Cow manure - powering a computer near you?

Researchers at Hewlett Packard recently released a research paper that outlines the design for a computer data center to run primarily on energy generated from digested farm waste. HP researchers used a hypothetical 10,000 cow dairy farm could power a 1 MW data center.  The relationship between Dairy Farm and HP Data Center creates a Farm Waste Data Center Ecosystem. 

 

Source: Flickr

 

Over the past year, we have seen greater interest in many potential on-farm power generation projects, including anaerobic digestion.  We have insured these systems for several years, but they were primarily used for generating power primarily used on the farm.  With the availability of various government incentives, there has been greater interest in constructing methane digesters on hog and dairy farms for power generation.  This potential model from HP has created an entirely new opportunity for agriculture. 

 

The alignment of livestock agriculture and a technology firm may seem like a stretch, but the HP researchers describe the potential benefits to both the farm operation and the data center provider.  In order to lower operating costs, most data centers are co-locate power generation equipment and resources to cool the computer equipment.  Partnering a dairy farm with a data center, provides the ideal situation with a co-located power generation source and cooling resource.   The methane digester would supply the power and heat from the data center can be further used in the anaerobic digestion process. 

 

A copy of the research paper, Design of Farm Waste-Driven Supply Side Infrastructure for Data Centers, and other supporting information can be found on the Hewlett-Packard website.  The researchers concluded the paper by indicating that a future financial analysis will be completed.   On the surface, a technology company and a dairy farm seem like unlikely partners.   What a development if we can see this type of relationship develop between technology and agriculture. 

 

As with any major project, methane digesters and other alternative energy exposures increase your overall risk.  Although this technology as been developed for some time, the number of projects in the U.S. continues to grow.  Westfield has partnered with various firms to increase our understanding of the exposures created by these operations and we can share this insight with our agents and insureds.  If you are considering a methane digester project or any other major expansion, please discuss with your agent and insurance carrier.  The initial input can be valuable to your long term success.   

 

Craig Welsh is the Agribusiness Division Leader at Westfield Insurance.  You can connect with Craig on Twitter @cdwelsh and on Linked In @ Craig Welsh

Comments

[Stacey]

Thank you for the comments and appreciate the follow!