Microsoft, FuelCell Energy, and Siemens build a zero-carbon data center in Wyoming

[nationalize the fed]

HydrogenFuelNews.com 10 November 2014

Microsoft has built a new, zero-carbon data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with the help of Siemens and FuelCell Energy. The companies built the data center to accommodate Microsoft’s growing data storage and management needs, but also to showcase how such facilities can be completely powered by renewable energy. Data centers are notoriously energy hungry, requiring large quantities of electrical power in order to remain operational for extended periods of time. Biogas fuel cells will be able to satisfy the energy needs of the data center

In the past, many had believed that renewable energy would not be enough to meet the needs of data centers. Now, however, that is no longer the case, thanks to advancements that have been made in the clean technology space. The new data center is equipped with a biogas fuel cell system, which produces 300 kilowatts of electrical power. The biogas that is used by the fuel cell system is supplied by a nearby gas production facility located in Dry Creek. The data center will be using 200 kilowatts of the electricity produced by the fuel cell system, with the remainder being delivered to a wastewater treatment facility...

...Fuel cells are becoming a popular solution to the energy needs of data centers. Microsoft has been using these energy systems more frequently in order to reduce the reliance of its data centers on fossil-fuels, making these facilities more environmentally friendly. In the coming years, fuel cells are likely to become yet more common energy solutions in the technology field, especially as more companies embrace clean energy...

MORE: http://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/new-microsoft-data-center-powered-fuel-cells/8520228/

Related: Video and Photo Slideshow of Microsoft's new Fuel Cell Data center
http://inr.synapticdigital.com/siemens/cheyennedatacenter/

Microsoft’s Biogas-Powered Data Plant Opens in Wyoming

Published on Nov 7, 2014

[hunter]

1. It's a demonstration system, but it's not carbon neutral.

If the wastewater plant was generating it's own electricity entirely from its own gas and exporting the surplus gas to the data center then it would be closer to carbon neutral.

Instead the wastewater plant is exporting the waste gas to the data center, and using coal and pipeline gas to power its own pumps and processes.

Key phrase here:

The fuel cell plant is expected to produce 300 kilowatts of renewable power while the datacenter will only use about 200 kW. The remaining kilowatts will be delivered back to the wastewater treatment plant to reduce its electric bills.

Gas from the digesters of wastewater treatment plants will never be a significant source of energy. My community's state of the art wastewater treatment plant, which turns sewage into potable quality water, has a couple of big diesel generators that produce both electricity and process heat from waste gas. Nevertheless it still requires the additional inputs of pipeline gas and a one megawatt solar plant.

This is more smoke and mirrors from Wyoming. Wyoming also wants to sell more coal generated electricity out of state, but to do that they need more power line capacity. They claim they want to increase capacity for wind energy, but most of the electricity flowing through any new power lines would be cheap and dirty coal power.

The only real way to reduce the impact of fossil fuels is to quit mining them. A non-fossil fuel economy looks nothing like the economy we have now. Even drastically reducing fossil fuel use only postpones the ultimate catastrophe for a short time. And one thing we humans are not doing is reducing our fossil fuel use. Fossil fuel use is in fact increasing and there are entities like the coal industry and the pipeline gas industry that wish to increase the size of their markets.

Greenwashing and denial are rampant.

I'm not saying this gas technology isn't intriguing, or that it's worthless for it's intended purpose, only that it isn't any kind of answer to the predicament we find ourselves in.