Israel’s Ormat Technologies has brokered a deal with eBay to power the online auction giant’s new data center in Utah using Recovered Energy Generation (REG) – a groundbreaking project made possible by new energy legislation.
Data centers are enormously energy intensive. You can get a sense of just how much how our tweets and shares harm the environment by reading an earlier post about the subject.
Because of this (but more likely because of costs), large companies like eBay are beginning to scout out cleaner energy sources to power their data centers. And a new law passed in Utah, called SB12, allows them to directly source their own power from independent generators – such as Ormat, which won a bid to do just that.
“SB12 was a critical component to identifying Ormat as a solution to our greener energy needs,” said Dean Nelson, vice president of global foundation services at eBay Inc. “This milestone points to our belief that commerce can be fundamentally more sustainable than it is today – and that eBay Inc. can be a leader in that transition.”
No strangers to REG, which converts waste heat that occurs as a byproduct of industrial processes into usable electricity, Ormat Technologies already boasts 160MW of installed REG capacity in North America alone, according to Jerusalem Post.
And now they’re going to apply their longstanding renewable energy expertise to a new 5MW plant in Salt Lake City.
“REG offers a proven solution for clean energy to significantly improve energy efficiency to an existing facility,” said Yoram Bronicki, president and chief operating officer for Ormat.
“These benefits directly contribute to President Obama’s national goal, set forth by Executive Order, to coordinate and strongly encourage efforts to deploy 40 gigawatts of energy efficiency in the US by the end of 2020.”
eBay plans to source at least 8 percent of their energy from cleaner sources by 2015, according to Jerusalem Post, and this new facility from the firm behind the world’s largest geothermal plant puts them one step closer to that goal.
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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