Data Centers are moving to rural areas where land and labor are less expensive. There are often farms and lots of cows … and therefore lots of cow manure.
A significant cost of operating data centers is the electric bill.
" … Hewlett-Packard …simultaneously help dairy farmers get rid of cow manure and help data center operators procure relatively cheap fuel: Use the manure to power servers."
" … data centers … building them in rural areas, which happen to have an excess of animal waste. The heat from a data center could be used to improve the process by which the waste turns it into methane, which can be used in place of natural gas or diesel, HP’s researchers maintain. "
"… average dairy cow, … produces approximately 120 pounds of waste a day. It would take 10,000 cows to produce enough energy for a data center big enough to support a bank. "
Via: Fierce CIO LINK