Microsoft · BBC Technology
UK company pioneers data centres tapping lampposts
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There have been many attempts to put data centres in unusual places over the years - Microsoft put a data centre under the sea, Elon Musk has suggested putting them in space.
Key facts
- NVIDIA is the company that's created a small enough chip, powered with 15 watts of power, so it can be powered by solar, and we can put that inside a street light", CPG chairman Edward Fitzpatrick
- Welcoming the deal, Dr Hafiz Ibrahim Ahmad, Special Adviser on Power and Energy, Katsina State, said it was now "home to the only distributed AI data centre of its kind anywhere on the African
- Warwickshire-based Conflow Power Group Limited (CPG) says networked together its solar-powered iLamp units "double as a revenue-generating distributed AI data centre
- ILamps with cameras are already in a car park at Warwick Hospital and are capable of providing "CCTV monitoring and number plate recognition," CPG says
Summary
Now a UK firm is betting on data centres using thousands of connected smart lampposts, and has signed a formal agreement with a Nigerian state to deploy 50,000 of them. Warwickshire-based Conflow Power Group Limited (CPG) says networked together its solar-powered iLamp units "double as a revenue-generating distributed AI data centre". However, some experts have told the BBC the tech isn't a substitute for the powerful data centres needed to run the toughest AI tasks, although they could be useful for less demanding work. Each iLamp has batteries which are charged by a cylindrical solar panel.