Verizon announced this week it will install Bloom Energy fuel cell systems at three of its California-based locations: two call-switching centers in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a data center in San Jose. Bloom Energy's solid oxide fuel cells, which are

Facebook has filed plans to build a third data center at its Prineville, Oregon facility, a move that highlights the social network company’s rapid expansion. The 62,000-square-foot facility will be built next to Facebook’s two much larger data centers, according to various local media reports. The new data center won’t bring any additional jobs. However, it could be a test ground for clean energy. Earlier this month, Facebook disclosed its carbon footprint for the first time and set a goal to a

“Cap and trade” was all the rage among Democrats a few years ago, but after careful consideration, I decided that it was too corruptible and ineffective, and decided to support a carbon tax instead.  Breaking with my tribe on that point was ...

Dear Steve Ballmer, Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook -

As CEOs of Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, you’re probably aware that the environmental group Greenpeace this week branded each of your companies as laggards at improving the environmental friendliness of your data centers, and has launched a public campaign to pressure you into improvements.

In particular, Greenpeace takes issue with the way you power the data centers that drive your cloud computing operations. It says that compared to other big IT companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo, you use too much coal and nuclear, and not enough “renewable” power.

“Three of the largest IT companies building their business around the cloud - Amazon, Apple and Microsoft - are all rapidly expanding without adequate regard to source of electricity, and rely heavily on dirty energy to power their clouds,” Greenpeace says in its report - How Clean is Your Cloud?.

Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy has launched a new business division that aims to take advantage of the skyrocketing demand for energy-intensive data centers. The Silicon Valley startup announced this week that Peter Gross – co-founder of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, the data center design firm that Hewlett-Packard purchased back in 2007 — has joined Bloom Energy as vice president. Bloom Energy makes a solid oxide fuel cell, which are assembled into an energy server or Bloom box. The parking space-sized Bloom box — containing thousands of fuel cells — converts fuel like natural gas or biogas into electricity. Bloom Energy has moved beyond the fuel cell-incentives-rich California marketplace in recent months, landing a highly lucrative deal with Delaware utility Delmarva Power and Light. Bloom Energy also appears to be the fuel cell provider for the 5-megawatt fuel cell-farm at Apple’s $1 billion data center in Maiden, N.C., Katie Fehrenbacher of Gigaom ...