EBay to power data centre with renewable energy

NEW YORK, USA: EBay Inc said it plans to build a data centre powered by start-up Bloom Energy's renewable energy fuel cells, a more environmentally-friendly alternative to drawing power from the mostly coal-based electric grid.

The US online auction sales group will use 30 Bloom Energy servers that use biogas derived from renewable organic waste and will only use the grid as a back-up source of power.

Last month, Apple Inc said it was buying equipment from SunPower Corp and Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations to power its main U.S. data center.

Concerns about the ever-expanding power consumption of computer data centers have mounted in recent years, as technology companies build enormous facilities housing servers to cater to an explosion in Internet traffic, multimedia use and enterprise services hosting.

"eBay is raising the standard for the entire industry. It is 21st century infrastructure for the industry needs of the 21st century," said KR Sridhar, chief executive of Bloom Energy said in a statement.