Bright idea? UK firm pioneers mini data centres using lampposts

Bright idea? UK firm pioneers mini data centres using lamppostsJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleConflow Power GroupA group of iLamps in Morocco 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.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. These supply the energy used by a low-powered computer suitable for AI tasks."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 told the BBC's Tech Life programme.The firm's plan, according to Fitzpatrick, is that scaled across thousands of units, a network of iLamps would deliver the collective processing power of a data centre with the environmental benefit of not drawing energy from the grid. 'Fried' chipsData centre industry veteran Prof Ian Bitterlin told the BBC the physical security of the streetlights would be a concern.Fitzpatrick accepts this. "If people realise that there's a $2,000 unit inside there they might try and steal it", he said, but that the posts were designed so the chip would be "fried" if removed.Conflow Power GroupiLamps are already in use in Warwickshire Hospital car-parkThe lampposts can also operate as AI-powere...