eBay first major tech co to use renewable energy as primary power source

The next phase of eBay's flagship data center, located in Utah, will utilize renewable energy as its primary power source.

eBay will incorporate 30 Bloom Energy servers into the data center's energy architecture – totaling 6 MW – making it the first major tech company to use renewable power as a primary source for data centers traditionally known as energy hogs.

In the data center expansion, renewable energy will be the core power source rather than a supplemental power source. Each server will generate 1.75 million kWh of electricity annually, and will be installed a few hundred feet from the center itself, virtually eliminating traditional utility grid losses. The fuels cells, powered by biogas, will generate power onsite 24 x 365. Backup generators and UPS components will be removed. The electric grid will serve as backup.

"We believe the future of commerce can be greener," said John Donahoe, President and CEO of eBay. "Technology-led innovation is changing retail and revolutionizing how people shop and pay. We also want to revolutionize how shopping is powered. We are embracing disruptive energy technology and designing it into our core data center energy architecture. 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 fuel cells will serve less than 15 percent of all eBay's nationwide energy needs, indicating that the industry is likely to remain deeply dependent on the grid and its energy mix indefinitely, according to a New York Times article.

The data center will be fully functional by mid-2013.

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