This October, Other World Computing began using a 131-foot tall wind turbine to provide all the electric power for its building in Woodstock, Illinois. The company’s building includes the headquarters and data center, which supports its web hosting and ISP services.
While it is not new for data centers to use wind energy, Other World Computing is the first company with its own, on-site wind generator powerful enough to produce enough energy to power an entire facility.
Other World Computing is not alone when it comes to using wind energy. Here are some other companies that are following in its footsteps.
- Green House Data in Cheyenne, Wyoming operates a 10,000 square foot data center that is powered entirely through renewable wind energy from its local utility. Green House Data plans to build several wind turbines on site in the next several years, and says it facility is the largest wind-powered public data center in the nation.
- The Microsoft Virtual Earth service operates out of a data center container housed at a Microsoft facility in Boulder, Colorado. The container is “100 percent wind powered” through offsets purchased from Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy.
- Texas startup Baryonyx plans to build a data center powered by energy from huge “wind farms” in the Texas panhandle and the Gulf of Mexico.
