Cow manure a sustainable energy source for data centers? It's not B.S.

Researchers from HP Labs recently presented to the ASME International Conference on Energy Sustainability their paper stating that the manure output of cows and the heat output of data centers can combine to create an economically and environmentally sustainable operation.

The 8-page paper authored by Ratnesh Sharma, Tom Christian, Martin Arlitt, Cullen Bash and Chandrakant Patel describes how a 10,000-cow dairy farm could fulfill the power requirements of a 1-MW data center, with power left over to support other needs on the farm.

"In this process," HP Labs said when making the paper public, "the heat generated by the data center can be used to increase the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion of animal waste. This results in the production of methane, which can be used to generate power for the data center. This symbiotic relationship allows the waste problems faced by dairy farms and the energy demands of the modern data center to be addressed in a sustainable manner."

Patel, director of the Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab at HP Labs, explains the concept in this YouTube video.

Christian, who is principal research scientist in the Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab, adds, "The idea of using animal waste to generate energy has been around for centuries, with manure being used every day in remote villages to generate heat for cooking. The new idea that we are presenting in this research is to create a symbiotic relationship between farms and the IT ecosystem that can benefit the farm, the data center and the environment."

Some other notable quotes taken directly from the paper:
-The average dairy cow produces 54.7 kilograms of manure per day, approximately 20 metric tons per year.
-The manure produced by one dairy cow in one day can generate 3.0 kWh of electrical energy.

Emerson buying Avocent: Metrics, metrics, metrics

Today's news about Emerson Network Power buying Avocent for $1.2 billion is all over the finance pages. We'll let them sort out whether or not Emerson's paying too much at $25 per share. I believe cabling and data center professionals (who don't own the stock) will be more interested in the concept that with this purchase, Emerson is acquiring the capability to produce data center energy-efficiency metrics.

Several years ago, when we began turning specific focus to cabling within data centers, I quickly discovered that I could begin a conversation about data centers discussing any topic at all. Whether to run cables overhead or under the floor; choosing copper or fiber for 10-gig; figuring out how to patch in such high-density spaces; whatever. Regardless of how the conversation started, it always came around to the theme of power consumption and cooling efforts in the data center.

As Avocent's relatively new CEO Michael Borman recently told Forbes.com, the company has relationships with server manufacturers that allow it access to energy-consumption information. Such data could prove to be gold for Emerson in the long term. The Green Grid is all over energy-efficiency metrics, and I for one believe we'll all be paying pretty close attention real soon.

Once the Emerson-Avocent deal closes around the first of the year, I'll also be looking to see how Emerson integrates this asset into the breadth of its Emerson Network Power offerings.