Would this been posted to Data Center Knowledge about one-and-a-half month ago, I would have ignored it. But as it is not 1 April, this is way to good to pass up: HP have done a study about utilising cow manure as a source for power. The paper can be found here, and here is a video where Chandrakant Patel from HP Labs explains it a bit.

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Well, ok: the concept is actually not that new. I heard it in the context of cars once (saw it on Top Gear).

Nice thing is that it is not even new in a data center context, as DCK describes. In East Anglia, there is a project (Infinity ONE) that actually plans to use the methane from cow feces for a CHP (Combined Heat Power) plant. For people who know England a little, East Anglia would exactly be the first place where they would do that. To give you an idea on what East Anglia is like: the largest professional football club (soccer for the Americans among us) in the area, Ipswich Town, is nicknamed 'the Tractor Boys', while the local derby with Norwich City is to some known as the 'Old Farm Derby'. Let's just say that there are many cows over there.

The thing is that it is actually a very clever idea. Dung can be used for two things (except for the more tasteless applications some people might come up with): fertiliser, and as a source of methane. The poo is first broken down, which produces two by-products: methane and a 'digestate' effluent. The methane gas is used as fuel for the CHP plant, which will support the 5,000 square foot data halls. The digestate fertilizer is returned to the co-operative that supplied it in the first place, using bio-methane powered transportation for use in 22,000 acres of local
farmland.

We can safely conclude that the future of the data center is not green at all. It is brown