Ebay Is Now Generating Its Own Power

Lots of people depend on eBay, either to buy the items they so desperately desire, or to peddle their own goods and services to the waiting digital masses. Even so, it seems the internet giant doesn’t want to depend on anyone else anymore… for its electrical power, that is.

The company has announced plans to construct a massive data center that will get its power from fuel cells, dispensing with the power that comes off the national grid, which uses large amounts of coal to generate electricity.

How much power will eBay need to produce to keep the ravenous beast of online auctioneering running smoothly? Well, the company will have to generate around six million watts of juice, which will in turn let the computers hum along smoothly, and keep the proceeds rolling in.

The new facility, which will be located in South Jordan, Utah, will be twice the size of the operation eBay currently maintains there. The cleaner fuel cell technology will be a lot better for the environment as well, but the day when eBay and other tech companies run all of their data centers like this is still some time off. About 85% of eBay’s other operations will still be reliant on the national grid, and numerous coal burning power plants. Although the new data center in South Jordan, if all goes well, should run clean and green, it will still be hooked up to the national system as a backup, just in case something goes wrong.

Hopefully, this new power project will do wonders for the company, and the environment. If the fuel cells work, then others companies may follow suit, and ease the consumption of natural resources.