Hewlett-Packard are collaborating on the development of an eco-friendly data center for the  U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab. The NREL will make use of the high-performance computing environment to gain “progressive and deeper understanding of biological and chemical processes.”

The whole project will set the government back by $10 million. The system will reside in the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) currently under construction in the Golden Colorado campus – upon completion, it will one of the most energy-eco-friendly HPC deployments in the world.

“NREL’s new HPC data center in the ESIF will set the standard for sustainable and energy efficient computing,” said NREL Computational Science Center Director Steve Hammon.  The data center will feature the top notch PUE, reusing nearly all waste heat generated.  Most data centers do only one or the other, not both.

The NREL’s new computer is going to achieve very high utilization, and the excess waste heat will be used to for air conditioning throughout the campus. The water used to cool off the system will be the main heat source for ESIF offices and lab space.

Being eco-friendly looks great on paper, but there’s much more to be gained from an operational stand point. A more efficient computer combined with less electricity spent on air conditioning will translate into reduced overheads for the NREL. This is also the reason a lot of the big vendors have gotten involved with the green data center trend in one way or another – HP being one of them.

Storage vendor EMC also has its own eco-friendly side project. The company recently announced the winners of the Eco-Challenge, an open contest that required participants to submit their proposals for a means of tracking electronic waste.