Microsoft this week announced the arrival of the “Data Plant” – a research project that features a zero-carbon data center that utilizes waste bi-products for power. And so the jokes will commence, I can think of a few stinky ones, but this is still a significant development as it marks a further evolution of a growing movement. The green data center trend is on the rise, with many of biggest names in the industry participating, names such as Google, HP, Facebook and now Microsoft. These power-hungry tech giants are now building more eco-friendly data centers of the future. The Microsoft announcement tests a modular data center that is powered by a biogas-powered fuel cell that is located at a Cheyenne, Wyoming wastewater treatment center. The 18-month trial was approved by local officials and was part of a $5.5 million project funded by Microsoft, FuelCell Energy, and the state of Wyoming.

The economics of fuel-cell electricity in Wyoming is a bit of a tough sell, as electricity is pretty cheap in that state. Still, there is a trend of normalization where the numbers are now becoming feasible, and Microsoft’s goal is to take this test environment and apply this into usage at bio-gas producing operations throughout the world, powering small data center operations. The 300-kilowatt fuel cell powers this container-size data center:

The data center will consume 200 kilowatts and provide excess electricity and heat to wastewater treatment plant, which has an anaerobic digester to convert waste into gas. The gas, mostly methane and carbon dioxide, is cleaned and treated before being fed to the fuel cells.

Back in the spring, Wikibon put together a very useful report on forthcoming Green Data Centers
Business strategies across a number of companies are increasingly leaning towards more economic models. The advantages of efficiency and cost are driving these moves. Yahoo has data centers in New York that rely on natural air cooling technology to lower overall electrical consumption. Apple has installed extensive solar panel resources at a plant in Sweden. Facebook has a hydroelectric-powered data center also in Sweden. HP is in the midst of rolling out an environmental data center in Norway that is focused on recycling of energy, air cooling and power economical hardware such as their Gen8 line of Proliant servers.