Microsoft looking to cut data center power bills
The Seattle Times reports it used enough electricity to power 24,000 homes.
The software company is looking to reduce its power bill by finding other ways to cool the acres of computer servers that handle e-mail and digital transactions over the Internet.
The data center was the third-largest customer last year of the Grant County PUD. Microsoft and other tech companies have located in Grant County to take advantage of the utility's relatively low rates for electricity from two Columbia River dams.
With data centers all over the world, Microsoft has been experimenting with cooling methods to reduce power demand.
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Coronavirus puts electric carmakers on alert over lithium supplies
BEIJING - The global outbreak of coronavirus will accelerate efforts by western carmakers to localise supplies of lithium for electric car batteries, according to US producer Livent.
The industry was keen to diversify away from China, which produces the bulk of the world’s lithium, a critical material for lithium-ion batteries, said Paul Graves, Livent’s chief executive.
“It’s a conversation that’s starting to happen that was not happening even six months ago,” especially in the US, the former Goldman Sachs banker added.
China produced about 79 per cent of the lithium hydroxide used in electric car batteries last year, according to consultancy CRU, a…