Low-Carbon Low-Carbon Biz EBay building U.S.’s largest fuel cell installation for its data center
Low-Carbon Biz
EBay building U.S.’s largest fuel cell installation for its data center
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22 Jun 2012
- Published on Friday, 22 June 2012 11:10
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Online retail giant EBay Inc. announced its plans build the next phase of its flagship data center which will be powered mainly by renewable energy.
Working with fuel cells company Bloom Energy, the new 6-megawatt installation is being designed and engineered into EBay’s expanded data center facility in Utah. It will incorporate 30 servers with fuel cells to be powered by biogas and which will take power from the main grid only as a backup.
Each server has the capacity to generate about 1.75 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. EBay said it’s building the country's largest non-utility fuel cell installation.
“We believe the future of commerce can be greener,” said John Donahoe, EBay President and chief executive. “Running our data centers primarily on reliable, renewable energy, we intend to shape a future for commerce that is more environmentally sustainable at its core.”
The expanded data center will power EBay’s transactions that cover over 102 million active users who generate more than $69 billion in merchandise volume per year.
Likewise, it will power activities across the company’s global trade platforms like PayPal and StubHub that will allow merchants, retailers, buyers and sellers to do “greener” commerce.
The data center is expected to be operational by mid-2013.
When completed, it will be EBay’s fifth and largest renewable energy installation, following a 650-kilowatt solar power system at its San Jose headquarters, a 500-kilowatt Bloom fuel cell installation at Denver data center, and a recently installed 665-kilowatt solar array in Utah. – EcoSeed Staff
