  Mini data centres have become increasingly prevalent in diverse organizations
in recent years. They can be easily deployed at large scale, with high
resilience. They are also cost-effective and provide highsecurity protection.
On the other hand, IT technologies have resulted in the development of ever
more energy-efficient servers, leading to the periodic replacement of
older-generation servers in mini data centres. However, the disposal of older
servers has resulted in electronic waste that further aggravates the already
critical e-waste problem. Furthermore, despite the shift towards more
energy-efficient servers, many mini data centres still rely heavily on
high-carbon energy sources. This contributes to data centres' overall carbon
footprint. All these issues are concerns for sustainability. In order to
address this sustainability issue, this paper proposes an approach to extend
the lifespan of older-generation servers in mini data centres. This is made
possible thanks to a novel solar-powered computing technology, named Genesis,
that compensates for the energy overhead generated by older servers. As a
result, electronic waste can be reduced while improving system sustainability
by reusing functional server hardware. Moreover, Genesis does not require
server cooling, which reduces energy and water requirements. Analytical
reasoning is applied to compare the efficiency of typical conventional mini
data centre designs against alternative Genesis-based designs, in terms of
energy, carbon emissions and exploitation costs.
