Data Center
Microsoft building poo-powered carbon-neutral data center
Microsoft is spending $5.5m to build a data center in the Wyoming hills that's powered by methane created from the waste of its nearby residents, and sees a lot of opportunity for mixing computing and crap. The methane produced by decomposing waste at sewage farms has traditionally either been left to float off into the …
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Awaits obligatory "Microsoft have been making crap for years, now....." comment.
On a non-Microsoft hating note, if they can make use of something that would previously have gone to waste then good on them.
Are they really making use of something that would previously have gone to waste? If MS wasn't using it in their data centre the power could be used for other purposes.
Poo powered leccy is nothing new and is often put back into the grid. For example, the Christchurch (NZ) waste water treatment plant generates enough electricity for its whole operation plus a surplus.
Yes but it is going to waste because it's not already being converted to electricity.
Even if it's not converted to electricity
It can be mixed with natural gas and burned for heat.
A landfill not far from me pipes methane to a local factory that uses it to reduce the amount of natural gas they use.
There's a YouTube video of said pile of poo in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuJBoq_iC2s
"Awaits obligatory "Microsoft have been making crap for years, now....." comment."
Microsoft has been recycling crap for years. Same shit all new price.....
I hope they are going to pay people for all that crap...
"I hope they are going to pay people for all that crap..."
Think of it as "crowd souced electricity."
They should build one in DC. The only problem is what to do with the extra capacity after supplying all of the US and China with power.
Great
At least they have a plan on what to do with all the Windows 8 licenses they are not going to be selling.
Morale totally destroyed
Don't pooh-pooh the poo-poo...
Great idea, I hope it works for them, where's there's muck and all that...
Shit power
It is rumoured the same technology powered the creation of Windows 8 and its 'Metro' interface.
Re: Shit power
Well at least something good has come from it.
PIPO
Instead of GIGO, now it'll be PIPO (poo in, poo out)
Queue poo-pooing
I'm sure the fanbois can have a field day with this one lol.
Really it's *too* easy to scoff about MS and poo.
That said when it comes to *reliability* "biogas" beats the pants off PV and Wind, even tidal and wave (I'd say only geothermal matches it but that technology is *much* less mature).
And you can could even pass the CO2 into a greenhouse as a bonus.
Power, cooler servers, lower emissions and fresh vegetables too.
What's not to like?
Re: Really it's *too* easy to scoff about MS and poo.
It's a genuinely good idea.
Not seen one of those in relation to "green" energy for at least a decade.
Were the greenhouse to grow Hops and Barley it could also yield
Beer.
The "Green energy" system that just keeps on giving.
Yayy
"and sees a lot of opportunity for mixing computing and crap"
No comment required.
Well...
Let's face it they are full of shit so ideally placed to do this.
"cannot go offline any more than a community can stop flushing"
So that means that there will be Linux servers managing the methane production ?
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