Microsoft plans to use recycled water in the cooling systems of a planned 500,000 square foot data center in San Antonio, PC World reports. In addition, a significant portion of electricity in Texas is generated by wind, and that clean source of energy was attractive to Microsoft. The first phase of the facility will be operational in July next year.
The San Antonio facility will be one-third the size of a data center that Microsoft is building in Quincy, Washington. That center will be nearly carbon neutral, according to the article. Electricity used at the Quincy data center will be generated by hydroelectric plants, which are commmon in Western Washington.
Microsoft’s construction company in Quincy switched to biodiesel to fuel cement trucks and other equipment in order to solve a health and safety problem.