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"This could be an opportunity for emerging economies," said Chandrakant Patel, the director of at HP Labs. "And having these data centers locally will give farmers a new opportunity."

The process, presented at an annual conference for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, outlines how livestock waste could be converted into methane "biogas" and, in turn, used as fuel to power data centers.

Patel said that 10,000 cows, each producing 20 metric tons of manure a year, could generate enough electricity to run a one-megawatt facility -- a small to medium-size unit, for instance, used by a bank.

He added that the heat emitted from the computers could, in turn, be used to help convert more waste into biogas, through an efficient process known as "anaerobic digestion."

"It's a symbiotic relationship between manure and IT," Patel said.

The cost for such a setup would run upwards of $5 million with operational costs of around $30,000 a year.

Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have traditionally built large data centers in or around metropolitan areas. But as their sprawling networks of servers and mainframes grow in size, they find it increasingly difficult to buy enough cheap electricity to meet their needs.

With the rise of higher-speed networks, more information can be sent faster to farther distances, prompting many companies to relocate their data centers to cheaper, rural locations.

HP said it has no immediate plans to build a dung-powered data center, but it may consider one in California or Texas in the future. "Stay tuned," Patel said. "We are pushing ahead."

The company has a history of experimenting with unconventional methods to improve the efficiency of its data centers, including the use of robots to monitor the temperatures of computers.