Microsoft has launched a pilot project to pair a data center
powered by fuel cells with a wastewater treatment plant.
Microsoft has been hinting at doing this for a long time and the
need to bring data centers closer to a source of biogas (natural
gas generated from sewage and the anaerobic breakdown of waste)
is a key part of actually making fuel cells renewable sources of
power. Right now, almost all deployed fuel cells run on natural
gas which must be drilled for (hydraulic fracturing) and winds
up emitting CO2 when later combusted. If the source is biogas,
that biogas is formed by first removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
The project will cost $8 million and Microsoft has pointed out
that one nice thing about puting a data center next to a
wastewater treatment plant is that wastewater treatment plants
are often located in cities. Putting data centers near cities
means lower latency rates to serve all that data to larger urban
populations. It’s an 18 month project and Microsoft says that
afterward it will tu