10,000 Cows Can Power 1,000 Servers

CWmike writes "Reducing energy consumption in data centers, particularly with the prospect of a federal carbon tax, is pushing vendors to explore an ever-growing range of ideas. HP engineers say that biogas may offer a fresh alternative energy approach for IT managers. Researchers at HP Labs presented a paper (download PDF) on using cow manure from dairy farms and cattle feedlots and other 'digested farm waste' to generate electricity to an American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference, held this week. In it, the research team calculates that 'a hypothetical farm of 10,000 dairy cows' could power a 1 MW data center — or on the order of 1,000 servers. One trend that makes the idea of turning organic waste into usable power for data centers is the moves by several firms to build facilities in rural locations, where high-speed networks allow them to take advantage of the cost advantages of such areas. But there are some practical problems, not the least of which is connecting a data center to the cows. If it does happen, the move could call for a new take on plug and play: plug and poo."

Comments

matrix

[Anonymous Coward]

Humans in a matrix is next...

Re:matrix

[tanveer1979]

Well its not matrix, its moo-trix

Re:matrix

[Some.Net(Guy)]

or the poo-trix

Re:matrix

[DevConcepts]

Eat what you want but I did not make it this far up the food chain just to eat grass....

Re:matrix

[Scrameustache]

er hate to break it to you dude but you didn't make it up the food chain. Unless, of course, you were complicit not only in your own birth but that of a few dudes before you!

First of all, great-great grandma was a total babe: Don't judge me.

Secondly, I have half a mind to go back and erase you from history, mister.

Confirmed! the IT industry runs on ...

[andrewbaldwin]

... Bullshit!

Powered by Shit

[black_penguin]

Giving "Powered by shit" a new dimension and meaning :)

Mahana you ugly

[LoverOfJoy]

I guess she's a ten cow server

Old news

[TRRosen]

As I remember there is already a site that can power a sever with Tucows. What was its name again?

A whole new meaning to server farm.

[TRRosen]

and if we use to render the next Avatar movie the cycle is complete.

There is no

[CoolGopher]

I would just like to say
There is no cow level

Re:What, 27 comments...

[SeaFox]

I thought he meant HP, which can now mean Heifer Power!

Away with you!

[justinlee37]

We won't listen to any logic and reason here! No, sir! Who do you think we are!? Where do you think this is!? What you speak of is madness, sir.

Re:Nope, cows is still better

[cmdr_tofu]

Do you realize how much milk 2.7 million hamsters could produce?

Re:We could expand this concept

[Amarantine]

I assume we can also use other magnets to rotate the magnets in the cow's stomachs, and use them for data storage! Ok, right now 1 bit per cow might seem a bit low, but we're working on that. We might consider describing the capacity as 1Mb (one moo-bit), for marketing reasons.

Re:Should use horses on treadmills

[maxume]

It would probably be more effective to just burn the horses.

Re:Soy milk is not milk

[andrea.sartori]

Oh, I'm really sorry, I misunderstood completely. I thought cows would be hired as personnel in energy plants which would have created an unemployment problem maybe, as I was told that coal is not a replacement for oil and I think that oil workers are not easily requalified as milk producers. Thanks for making it clear for me.