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ComputerWorld reports that HP (NYSE: HPQ) researchers presented a paper (PDF) on using manure from cows to generate power to run data centers. HP says that manure from dairy farms. cattle feedlots and other “digested farm waste” can be used to generate electricity.

HP presented the idea to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Conference on Energy Sustainability, The researchers believe that biogas from a farm of 10,000 dairy cows could power a 1 megawatt (MW) data center, about 1,000 servers. That is the equivalent of a small bank’s computer center.

Organic matter is already used by farms to generate power. Farmers use a process called anaerobic digestion that produces methane-rich biogas. HP’s paper looks at how the process could be extended to run a data center, starting with the amount of manure produced by your typical dairy cow and working up from there.

Connecting a data center to cows

But there are some practical problems. The first problem is connecting a data center to the cows. “What’s the reality of getting 10,000 cows in one place?” said Angie McEliece, an environmental consultant for RCM International in Berkeley, CA, which makes digester systems. She told ComputerWorld the average size dairy farm in the U.S. includes less than 1,000 cows. farms with 5,000 cows are quite unusual. Farms that now use anaerobic digestion systems to generate electricity and heat typically get some funding from federal and state grants. In such cases, a payback of four years or less on the technology is likely. 10 years is the payback to me without grants, said Ms. McEliece in the ComputerWorld article.

HP insists that this is just an idea sketched out on paper by a research team. No demonstration project has yet been planned. “I’ve not yet submitted a purchase order for cows,” said Tom Christian, an HP researcher, in an e-mail to ComputerWorld. “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. The new tech can benefit the farm, the data center, and the environment according to Tom Christian, principal research scientist, Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab, HP.

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The proposal has energy independence, economic and ecological benefits.

Michigan had 335,000 cows in 2007.  According to the HP researchers, the manure that one dairy cow produces in a day can generate 3.0 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electrical energy. Michigan dairy cows could produce enough methane to move 366.825 MWh off the grid under this plan. That would be enough electrical power to move all of Facebook’s estimated 30,000 servers off of the grid.

Economic benefits

There are economic benefits as well. Data center operators would have access to a reliable source of clean energy, presumably at a competitive if not lower cost than what’s on the market. Dairy farmers would make money selling electricity to data center customers. HP estimates that dairy farmers would break even within the first two years. They could earn roughly $2 million annually from selling the power to data center customers. Michael Kanellos, at Greentech Media, told the New York  Times that there was some convenient overlap between data centers and biogas generation. “Computing equipment produces a lot of heat as a waste product, and the systems needed to create biogas require heat. So, there is a virtuous cycle of sorts possible.”

Another trend that makes this idea workable is the move to build facilities in rural locations. In areas where high-speed networks are available, they can benefit from the cost advantages of rural areas. Many agricultural areas are also ideal for wind farms. Leading to a second clean energy source that could lead to some economic revival in the U.S.

Alternate energy sources such as these can help prepare for a new round of regulation and taxes. For example the U.S.s’ Waxman Markey bill. Carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems both in the U.S. and abroad will force companies to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers will benefit from the proposed system by accumulating carbon offsets for capturing and reusing methane.

There are also environmental benefits. A system that extracts biogas from manure would cut the hefty environmental impact of animal waste. The HP paper says methane is 21 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide. Additionally, farmers will benefit from carbon offsets. They could be eligible to receive credits for capturing and reusing methane under any future cap-and-trade emissions legislation.

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.