Microsoft’s planned Data Plant is a zero-carbon data center that may prove to be the blueprint for information facilities that run outside the power grid. Its environmentally friendly status comes from an unusual power source: human waste.

Microsoft is investing $ 5.5 million on research and development in the pilot project at the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The data center will use biogas from an adjacent wastewater treatment plant as its power supply.

“It provides an exciting, first-of-its kind opportunity to develop viable capabilities and best practices for capturing and reusing natural bi-products like biogas directly from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural farms, fuel refineries and waste landfill sites, etc., in the future,” writes Microsoft senior research program manager Sean James in a blog post on the Data Center project.
Network Computing