The use of Anaerobic Digestion by large IT corporations is becoming a rising trend. Earlier this year there was a stir at Apple's New Datacentre when the ground was cleared for a mystery construction project which tunred out to be a large Anerobic Digestion Plant. Here again we learn of another "dot com" company which as a substantial user of electricity and seeking to show its "green" credentials is investing in biogas technology.
How much these developments are driven by economic factors and how much by the need to be able to report their corporate responsibility when it comes to using power, can be questioned of course, but these corporations are hard headed enough when it comes to the bottom line to be sre that they won't lose money from these AD Plants.
Read more about it in our excerpt below, and please do visit the oirginal web site for the full article:San Jose, California based eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) has set out the next phase of its plans to power its flagship data center using biogas from organic wastes and fuel cell technology to help make renewable energy its primary power source.
The internet auction giant is partnering with Sunnvale, California based fuel cell specialist, Bloom Energy to build what is claimed to be the largest non-utility fuel cell installation in the U.S.
According to Bloom Energy, renewable energy typically supplements the electric grid, but eBay is designing renewable energy into the core of its global commerce platform, incorporating 30 Bloom Energy servers into the new data center's energy architecture.
The company added that the electric utility grid will be used only as backup.
The new 6 MW Bloom installation is being designed and engineered into eBay's expanded data center facility in Utah, and is expected to be fully functional by mid-2013.
Each of the 30 Bloom Energy servers will generate 1.75 million kWh of electricity annually, and will be installed a few hundred feet from the center itself, which Bloom said would virtually eliminating traditional utility grid losses.
eBay will use the Bloom fuel cells - which the company said can generate on-site power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - to replace the large and expensive backup generators and UPS components that are historically utilised less than 1% of the year.
Bloom added that eBay's fuel cells will be powered by powered by biogas derived from renewable organic waste.
The Bloom servers will power millions of transactions by eBay's 102 million active plus users, who generate more than $69 billion in merchandise volume annually.
The data center also will power activity across eBay's other global commerce platforms, including PayPal and StubHub, which Bloom said would enable merchants, retail partners, buyers and sellers to do greener commerce.
The project will be eBay's fifth and largest renewable energy installation. It currently operates a 650 kW solar array and a 500 kW Bloom fuel cell installation at its San Jose headquarters, as well as a 100 kW solar array at its Denver data center.
In April of this year, the company also installed a 665 kW solar array spanning 72,000 square feet atop its existing, LEED certified Utah data center.
"We are embracing disruptive energy technology and designing it into our core data center energy architecture," said John Donahoe, president and CEO of eBay.
"Running our data centers primarily on reliable, renewable energy, we intend to shape a future for commerce that is more environmentally sustainable at its core," he added.
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Apple to Build 5 MW Biogas Fuel Cell at Apple (NSADAQ: AAPL) has filed its plans to build the 5 MW fuel cell project in Maiden, North Carolina, that will utilise biogas to offset its natural gas use and qualify as a renewable facility.
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