Microsoft has announced that it will invest $5.5 million into the research and development of a new ‘Data Plant’, which will be the first zero carbon data center. The plant will be completely independent of the grid and will recycle common waste bi-products to sustainably power cloud services. It will be located at the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Microsoft wrote in a blog post:

It provides an exciting, first-of-its kind opportunity to develop viable capabilities and best practices for capturing and reusing natural bi-products like biogas directly from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural farms, fuel refineries, and waste landfill sites, etc. in the future… This project will study new methods for providing a stable, clean, scalable, and economically efficient power source for data centers that could become a best practice for use by other industries in the future as well.

Microsoft