Fast Company has an article on Shell dropping its Algae biofuel project.

Shell Ditches Algae Biofuel

BY ARIEL SCHWARTZWed Feb 2, 2011

Oil companies are decent barometers of which biofuels are on the upswing. Case in point: As the hype around algae fuel has increased over the past few years, BP, Exxon, and Shell have all made algae biofuel commitments. Now, as the hype is dying down, so is the oil industry's interest. This week, Shell announced that it is exiting its final algae biofuel commitment.

2011 is Shell's "year of choices" -- a time when the company plans to cut down on its biofuel research paths from 10 technologies to five. Last week, Shell exited its investment in Choren, a biomass gasification business. This week, Shell will exit its shareholding inCellana, a joint algae biofuel venture between Shell and HR Biopetroleum Algae, according to Renewable Energy World.

Here is the press release by HR Biopetroleum.

HR BIOPETROLEUM TO ACQUIRE SHELL'S SHAREHOLDING
IN CELLANA ALGAE JOINT VENTURE

(Honolulu, HI, January 27, 2011) -- HR BioPetroleum, Inc. (HRBP), a Hawaii-based and -founded renewable biofuels company, today announced that it will acquire Shell’s shareholding in Cellana, a joint venture between Shell and HRBP. On January 31, 2011, HRBP will become the sole owner of Cellana, including its six-acre demonstration facility in Kona, Hawaii.

In 2007, HRBP and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the international energy company, formed Cellana as a separate joint venture to build and operate a demonstration facility to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel.  To date, it is one of the most advanced operational demonstration facilities among algae-to-biofuel organizations and companies in the United States.

‘‘The acquisition of Cellana represents a significant opportunity for HRBP and its corporate and project stakeholders, including the University of Hawaii, Hawaiian Electric Company, Maui Electric Company, the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts consortium, the U.S. Department of Energy and others,’’ said Ed Shonsey, HRBP CEO

But, don’t think Shell isn’t still looking at renewable energy.

While algae biofuel may be out, Shell has many other biofuel endeavors that it is pursuing including:

• Cosan partnership in Brazil for the "production of ethanol, sugar and power, and the supply, distribution and retail of transportation fuels."
• Iogen Energy investment for developing "processing technology that enables ethanol to be made from straw using enzymes."
• Codexis joint technology program to "develop more powerful enzymes for faster conversion of biomass to ethanol and other fuels."
• Virent Energy Systems joint technology program to "convert plant sugars directly into a range of high performance liquid transport fuels."

Currently state of the art in data centers is to use the least amount of energy for a low PUE number removing heat from the data center.

What if the heat could be used to generate electricity?  A dream?   Yes.

Here is one attempt to turn heat into electricity.

Turning Waste Heat Into Power

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2010) — What do a car engine, a power plant, a factory and a solar panel have in common? They all generate heat -- a lot of which is wasted.

University of Arizona physicists have discovered a new way of harvesting waste heat and turning it into electrical power.

Using a theoretical model of a so-called molecular thermoelectric device, the technology holds great promise for making cars, power plants, factories and solar panels more efficient, to name a few possible applications. In addition, more efficient thermoelectric materials would make ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, obsolete.

A "forest" of molecules holds the promise of turning waste heat into electricity. UA physicists discovered that because of quantum effects, electron waves traveling along the backbone of each molecule interfere with each other, leading to the buildup of a voltage between the hot and cold electrodes (the golden structures on the bottom and top). (Credit: Justin Bergfield, University of Arizona)

The article doesn't discuss data centers.  But does discuss photovoltaic and cars excess heat.

"Solar panels get very hot and their efficiency goes down," Stafford said. "You could harvest some of that heat and use it to generate additional electricity while simultaneously cooling the panel and making its own photovoltaic process more efficient."

"With a very efficient thermoelectric device based on our design, you could power about 200 100-Watt light bulbs using the waste heat of an automobile," he said. "Put another way, one could increase the car's efficiency by well over 25 percent, which would be ideal for a hybrid since it already uses an electrical motor."

GigaOm reports on Google's striking geothermal gold.

Google Strikes Geothermal Gold in West Virginia

By Jeff St. John Oct. 5, 2010, 4:27pm PDT 1 Comment

Has Google struck geothermal gold in West Virginia? A new report shows that heat underground the state could provide 18,890 megawatts of power using today’s geothermal technology — more than the state’s entire power generation capacity of 16,350 megawatts, most of which comes from coal. Google, which has beeninvesting in next-generation clean powertechnologies, funded the research.

Geothermal makes sense for a data center.

Geothermal, unlike other renewable energy resources, can be easily used for 24/7 baseload power — that is, it doesn’t sag and surge with the sun and the wind, which is a problem with solar panels and wind turbines. Geothermal projects are on the rise, although venture capital and private equity investors haven’t yet shown much interest in the capital-intensive sector. Companies tackling geothermal power range from the startup Vancouver-based Magma Energy, which went public last year, to geothermal giants like Ormat Technologies.

Google also has an internal solar technology project, as well as an energy-trading subsidiary, Google Energy, which bought 114 MW of wind energy via a wind farm in Iowa owned by NextEra Energy Resources. Google is likely shopping for more clean power to provide its data centers’ vast energy needs and help it with its pledge to go carbon-neutral — could geothermal help with that?

Here are more technical details.

6. Conclusions

This reconnaissance investigation of the thermal regime of the eastern U.S. has defined a significant thermal anomaly along the Appalachian Mountain trend in West Virginia and demonstrated that temperatures high enough for electrical power generation occur at depths greater than 4 to 5 km in large areas of eastern West Virginia. This finding opens the possibility of geothermal energy production near the heavily populated Eastern Seaboard. Further research is needed to refine estimates of the magnitude and distribution of West Virginia’s geothermal resource and to understand the cause of the high heat flow values. The presence of a large, baseload, carbon neutral, and sustainable energy resource in West Virginia could make an important contribution to enhancing the U.S. energy security and for decreasing CO₂ emissions.