Green Data Cabinets Feature Editorial

Companies, investors and professionals in the alternative energy industry are always looking for new ways to push the initiative and increase the drive to this market. In addition to corn transitioning into ethanol, an alternative energy fuel, America's dairy farmers may find themselves utilizing: cows to power computers.

I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous. But, according to a research paper from Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert), a dairy farmer could rent out land and power to technology companies and recoup an investment in the waste-to-fuel systems within two years.

Chandrakant D. Patel, the director of H.P.'s sustainable information technology laboratory, which wrote the report, said that IT and manure have a symbiotic relationship.

Really? Not something I ever pictured.

"And having these data centers locally will give farmers a new opportunity," Patel said.

For companies like Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Microsoft (News - Alert), working with a green initiative like this could really tie in an alternative energy niche - and therefore attract an additional unique consumer base - within its professional organization.

Companies have historically tended to build their large computing centers - often called server farms - in or near large cities and industries. For companies looking to build data centers to balance this growth, the need for a "green" center has spurred a new wave of buildings close to locations of dairy farms. And, there lies the connection.

Rather than being an alternative energy convenience, this approach could benefit companies operating in countries like China and India that need to find an economical way to power their computing centers.

 "The average cow makes enough waste per day to power a 100-watt light bulb," said Michael Kanellos, editor in chief at Greentech Media, a research and publishing firm.

According to H.P.'s calculations, 10,000 cows could fuel a one-megawatt data center, which would be the equivalent of a small computing center used by a bank.