Putting Nvidia computer chips into solar-powered streetlamps to create a virtual power plant is a simple solution to the energy demand problems created by data centers, according to Edward Fitzgerald. His company ConFlow Power Group is doing exactly that with its iLamp streetlamps, he told pv magazine.
UK-headquartered company ConFlow’s iLamps are fitted with a 600 W circular solar panel, two lithium-ion batteries and a Nvidia computer processing chip. Everything is remotely monitored via an app, and all the system hardware is housed inside the lamppost.
The idea is to leverage the streetlamps to create a large virtual power plant (VPP) network capable of absorbing the demand placed on the world’s electricity grids by big data centers.
VPP network
Deployment is already happening in Nigeria, the UK and in the United States, and Fitzgerald told pv magazine that ConFlow is targeting half a million streetlamp units in the pipeline by next year. But the streetlamp isn’t really the product.
