I do n’t think I ’m telling tales out of shoal when I say there ’s a sure amount of , well , bullshit on the internet . But engineers at Hewlett - Packard want to take things one footfall further , using cow manure to power the web .
Companies like Google , Microsoft , and Amazon have historically build up their data centers in urban area , the good to tap into the useable industrial substructure and get info to as many people as fast as potential . In late years , however , these localization have become less than ideal due to rising veridical acres and electricity costs , which has pass a good deal of net company to attend towards more rural regions to find the plentiful , cheap estate and power they so urgently require .
These center are no longer tethered to cities because faster data transference networks eliminate the need to house them near large universe areas . That makes such moves even more worthy , and lots of new center – or , as they ’re rather appropriately dub , server farms – have opened up in rural Washington , Texas , Oklahoma , and Iowa . That often rate them near dairy farms , which lead to thought about a novel path to power the center .

Farmers have long struggled with just what to do with the twisting amount of moo-cow manure , and one late answer has been to convert the waste product into biogas . The dung can be sue into methane , which can then be used as a substitute for lifelike gas or Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel fuel . One researcher estimates a single moo-cow produce enough manure every twenty-four hour period to power a 100 - James Watt incandescent lamp .
The research squad at Hewlett - Packard figure about 10,000 cows would be needed to power a modest data point heart , such as one used by a camber . There is n’t enough moo-cow manure to power all the data centers – hydroelectric great power would still be a key source of energy here – but it would alleviate some of the business leader crush . There ’s also a born partnership between the two , as data center typically produce massive total of warmth while the biogas conversion process requires a lot of heat . If the estrus from one can be transfer to the other , that would be a great way to further trim back costs .
While initial plan call for the construction of biogas plants near data snapper in California or Texas , the boastful benefit may be overseas . China and India have even larger rural areas than the United States , and therefore even more cow droppings to draw upon . The thought is that this price - saving measure could greatly increase the ability to speedily sic up data center in those area .

If nothing else , the written report is deserving reading for this fantastical citation from Chandrakant D. Patel , the director of H.P. ’s sustainable information technology laboratory and one of the leaders on this projection :
“ selective information applied science and manure have a symbiotic relationship . ”
If that ’s not a nice mode of saying the internet is full of shit , I do n’t experience what is .

[ Hewlett - Packard LabsviaThe New York Times ]
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