The Future of Diesel Generators

It doesn&#;t seem that long ago that diesel generators were the answer to problems in a lot of industries. Whether it was as backup-ups for hospitals or data centres, or simply for farms or construction sites in remote locations. However, recent decades have seen a raft of regulation around the challenges our planet will soon face. Emissions and noise have been two areas that diesel generators have had to address in order to remain compliant.

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This leads us to some important questions. Does a greener future mean they will eventually be fazed out altogether? Can they continue to develop to stay compliant with the regulations yet to come? With advancements in alternative energy, especially wind turbines and solar, will they even be able to compete in the future?

The market is shifting

For people living in rural locations with unreliable mains electricity, or for those who live completely off-grid, diesel generators have provided them with either backup electricity or their main source of power for some time. However, as more people opt to live off-grid, there is a shift towards generating electricity from renewable sources.

Technology has helped to fuel this shift. Both solar power and wind turbines are now more efficient and accessible options. A modern professional installation no longer requires the owner to manually switch between energy sources. It will monitor the power supply and automatically change to ensure you receive a steady and continuous supply of power.

Often diesel generators are incorporated into these systems, but they are only used by the system as a last resort, which greatly reduces the amount of diesel fuel that&#;s used, as well as making your whole system more efficient and cheaper to run. These hybrid style systems provide the reliability of a traditional diesel generator, but without the usual drawbacks, such as noise, cost, and emissions.

Why renewable is becoming more attractive

As the market sees a shift towards renewable energy, the production costs continue to drop. Because the technology was still relatively new, the rate of development has been quick. The solar and wind turbine options available now are far more efficient and cost-effective than just a decade ago. When this is combined with the improvements in battery technology that can store the power these produce, it means you have a much more tempting, usable, and realistic option than just a decade ago.

What does the future hold?

Renewable energy sources will continue to develop at a rate the diesel generators cannot match. However, people will still want complete peace of mind. This means many people will still opt to have a small and efficient diesel backup system to their renewable energy production, even if in the future it&#;s never needed.

Diesel generators will continue to be used in bigger industries, such as telecoms and construction, that are trying to operate in extremely remote parts of the world. It provides them with a quick fix for their temporary power supply. However, in the residential and agricultural markets that require a permanent installation that offers long-term reliability, savings, and an improvement to their living conditions (reduced noise and emissions), the shift towards renewable power production or the hybrid style systems mentioned above will continue.

Microsoft plans to eliminate its reliance on diesel fuel by the year as part of its goal to be carbon negative, the company said this week. The announcement has major implications for the company&#;s data centers, many of which use diesel-powered generators for emergency backup power.

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Microsoft has been working for years to develop effective alternatives to the use of diesel generators, citing the need to make its data centers more sustainable and less reliant on the utility grid. but continues to install large numbers of generators at new data centers. With its new deadline, Microsoft sets in motion a push to either replace its generators with cleaner technologies, or perhaps eliminate them altogether by managing resiliency through software.

&#;Today, we&#;re announcing that we&#;re aiming to eliminate our dependency on diesel fuel by ,&#; Microsoft Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa wrote in a blog post Tuesday. &#;While diesel fuel accounts for less than 1% of our overall emissions, we believe it&#;s important to help accelerate the global transition away from fossil fuels. We&#;re charting a new course using low-carbon fuel sources, including hydrogen and energy storage.&#;

Microsoft Azure is one of the largest cloud computing platforms, with infrastructure in 53 regions around the world. The company has also been a leading customer of data center developers, leasing hundreds of megawatts of capacity from companies that provide wholesale data center space.

It&#;s early to say how Microsoft may approach its presence in third-party sites that operate diesel generators. But it&#;s likely that developers will begin focusing more intently on alternatives to generators, either as a retrofit option or a strategy to capture future business from Microsoft.

Making Generators Obsolete

Microsoft first announced its interest in reducing its use of generators in . Since then, it has tested several alternative approaches.

• In , Microsoft outlined plans to power portions of its facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming with biogas waste from a water treatment plant.
• In , the company created an Advanced Energy Lab in Seattle that powered 20 racks of servers with fuel cells powered by natural gas, teaming with McKinstry and Cummins on the project.

It&#;s not clear that Microsoft has deployed any of these technologies at the kind of scale that could replace the global fleet of diesel generators supporting its server farms. In recent construction projects, the company has continued to install large numbers of diesel generators.

An example: Early this year, Microsoft applied for permits to add five new diesel generators at its new Columbia C06 data center, which would give it 40 diesel engines at the facility, the most recent addition to its campus in Quincy, Washington.

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