Microsoft’s zero carbon data center
Microsoft Recycles Waste to Provide Clean Power for Data Center R&D – from Microsoft’s Global Foundations Services Blog:
Microsoft is excited to announce its research and development of the first zero carbon data center – called the Data Plant – that will be completely independent of the grid and will recycle common waste bi-products to sustainably power cloud services. …
The project will be located at the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It provides an exciting, first-of-its kind opportunity to develop viable capabilities and best practices for capturing and reusing natural bi-products like biogas directly from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural farms, fuel refineries, and waste landfill sites, etc. in the future. …
In April 2012, we introduced our latest sustainable data center concept, known as the Data Plant,that combines the virtues of a power plant with the high energy demand of a data center. This Wyoming R&D pilot will help to concretely demonstrate the benefits possible by integrating the collection, treatment, and consumption of biogas at the source to create an extremely efficient use of renewable energy. This project will show:
- Transformation of a liability into an asset by using waste to power a carbon neutral data center.
- Increased total system efficiency by reusing waste heat.
- Microsoft’s flexibility in locating future data centers.
Saw it on LinkedIn’s Advanced Energy Economy discussion group, posted by James Hosking – thanks, James!