14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues the search for alternative power sources for its data centers, in an attempt to become more environmentally friendly, so the company is now considering an innovative system that involves integrating fuel cells directly into server racks.
The company has already performed a study to determine whether this could be a long-time solution for data centers or not, explaining that such a solution would significantly reduce infrastructure cost.
“By integrating fuel cells with IT hardware, we can cut much of the power electronics out of the conventional fuel cell system. What we are left with is a very simple and low cost datacenter and fuel cell system,” Sean James, a senior research program manager for Microsoft's Global Foundation Services, said.
“As the fuel cell industry becomes more mature, especially small form factor fuel cells for automotive and IT applications, the cost of fuel cells will drop. You may end up with one someday delivering clean electricity and heat to your home.”
Of course, it’s too early for Microsoft to make the move to a fuel cell-powered data center, but the company says that it’s clearly considering such an innovation for the future.
Redmond has found several problems that it needs to deal with, including power management, safety training, thermal cycling, fuel distribution systems, and cell conductivity.
“In the new datacenter design approach outlined in our paper, chemical energy is first converted to direct current electrochemically and sent a few feet to the server power supply. With our one watt of energy we are now getting almost .4 watts or double the efficiency of traditional datacenters,” he pointed out.
Microsoft has also recently signed a deal with RES Americas to purchase 100 percent of the energy to be produced by the Keechi Wind Farm, a new facility that will employ 55 wind turbines to produce up to 110 megawatts of renewable energy starting 2015.