"One cow poops more than 120 pounds of manure every day. A study from the EPA published in 1998 showed that U.S. dairy cows produced 54 billion pounds of manure annually. Normally the excrement is bulldozed into holding ponds, where it remains until it's used as fertilizer.
But instead of that poop going to waste (pun intended), cow manure is increasingly being looked at as a source of energy to power data centers.
For cow poop to power a server, it first has to become a type of biofuel called biogas. Planet Green produced a thorough explanation, but the process works like this: the poop is collected from the cows, and then subjected to an anaerobic digestion process that results in a whole bunch of methane gas. That methane gas can replace natural gas or diesel fuel in generators that produce electricity.
It's a type of energy that researchers say could one day account for three percent of the country's electricity usage. That's not much, since it takes 10,000 cows to produce enough manure to power a small computer center for a bank. It's also probably not enough of a reason to start raising cows, but for farmers, it's a good way to get some extra cash out of something that used to be worth nothing.
Most farmers that participate, sell their manure to a specialized biogas plant rather than build a system of their own. It would cost a dairy farmer about $5 million just for the equipment in a biogas system, plus $30,000 to run it each year.
Cow poop as electric energy doesn't just make sense economically, it's also better for the environment. Whether we want them to or not, cows are going to keep belching and pooping more than 26 gallons of methane each day into the atmosphere. What's worse, methane is 21 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide.
Hewlett-Packard just released a study called "Design of Farm Waste-Driven Supply Side Infrastructure for Data Centers" that said a dairy farmer could rent out land and power to technology companies and get a return on the investment in less than two years. HP has not constructed any of its own manure-burning systems yet, but researchers say that may soon change."
http://news.discovery.com/tech/cow-poop-could-power-the-internet.html
Do you think using cow poop for electricity is a good idea?
Is there much potential for cow poop production in your area?
Is the smell of cow poop an acceptable trade-off for clean energy?
What about human poop?
But instead of that poop going to waste (pun intended), cow manure is increasingly being looked at as a source of energy to power data centers.
For cow poop to power a server, it first has to become a type of biofuel called biogas. Planet Green produced a thorough explanation, but the process works like this: the poop is collected from the cows, and then subjected to an anaerobic digestion process that results in a whole bunch of methane gas. That methane gas can replace natural gas or diesel fuel in generators that produce electricity.
It's a type of energy that researchers say could one day account for three percent of the country's electricity usage. That's not much, since it takes 10,000 cows to produce enough manure to power a small computer center for a bank. It's also probably not enough of a reason to start raising cows, but for farmers, it's a good way to get some extra cash out of something that used to be worth nothing.
Most farmers that participate, sell their manure to a specialized biogas plant rather than build a system of their own. It would cost a dairy farmer about $5 million just for the equipment in a biogas system, plus $30,000 to run it each year.
Cow poop as electric energy doesn't just make sense economically, it's also better for the environment. Whether we want them to or not, cows are going to keep belching and pooping more than 26 gallons of methane each day into the atmosphere. What's worse, methane is 21 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide.
Hewlett-Packard just released a study called "Design of Farm Waste-Driven Supply Side Infrastructure for Data Centers" that said a dairy farmer could rent out land and power to technology companies and get a return on the investment in less than two years. HP has not constructed any of its own manure-burning systems yet, but researchers say that may soon change."
http://news.discovery.com/tech/cow-poop-could-power-the-internet.html
Do you think using cow poop for electricity is a good idea?
Is there much potential for cow poop production in your area?
Is the smell of cow poop an acceptable trade-off for clean energy?
What about human poop?
It's entirely up to "us". Eat less meat & dairy & less cows will be bred, lets cows = less methane.
