Photo: bmw
While, at first, the goal set by BMW might seem a bit odd, hear us out. Apparently, the German company is looking to go even greener and plans to do so by fiddling with every possible aspect of the car building process.
As you well know, when developing a car from the ground up, you first have to come up with a concept that’s pleasing to the eye. In that regard, huge computers have to be used to process digital images and store all sorts of relevant data.
According to Car and Driver, the German company moved most of its computing power to Iceland, to cut down in emissions. But how it manage to do so?
Well, the remote island uses geothermal heat for 80 percent of its electricity needs. The active volcanoes provide plenty of hot water for their electricity network to be based on hydro-power almost on its entirety.
Furthermore, the cold air of the region makes sure that no air conditioning or huge vents are needed to cool down the CPUs. According to Verne Global, the company that supplies computers to BMW, the automotive giant saved around 3,570 metric tons of CO2 emissions and 82 percent of its operating costs by moving to the cold island, compared to what it would’ve meant sticking to Germany.
That’s not all though. The initial results were so encouraging that the company is looking to move even more of its computing resources to Iceland, as soon as possible. That would include a new computing center in the nation’s capital city, Reykjavik and dedicated servers that would storage the ConnectedDrive info gathered from their vehicles.
This goes to show, once again, that just making the cars you sell more eco friendly and driving their CO2 emissions further down, doesn’t make the big impact everyone wants. Sometimes, the manufacturing process is just as or even more important than the car itself.
According to Car and Driver, the German company moved most of its computing power to Iceland, to cut down in emissions. But how it manage to do so?
Well, the remote island uses geothermal heat for 80 percent of its electricity needs. The active volcanoes provide plenty of hot water for their electricity network to be based on hydro-power almost on its entirety.
Furthermore, the cold air of the region makes sure that no air conditioning or huge vents are needed to cool down the CPUs. According to Verne Global, the company that supplies computers to BMW, the automotive giant saved around 3,570 metric tons of CO2 emissions and 82 percent of its operating costs by moving to the cold island, compared to what it would’ve meant sticking to Germany.
That’s not all though. The initial results were so encouraging that the company is looking to move even more of its computing resources to Iceland, as soon as possible. That would include a new computing center in the nation’s capital city, Reykjavik and dedicated servers that would storage the ConnectedDrive info gathered from their vehicles.
This goes to show, once again, that just making the cars you sell more eco friendly and driving their CO2 emissions further down, doesn’t make the big impact everyone wants. Sometimes, the manufacturing process is just as or even more important than the car itself.
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