.
- For Manchester Airport, it’s a train from Lime Street station.
I am fairly sure, that a hydrofoil could connect Liverpool’s Waterfront and the Tidal Barrier to the airport.
North-West England Has A Rich University Tradition
Liverpool, Manchester and the surrounding area has several world-class universities and research establishments.
Some like The Pandemic Institute would be able to find uses for all the computing power and artificial intelligence on offer at a powerful data centre.
Liverpool Is A World City
Liverpool is a World City, where there is plenty of sport, entertainment and things to do.
Conclusion
Liverpool is installing the power infrastructure for a very large data centre, that will be able to handle the world’s largest and most difficult problems.
Mersey Tidal Project And Where It Is Up To Now
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Liverpool Echo.
This is the sub-heading.
With a major agreement on the project reached this week, we take a look at what it all means.
There is a section, which is called So What Is A Mersey Tidal Project?, where this is said.
The idea is to build a huge damn structure in the River Mersey with turbines that can harness energy from the tides of the river and convert it into clean power. The city region combined authority is hopeful that this could power up to 1 million homes and create thousands of local jobs
The city region has one of the country’s largest tidal ranges so it is seen as a perfect opportunity to explore a tidal project here. It is hoped such a project could generate a ‘plentiful, reliable supply of clean, green energy for generations to come.
In the 1970s, I did a small project management consultancy at Frederick Snow and Partners in London. They showed me their ambitious plans for a Severn Barrage, which was a tidal scheme, that would have created a tenth of our electricity and would have cost around a billion pounds.
But Harold Wilson, who was Prime Minister at the time, felt that the money would be better spent on building massive coal-fired power stations, rather than building a clean power station, that would last centuries.
A second section is called What Happened This Week?, where this is said.
This week the Liverpool City Region signed an agreement with the company behind the current world’s current largest tidal project with a view to learning lessons.
The Sihwa Lake tidal range power plant, which is operated by Korea Water Resources Corporation, generates 552GWh of clean, green energy every year, replacing the equivalent of 862,000 barrels of oil a year.
Jeong Kyeong Yun, Vice President of Korea Water Resources Corporation, known as K-water, was in Liverpool this week to sign an historic Memorandum of Agreement with Mayor Rotheram. It is hoped the agreement will pave the way for close co-operation between the two tidal power projects, through reciprocal visits and information sharing.
Note.
- The Liverpool Echo is still making spelling mistakes, like damn instead of dam. In the 1960s, Fritz Spiegl used to give us all pleasure by writing about them.
- 552 GWh would keep the UK powered up for nearly a month.
- The Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station has a comprehensive Wikipedia entry.
- The Sihwa dam has a road over the top.
- Unlike Frederick Snow’s scheme for the Severn, Sihwa only generates power, on the incoming tide. But it does generate 254 MW.
As ever, Liverpool is thinking big and getting the experience from those, who know what they are doing.
This last paragraph, gives the thoughts of the Mayor.
Mayor Rotheram said that with the right support, he hopes the project could be generating clean, renewable power by the end of this decade.
I would go along with that.
The Mersey Tidal Project And The Mersey Gateway Bridge
Frederick Snow’s plans for the Severn could have incorporated a new road and rail crossing of the estuary.
This Google Map shows the the Sihwa Lake Tidal power station.
The road over the dam is clearly visible.
I took these pictures of the Mersey Estuary as I came back from Liverpool on Tuesday.
This Google Map shows the Mersey Estuary.
Note.
- The River Mersey flowing from the North-East corner of the map to the South-West corner.
- On the South Bank of the Mersey, there is the deep-water channel of the Manchester Ship Canal.
- The bridge in the North-East corner of the map is the Mersey Gateway Bridge.
- Then there is the pair of bridges at Runcorn; the Silver Jubilee Bridge and the Runcorn Railway Bridge.
I am fairly sure, that the Mersey Tidal Project would be built downstream of the pair of bridges at Runcorn.
This Google Map shows the Mersey Estuary from the Runcorn Bridges to the mouth of the Manchester Ship Canal.
Note.
- The Mersey Gateway Bridge and the two Runcorn bridges are in the North-East corner.
- The route of the Manchester Ship Canal is clearly visible.
- Liverpool John Lennon Airport is on the North Bank of the Mersey.
- The M56 and M53 Motorways run East-West across the map to the South of the River.
This map leads me to the conclusion, that a tidal barrage with a road on top could link Liverpool to the M56.
I have some thoughts.
Rail Access To Liverpool
There is an electrified railway between Liverpool and Ellesmere Port.
- The railway can be picked out running across the bottom of the map.
- In Liverpool’s Vision For Rail, I talked about Liverpool City Region’s plan to expand this service to Helsby, Frodsham and Runcorn East.
- Helsby and Frodsham are shown on the map.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new Park-and-Ride station, where the M56 and the railway cross.
Ship Access To Manchester And Other Ports
Barrages usually have to provide access for ships to pass through to any ports behind the barrage.
But the Mersey Tidal Project already has that access. – It was built in the 1893 and is called the Manchester Ship Canal.
There is probably strong protection between the Mersey and the Canal between the mouth of the Canal and Runcorn, which may impact positively on the costs of the barrage.
The Simple Barrage
Sihwa Lake Tidal power station is a simple barrage with a bridge over the power station in the middle.
This Google Map shows the location of the power station.
Note.
- Seoul is in the North-East corner of the map.
- The Sihwa Lake Tidal power station is marked by the red arrow.
This Google Map shows a close-up of the power station.
Note.
- The ten turbines appear to be in the gap.
- There appears to be a road on top of the barrage.
- The area to the West of the power station is marked as a rest area.
- A Moon Observatory is marked.
- It has bus stops, showing that it is served by the 123 and 123-1 buses.
It is an impressive structure.
I’m sure that this type of barrage would work over the Mersey.
- A road could be built on top.
- It may only be able to generate electricity,from an incoming tide, like Sihwa.
- It could incorporate a rest area.
I do suspect though Liverpudlians would add a few unique touches of their own. Perhaps some liver birds or superlambananas.
The Frederick Snow Solution
The Severn is a wide river and he proposed that there would be a dam across the river, with a spine running East along the middle of the river.
- The spine would divide the river into two lakes.
- On the incoming tide, sluices would open and allow water to flow into the Northern or high lake from the Mersey estuary.
- On the outgoing tide, sluices would open and allow water to flow out of the Southern or low lake into the Mersey estuary.
- Water would flow between the high and low lake through turbines to generate electricity.
- I have assumed that the high lake is on the North side, but if the geography is more suitable, the high and low lakes could be reversed.
In the design for the Severn Barrage, an International airport would have been built on the spine.
But Liverpool already has a nearby International airport, so perhaps it could be much better to install a large electrolyser and hydrogen storage on the spine.
The Anonymous Widower 