Greenpeace report How Clean is Your Cloud? I saw mentioned in 3T magazine news is actually quite interesting reading. This year’s report provides a look at the energy choices some of the largest and fastest growing IT companies. The report analyzes the 14 IT companies and the electricity supply chain in more than 80 data center cases.
The report contains also lots of interesting background information on both IT and telecom energy consumption. I recommend checking it out. Here are some points picked from How Clean is Your Cloud? report:
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo – these global brands and a host of other IT companies are rapidly and fundamentally transforming the way in which we work, communicate, watch movies or TV, listen to music, and share pictures through “the cloud.”
The growth and scale of investment in the cloud is truly mind-blowing, with estimates of a 50-fold increase in the amount of digital information by 2020 and nearly half a trillion in investment in the coming year, all to create and feed our desire for ubiquitous access to infinite information from our computers, phones and other mobile devices, instantly.
The engine that drives the cloud is the data center. Data centers are the factories of the 21st century information age, containing thousands of computers that store and manage our rapidly growing collection of data for consumption at a moment’s notice. Given the energy-intensive nature of maintaining the cloud, access to significant amounts of electricity is a key factor in decisions about where to build these data centers. Industry leaders estimate nearly $450bn US dollars is being spent annually on new data center space.
Since electricity plays a critical role in the cost structure of companies that use the cloud, there have been dramatic strides made in improving the energy efficiency design of the facilities and the thousands of computers that go inside. However, despite significant improvements in efficiency, the exponential growth in cloud computing far outstrips these energy savings.
How much energy is required to power the ever-expanding online world? What percentage of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is attributable to the IT sector? Answers to these questions are very difficult to obtain with any degree of precision, partially due to the sector’s explosive growth, a wide range of devices and energy sources, and rapidly changing technology and business models. The estimates of the IT sector’s carbon footprint performed to date have varied widely in their methodology and scope. One of the most recognized estimates of the IT sector’s footprint was conducted as part of the 2008 SMART 2020 study, which established that the sector is responsible for 2% of global GHG emissions.
The combined electricity demand of the internet/cloud (data centers and telecommunications network) globally in 2007 was approximately 623bn kWh (if the cloud were a country, it would have the fifth largest electricity demand in the world). Based on current projections, the demand for electricity will more than triple to 1,973bn kWh (an amount greater than combined total demand of France, Germany, Canada and Brazil).
The report indicates that, due to the economic downturn and continued energy efficiency and performance improvements, global energy demand from data centers from 2005-2010 increased by 56%. Estimates of data center electricity demand come in at 31GW globally, with an increase of 19% in 2012 alone. At the same time global electricity consumption is otherwise essentially flat due to the global recession is still a staggering rate of growth.
Given the scale of predicted growth, the source of electricity must be factored into a meaningful definition of “green IT”. Energy efficiency alone will, at best, slow the growth of the sector’s footprint. The replacement of dirty sources of electricity with clean renewable sources is still the crucial missing link in the sector’s sustainability efforts according to the report.
The global telecoms sector is also growing rapidly. Rapid growth in use of smart phones and broadband mobile connections mean mobile data traffic in 2011 was eight times the size of the entire internet in 2000. It is estimated that global mobile data traffic grew 133% in 2011, with 597 petabytes of data sent by mobiles every month. In 2011, it is estimated that 6 billion people or 86.7% of the entire global population have mobile telephone subscriptions. By the end of 2012, the number of mobile connected devices is expected to exceed the global population. Electronic devices and the rapidly growing cloud that supports our demand for greater online access are clearly a significant force in driving global energy demand.
What about telecoms in the developing and newly industrialized countries? The report has some details from India (by the way it is expected that India will pass China to become the world’s largest mobile market in terms of subscriptions in 2012). Much of the growth in the Indian telecom sector is from India’s rural and semi-urban areas. By 2012, India is likely to have 200 million rural telecom connections at a penetration rate of 25%. Out of the existing 400,000 mobile towers, over 70% exist in rural and semi-urban areas where either grid-connected electricity is not available or the electricity supply is irregular. As a result, mobile towers and, increasingly, grid-connected towers in these areas rely on diesel generators to power their network operations. The consumption of diesel by the telecoms sector currently stands at a staggering 3bn liters annually, second only to the railways in India.
What is the case on other developing and newly industrialized countries? I don’t actually know.
NOTE: Please note that that many figures given on the report are just estimates based on quite little actual data, so they might be somewhat off the actual figures. Given the source of the report I would quess that if the figures are off, they are most probably off to direction so that the environmental effect looks bigger than it actually is.
608 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Animated CAD illustrates options for sustainable data center wiring
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/06/sust-data-center-video.html
This new video from Hubbell Premise Wiring relies on a kind of animated CAD presentation to illustrate the many options and angles for wiring up and otherwise provisioning a sustainable data center.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google gets AGILE to increase IaaS cloud efficiency
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/26/google_agile/
Google has instrumented its infrastructure to the point where it can predict future demand 68% per cent better than previously, giving other cloud providers a primer for how to get the most out of their IT gear.
The system was outlined in an academic paper AGILE: Elastic distributed resource scaling for Infrastructure-as-a-Service which was released by the giant on Wednesday at the USENIX conference in California.
Agile lets Google predict future resource demands for workloads through wavelet analysis, which uses telemetry from across the Google stack to look at resource utilization in an application and then make a prediction about likely future resource use. Google then uses this information to spin up VMs in advance of demand, letting it avoid downtime.
Tomi says:
Making Your Datacenter Into Less of a Rabid Zombie Power Hog
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/06/29/2133243/making-your-datacenter-into-less-of-a-rabid-zombie-power-hog
“Despite the growing list of innovative (and sometimes expensive) adaptations designed to transform datacenters into slightly-less-active power gluttons, the most effective way to make datacenters more efficient is also the most obvious, according to researchers from Stanford, Berkeley and Northwestern. Using power-efficient hardware, turning power down (or off) when the systems aren’t running at high loads, and making sure air-cooling systems are pointed at hot IT equipment—rather than in a random direction—can all do far more than fancier methods for cutting datacenter power”
Tomi says:
Making Your Datacenter Into Less of a Rabid Zombie Power Hog
http://slashdot.org/topic/datacenter/making-your-datacenter-into-less-of-a-rabid-zombie-power-hog/
Even in the increasingly complex datacenter world, sometimes the best option is also the most obvious.
Using power-efficient hardware, turning power down (or off) when the systems aren’t running at high loads, and making sure air-cooling systems are pointed at hot IT equipment—rather than in a random direction—can all do far more than fancier methods for cutting datacenter power, according to Jonathan Koomey, the Stanford researcher who has been instrumental in making power use a hot topic in IT.
Many of the most-publicized advances in building “green” datacenters during the past five years have focused on efforts to buy datacenter power from sources that also have very low carbon footprints. That includes Google’s recent decision to power its Finnish datacenter with all the power a Swedish wind farm can produce during the next decade—which can’t hurt, but can also skew perceptions by focusing on only the third most-important factor that determines how effectively a datacenter uses data, Koomey wrote.
Sourcing all a datacenter’s power from sources cleaner or more sustainable than the traditional coal-fired generating plants that supply most datacenter power in the U.S. can also have a solid impact on the datacenter’s overall energy-efficiency rating and shrink its carbon footprint.
The single biggest factor is the efficiency of the servers, storage, networking and other IT equipment within the datacenter. The second-most-important factor is the efficiency of the cooling, water pumps, power distribution and other bits of physical infrastructure.
Least of the three major factors was the carbon footprint of the company providing the electricity.
Of the relevant metrics, the most important are Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Integrated software, hardware system for data center power monitoring
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/07/powerassure-integrates-data-center-monitoring.html?cmpid=$trackid
To enable more accurate IT equipment performance in the data center, Power Assure, Inc. (www.powerassure.com) has integrated its PAR4 power measurement software with Universal Electric’s StarLine plug-in raceway and data center power monitoring meters.
The companies say the combined system forms an integrated test environment to measure actual idle and peak power consumption of individual IT equipment and IT racks in data centers, leveraging standardized and patented measurement procedures for accurate, reliable and repeatable results. Integrated with various inventory systems, these measurements can be used to place equipment to the right rack and location in a data center without risk of overloading circuits, while maximizing the amount of equipment placed into each rack, for improvements of over 30% in IT capacity for a given data center, claims the companies.
The companies contend that, when selecting a new generation of server to provision, IT typically uses performance indicators based on processing capacity expressed in transactions per second. However, the energy consumption can differ significantly between equipment with similar performance characteristics and capabilities. Additionally, comparing performance and energy efficiencies between different generations of IT equipment can generate a very appealing ROI for early hardware refresh cycles.
Guy AlLee says:
623bn kWh would be 3%, not 2%. Turns out the best estimate for data center energy consumption (all data centers, not the subset that is the cloud) is really only 1.3-1.5% [Koomey, "Growth in Data Center Electricity Use 2005 to 2010," Aug 2011].
Still, that would put all data centers at about equal to the 13th largest country — of which the cloud would be only one state.
Finally, the other point of the 2008 SMART 2020 report, not mentioned above, is that all the carbon produced by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) *SAVES* five times its carbon footprint by enabling efficiency in the rest of the economy.
So next time we agonize over how much energy data centers are using, consider the alternative if we didn’t have them and had to produce 5 times more carbon.
tomi says:
Thank you very much for your feedback and clarifications.
If is a good that you pointed out this point that I missed on my posting:
“Finally, the other point of the 2008 SMART 2020 report, not mentioned above, is that all the carbon produced by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) *SAVES* five times its carbon footprint by enabling efficiency in the rest of the economy.”
It is always good idea to think on the alternatives and their economy.
Very good points.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IT now 10 percent of world’s electricity consumption, report finds
New analysis finds IT power suck has eclipsed aviation
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/16/it_electricity_use_worse_than_you_thought/
The information and technology ecosystem now represents around 10 per cent of the world’s electricity generation, and it’s hungry for filthy coal.
In a report likely to inspire depression among environmentalists, and fluffy statements from tech companies, analyst firm Digital Power Group has synthesized numerous reports and crunched data on the real electricity consumption of our digital world.
In “The Cloud Begins With Coal – Big Data, Big Networks, Big Infrastructure, and Big Power”, the research group argues that much of the cost of our digital universe is hidden from us because of the distant nature of cloud services and the lack of information about the power it takes to make our IT gear.
“Although charging up a single tablet or smart phone requires a negligible amount of electricity, using either to watch an hour of video weekly consumes annually more electricity in the remote networks than two new refrigerators use in a year,” they argue.
The report’s figure reflects not just the cost of data centers – according to a 2007 report by the EPA US data centers consumed 1.5 percent of US electricity production, and was projected to rise to 3 percent by 2011 – but also the power involved in fabbing chips and the power consumption of digital devices and the networks they hang off.
It finds that the whole spread of technologies draws down about 1,500 terawatt hours of energy per year, representing 10 percent of all power consumption. And it’s going to get worse over time.
“Unlike other industrial-classes of electric demand, newer data facilities see higher, not lower, power densities,” the group writes. “A single refrigerator-sized rack of servers in a data center already requires more power than an entire home with the average power per racks.”
Unless ARM chips take off in the data center in a phenomenally huge way – and that is doubtful until we see 64-bit chips come along with benchmarks to back them up against AMD/Intel – this will continue to hold true.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Germany Produces Record-Breaking 5.1 Terawatt Hours of Solar Energy In One Month
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/08/20/2140215/germany-produces-record-breaking-51-terawatt-hours-of-solar-energy-in-one-month
“Germany is rapidly developing a tradition of shattering its own renewable energy goals and leaving the rest of the world in the dust. This past July was no exception, as the nation produced 5.1 TWh of solar power (PDF), beating not only its own solar production record, but also eclipsing the record 5TWh of wind power produced by German turbines in January. Renewables are doing so well, in fact, that one of Germany’s biggest utilities is threatening to migrate to Turkey.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your iPhone Uses More Energy Than A Refrigerator? Controversial New Research Spurs Debate
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/iphone-energy-refrigerator-controversial-study_n_3782211.html
Is your iPhone using more energy annually than your fridge?
That’s the surprising — and increasingly controversial — claim laid out by Digital Power CEO Mark P. Mills in his new paper, “The Cloud Begins With Coal: Big Data, Big Networks, Big Infrastructure, and Big Power.”
From the paper:
Reduced to personal terms, although charging up a single tablet or smart phone requires a negligible amount of electricity, using either to watch an hour of video weekly consumes annually more electricity in the remote networks than two new refrigerators use in a year. And as the world continues to electrify, migrating towards one refrigerator per household, it also evolves towards several smartphones and equivalent per person.
The claim is based on a smartphone’s total energy usage per year, meaning Mills’ conclusion takes into account the sum of energy used for wireless connections, data usage and battery charging.
In an email to TIME, Luke wrote:
Last year the average iPhone customer used 1.58 GB of data a month, which times 12 is 19 GB per year. The most recent data put out by a ATKearney for mobile industry association GSMA (p. 69) says that each GB requires 19 kW. That means the average iPhone uses (19kw X 19 GB) 361 kwh of electricity per year. In addition, ATKearney calculates each connection at 23.4 kWh. That brings the total to 384.4 kWh. The electricity used annually to charge the iPhone is 3.5 kWh, raising the total to 388 kWh per year. EPA’s Energy Star shows refrigerators with efficiency as low as 322 kWh annually.
However, not everyone is as convinced by Mills’ report, which was sponsored by the National Mining Association and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy. MSN News evaluated the study and found Mills’ claim about iPhone energy “false.”
The MSN article claims that Mills is actually recycling similar research he published in 2000 about the amount of energy needed to power a Palm Pilot vs. a refrigerator.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone doesn’t really use more power than fridge
But scientists are bitterly divided over the smartphone’s carbon footprint
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iphone-uses-100-times-less-electricity-than-fridge-2013-08-20
Charging an iPhone consumes 100 times less electricity than a fridge, researchers say, but a study released last week suggests that the smartphone’s hunger for power is far greater than that of even the biggest kitchen appliance.
And although a smartphone only costs about 500 kwh to manufacture — versus 1,000 kwh for a fridge — Mills contends that the annual energy allocated to making each smartphone is up to three times greater because, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, most fridges last 18 years and consumers update phones every three to five years. “When you buy a phone, you are also paying for the cost to build it,” Mills says. (His report “The Cloud Begins With Coal” is sponsored by the National Mining Association and American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.)
The irony is that smartphones need only a minuscule amount of electricity to charge. It takes around 3.3 kilowatt hours per year to charge an iPhone 4, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit national energy research organization; that’s less than the 400 to 450 kwh per year it takes to charge the average family refrigerator. To put that in perspective: An iPhone costs around 38 cents per year to charge, based on one single charge per day, the EPRI found, compared with $65.72 per year for a refrigerator. (A desktop computer, by comparison, costs $28.21 a year to charge.)
The same is true for Samsung’s smartphone.
However, the carbon footprint also depends on whether people are using cellular or Wi-Fi, some researchers say.
Another variable that puts scientists at odds with each other: Researchers also argue about the amount of energy being used per gigabyte of data. Mills calculated use at 2 kWH per gigabyte on the cellular network, based on a 2012 European-wide study, “How Much Energy is Needed to Run a Wireless Network.” A 2013 “The Mobile Economy” report by management consultancy A.T. Kearney says the energy use per gigabyte could run as high as 19 kwH.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SUNCLIX Photovoltaic Connectors
http://fi.mouser.com/new/phoenix/phoenix-sunclix-photovoltaic/?utm_source=electronicproducts&utm_medium=online&utm_campaign=newphoenixphoenix-sunclix-photovoltaic&utm_content=336×280-OLM
Phoenix Contact SUNCLIX Photovoltaic Connectors are the first toolless connection system for photovoltaics. Phoenix Contact has developed DC connectors that can be assembled in the field specifically for cabling photovoltaic (PV) systems.
The TÜV-certified solar plug-in connector is suitable for typical photovoltaic cables with conductor cross sections of 2.5 to 6 mm² and transmits a current of up to 40 A at up to 1100 V.
Sueann Zantow says:
I think this blog is great. Thanks for the info.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Human Psychology Holds Back Climate Change Action
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/08/28/1940204/how-human-psychology-holds-back-climate-change-action
“Cass R. Sunstein writes at Bloomberg that an understanding of human psychology — specifically, what human beings fear and what they do not — helps to explain why nations haven’t insisted on more significant emissions reductions even as scientists warn that if the world continues on its current course, we will face exceedingly serious losses and threats including a significant rise in sea levels by century’s end.”
“There are no obvious devils or demons — no individuals who intend to create the harms associated with climate change.’ The second obstacle is that people tend to evaluate risks by way of ‘the availability heuristic,’ which leads them to assess the probability of harm by asking whether a readily available example comes to mind.”
Tanner Bill says:
Hey, what is the best company to recycle electronic devices?
Tomi says:
Mobile future requires a lower power consumption
People want mobile technology in the future that is truly personal, to free them of annoying performance, help them to live in the moment, and help them get the best side out.
It envisions the Intel researcher and anthropologist Genevieve Bell of smartphones and tablet computers after the mobile future Intel Developer Forum in Helsinki. Bell illustrated presentation of how we have through the ages using mobile technology to our bodies and the physical dimensions, the extension of the short comings and patch up, and have added it to our efficiency.
“Mobility-related technology has been shaped by centuries of human communities. Mankind’s future impact of information technology in accordance with Moore’s Law still less shrinkage, but also the global population,” says Bell.
“Insights should not be based solely on new technologies, but also take into account people’s needs and desires. We shape the future of one – futures, there are seven billion, and the number is growing all the time. ”
Bell stressed that the people’s wishes and require Intel and the developer community the ability to think beyond the existing mobile devices. The need to consider the whole picture, covering infrastructure, personal information, places, and people.
“This global vision requires an ongoing dialogue about what the technology allows and what the people want,” says Bell.
The future of mobile requires a power consumption reduction of a significantly smaller.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/mobiili+tulevaisuus+edellyttaa+pienempaa+virrankulutusta/a930138
Tomi Engdahl says:
A comparison between
ISO 14001 and ISO 50001
http://www.bsigroup.ae/upload/Tools/ISO14001_ISO%2050001_Comparison.pdf
Given its widespread adoption since
the 1990s by organizations wishing to
manage their environmental impact
you may already be familiar with ISO
14001 the international standard for
environmental management systems.
This summary seeks to compare the
latest, more specific ISO standard on
energy management with its more
established cousin, in order to help you
understand how it might be able to
help your organization further.
ISO 50001 represents the latest
international best practice in energy
management, building upon existing
national and regional standards and
initiatives. The standard has been in
development for a number of years
with energy management experts,
representing over 60 countries from
across the world, coming together to
establish the framework.
Whilst ISO 50001 is closely aligned
to ISO 14001 the new International
Standard places more emphasis on
the continual improvement of energy
performance, including energy
efficiency, energy use and consumption.
ISO 50001 can either be used in
conjunction with ISO 14001, to help
you identify further opportunities for
energy savings, or as a stand-alone
management system standard for those
organizations concerned about energy
costs or their environmental impact.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Focus on Efficiency
A whitepaper from Facebook, Ericsson and Qualcomm
September 16, 2013
https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/851575_520797877991079_393255490_n.pdf
As founding members of Internet.org, we believe it’s possible to build infrastructure that will sustainably provide affordable access to basic Internet services in a way that enables everyone with a phone to get
online. While the current global cost of delivering data is on the order of 100 times too expensive for this to be economically feasible, we believe that with an organized effort, it is reasonable to expect the overall efficiency of delivering data to increase by 100x in the next 5–10 years.
This effort will require two key innovations:
1. Bringing down the underlying costs of delivering data, and
2. Using less data by building more efficient apps
If the industry can achieve a 10x improvement in each of these areas—delivering data and building more efficient apps—then it becomes economically reasonable to offer free basic services to those who cannot afford them, and to begin sustainably delivering on the promise of connectivity as a human right
In the first half of this paper, we examine how Facebook has approached the challenge of building more efficient technologies in order to connect more than one billion users.
After that, we will explore the challenges of creating more efficient apps that use less data. Efficiency gains achieved on the Android platform will be discussed, as well as improvements in image rendering.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook And Internet.org Detail “1000X” Technologies They Hope Will Bring Earth Online
http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/16/tech-to-connect-the-world/
Facebook’s Obsession With Efficiency
Facebook was getting serious about accessibility initiatives long before the launch of Internet.org.
As the company has grown from the $85 server it was first launched on, it’s searched for ways to make its service more efficient. It launched the HipHop translator for PHP years ago so employees could code in an easy language but have their work transformed into the much more server-efficient C++ language. This let it run 50% more traffic per server, but that wasn’t enough. It built and open-sourced the HipHop Virtual Machine execution engine and achieved a 500% increased in server throughput.
Meanwhile, it launched the Open Compute Project to help everyone build greener servers and data centers, with a focus on cooling, power transformations and “a “vanity free” DIY server design. Open Compute technologies have made Facebook’s Luleå, Sweden data center one of the most efficient in the world. Facebook now houses 250 billion photos (that’s a quarter trillion — a new statistic), more than 250 petabytes of data, and takes in over a half petabyte of new data each day without stumbling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Telefónica confirms €1.78B UK smart meter deal
http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/telef-nica-confirms-178b-uk-smart-meter-deal/2013-09-25?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
Telefónica has been officially awarded an €1.78 billion (£1.5 billion) contract to provide smart meter communications services in the UK, confirming a preliminary announcement on the deal in August.
The operator said the 15-year agreement represents the industry’s largest M2M contract to date, and forms part of the Smart Meter Implementation Programme (SMIP) tender that will see 53 million smart meters installed across the UK by 2020.
Telefónica signed the contract with Smart DCC, a part of Capita, which will manage the smart metering service on behalf of its users as well as the data and communications service providers. The DECC said a data and communications contract worth around £175 million over 12 years has been awarded to Smart DCC.
Telefónica said the £11 billion programme is expected to deliver a net benefit to the UK of £6.7 billion through reduced energy consumption and more efficient management and deployment of energy across the country. It is estimated that a smart meter enabled industry could save 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year in 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thorium and inefficient solar power? That’s good enough for me
I’m talking technology, not politics
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/27/someone_must_have_a_thorium_reactor/
Comment So we’re all back from our hols, noses down to the grindstone for the run into Crimble: time for some idle speculation on the future of our energy production systems. Or if we’re to be purist about it, our energy production/transformation systems.
The most cheering thing I’ve heard recently on this subject is that the price of thorium is now positive. That might not mean much without explanation, so here goes: There’s thorium in all sorts of minerals from which we already extract interesting metals. The tantalite and columbite that we make our capacitors from for example: there’s enough in the wastes from their processing that old factories that used to do this are now Super Fund sites in the US.
Vast sums of money being spent carting off the lightly radioactive wastes into secure storage (actually, just to piles by uranium mills). And if you actually happen to have any thorium around, as I do, getting rid of it is a very expensive proposition.
The usual solution to this sort of problem is that you refine whatever it is up to a useful commercial purity then sell it. But there’s almost no one out there still using thorium: thus the price of thorium, given the disposal costs, is actually negative. Until just recently, that is.
If someone’s buying then someone is at least considering filling up a test reactor. My best guess is that this is the Indian research programme: although it could, possibly, be the Russian one and there are rumours of a Chinese as well.
Which I take to be cheering news: for there’s no particular problem with thorium reactors. The engineering’s pretty well known, it can’t go bang, all it really needs is someone to actually build and test at size the technology. And, as I say, if thorium has turned positive in price then I have to assume that that’s exactly what someone is doing.
I am making the assumption that we’d all like to have some method of generating electricity that doesn’t involve pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere. Assuming that, a safer and cheaper form of nuclear as above sounds like a pretty good idea.
Some of the other technologies that are being touted don’t look so good though. We’ve had windmills in Western Europe since the 12th century so we could assume that they’re a pretty mature technology.
And as to offshore wind: it is more expensive – and there’s no marine engineer I’ve found who thinks that anyone has looked seriously at the problem of maintenance of metallic structures in the salt water of the North Sea.
Much the same problem seems to afflict the various ideas for trapping wave energy and the like. The sea is simply a harsh environment. Anything metallic does not last all that long out there.
Tidal, well, the problem there is that it just doesn’t stack up financially
Hydro and geothermal have promise: but they’re not generally deployable. You can do them in certain places but you can’t do them everywhere and there aren’t, at least as far as we know just yet, enough places where you can to power us all. There are minor useful sources like biogas but they are, in the face of energy demand, most definitely minor. Biofuels just starve poor people which isn’t the aim at all.
Which leaves us really with the big three. Some advocates of fossil fuels like to talk about carbon capture and storage but that meets what is probably an insuperable problem. You end up spending 40-50 per cent of your fuel in the capture of the carbon and this doesn’t reduce with scale. So even if it can be made to work (something no one has as yet managed) it’s going to be expensive.
Nuclear, uranium type nuclear, many of us here will think that it’s just a great idea. Unfortunately many who share the planet with us don’t. It may even be true (actually, it is) that the radioactive release from Fukushima is, per hour, half that from the hourly consumption of bananas around the world.
Here comes the Sun
Which really leaves us just with solar as the final possible choice. Which could be very depressing: it’s expensive and it’s intermittent again. We’ve no decent storage system (batteries would be waaaay too expensive at any scale) and so we might have to do what certain Greens so dearly hope we will do – go back to using energy when it’s available rather than this luxury of using it when we want to
The really interesting point about solar PV is that it’s getting cheaper: it’s been around 20 per cent a year (or 4 per cent a quarter) for a decade or more. This isn’t just reliant on that glut of stuff from China. This is much more like a variant of Moore’s Law, and why shouldn’t it be? Making a solar cell is analogous to making a computer chip.
We’ve also got at least one more major design change possible: the switch to multi-junction cells. Use some indium, some gallium, some germanium, all in the same cell in order to collect photons of different energy levels and we can, already in the lab, get efficiencies of 40 per cent.
Which still leaves us with our intermittency problem.
I think that solid oxide fuel cells will be the solution here.
Now before an engineer starts shouting at me about how inefficient electrolysis is, I’d like to offer up a reminder that what we actually care about is cost, not efficiency. There’s so much energy available that we’d be entirely happy with that efficiency loss as long as it is cheap enough. And that is what I think is going to happen.
Not, obviously, next year. But if the current price of solar PV is $1 per W, which is about the current capital cost, I can’t actually see a reason why that won’t be 50 cents within the decade and then going on getting ever lower. At which point that electrolysis is going to look pretty good as the basis of our battery or storage system utilising the fuel cells.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Price rises and power cuts by 2016? Thank the EU’s energy policy
60% of gas-fired generators gone inside three years, warn beancounters CapGemini
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/15/lights_out_across_europe_capgemini_warns/
The closure of nearly two thirds of Europe’s gas-fired power generation facilities by 2016 will lead to regional price hikes and make outages inevitable, Cap Gemini has warned.
UK households are already feeling the squeeze of soaring energy bills but a particularly cold winter this year could mean that 1970s style blackouts start to become a more regular occurrence again.
The consultancy’s annual European Monitoring Centre for Energy Markets briefing encapsulates much of the crisis in European energy policy – one almost entirely of its own making.
A gas plant needs to be operating at 57 per cent capacity to be economically viable, but EU regulations introduced to reduce CO2 emissions relegate them to standby duties, in favour of much more inefficient and costly renewable energy plants. This means keeping a gas plant open is uneconomical for the operator. Research outfit IEA, cited by CapGemini, reckons 60 per cent of gas-fired power stations will close by 2016 because they cannot cover their operating costs.
“These plants… that are indispensable to ensure security of supply during peak hours… are being replaced by volatile and non-schedulable renewable energy installations that are heavily subsidized,” the report points out.
The EU introduced a renewables obligation that the region produces 20 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. This includes solar, wind, hydroelectric and “biofuels” – the latter leading to an increase in fossil fuel consumption with wood being burned for electricity.
CapGem sees two consequences of Europe’s renewables push – power cuts and increased CO2 emissions as “dirty” coal is employed to plug the gaps.
Shale gas now accounts for a third of gas production in the USA, with wholesale prices falling by two thirds. The USA has also benefited from an industrial revival as a consequence: manufacturing jobs that had been lost to low wage countries are now returning home. Although US labour costs remain higher than, say, China, cheaper energy has cancelled out much of this this advantage.
Cheap gas in the USA has had a related consequence in Europe, the report notes.
“With this low price, gas has replaced coal as fuel in fossil fuels creating a surplus of coal in the U.S. market. This surplus was exported to Europe resulting in lowering coal prices by 30 per cent between January 2012 and June 2013. This decline has promoted the competitiveness of plants coal in Europe which has resulted in a much better utilization than gas-fired plants”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: European aircraft still dangerously contaminated
Many of the amount of air pollution in recent decades has been reduced, but especially for fine particles and ground-level ozone pose a serious risk to humans, wildlife, crops and buildings.
Although moniein air pollution has decreased in Europe in recent decades, the pollution levels are still high in many places dangerous, warns the European Environment Agency EEA recent report.
European countries have managed to halve such as acid rain causing sulfur dioxide emissions and carbon monoxide emissions have been reduced by a third.
In contrast, fine particles and ground-level ozone have decreased only slightly, even though they are a significant risk to human health and damage to wildlife, crops and buildings.
The biggest risk in Europe caused by a report that the smaller particles in the urban areas. The microscopic particles can penetrate into the lungs and into the bloodstream, causing, among other things, breathing difficulties and respiratory and heart diseases of premature deaths.
Less than 10 microns inhaled particles has decreased by 14 percent from 2002 to 2011, and less than 2.5 micron particulates 16 percent.
Finland was one of the few countries where the EU limit values are not in either of particles was exceeded in 2011.
In addition, the EU countries, almost every city dwellers, 98 percent, live in areas where ozone in the troposphere is the UN’s recommendations for more. Ground level ozone occurs close to the sunlight and pollution, and the impact. It is harmful to both humans and animals and plants.
Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/raportti_euroopan_ilma_yha_vaarallisen_saastunutta/6882372
Tomi Engdahl says:
Schneider Electric selects Microsoft Windows Azure as preferred cloud platform
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/schneider-azure-cloud.html
Schneider Electric announced its selection of Microsoft Windows Azure, a cloud computing and infrastructure platform, as the preferred cloud provider for the company’s StruxureWare platform of integrated software applications and suites that help companies manage and monitor their sustainability initiatives, optimize their current operations and better manage their sites and processes. The Windows Azure platform is being rolled out globally to support Schneider Electric’s StruxureWare cloud-based software offerings, beginning with StruxureWare Resource Advisor and StruxureWare Energy Operations.
Windows Azure expands Schneider Electric’s ability to rapidly deploy public, private and -hybrid cloud solutions. StruxureWare software customers can achieve gains in speed of processing, providing instant access to the online, web accessible software.
Azure’s cloud functionality allows customers to leverage installed investments through secure cloud connectivity to existing energy metering and monitoring systems, says Schneider Electric. It also increases mobility for customers by providing access to information within the StruxureWare software applications on the go. Schneider Electric software developers benefit from Windows Azure’s pay-as-you-go structure
Windows Azure is already in use in Schneider Electric’s Orbit, a mobile field data collection solution for ArcFM.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web seminar addresses cabling’s role in achieving efficiency
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/green-cabling-webcast.html
A web seminar hosted by Cabling Installation & Maintenance on Thursday, October 24 will discuss the ways in which a structured cabling system can be energy-, labor- and performance-efficient. Titled “Are ‘green’ efforts and cabling a mismatch?’” the seminar will include three presentations, each of which takes a unique perspective on how cabling choices affect efficiency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyzing Power Use: 80 Plus Bronze vs. Platinum
by Jarred Walton on October 30, 2013 8:40 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7474/analyzing-power-use-80-plus-bronze-vs-platinum
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Only NUCLEAR power can SAVE HUMANITY’, say Global Warming high priests
Schism within the environmental ‘religion’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/04/only_nuclear_power_can_save_humanity_say_global_warming_high_priests/
Four of the best-known scientists espousing the belief that humanity’s carbon emissions are an immediate and deadly threat have issued a statement begging their fellow greens to support nuclear power.
Doctors James Hansen, Ken Caldeira, Kerry Emanuel and Tom Wigley co-signed an open letter over the weekend in which they address “those influencing environmental policy, but opposed to nuclear power”. The four scientists write that “continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity’s ability to avoid dangerous climate change … there is no credible path to climate stabilization that does not include a substantial role for nuclear power”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Experts say nuclear power needed to slow warming
http://news.yahoo.com/experts-nuclear-power-needed-slow-warming-103134312.html
Some of the world’s top climate scientists say wind and solar energy won’t be enough to head off extreme global warming, and they’re asking environmentalists to support the development of safer nuclear power as one way to cut fossil fuel pollution.
Environmentalists agree that global warming is a threat to ecosystems and humans, but many oppose nuclear power and believe that new forms of renewable energy will be able to power the world within the next few decades.
That isn’t realistic, the letter said.
“Those energy sources cannot scale up fast enough” to deliver the amount of cheap and reliable power the world needs, and “with the planet warming and carbon dioxide emissions rising faster than ever, we cannot afford to turn away from any technology” that has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases.
The scientists acknowledge that there are risks to using nuclear power, but say those are far smaller than the risk posed by extreme climate change.
“We understand that today’s nuclear plants are far from perfect.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Says Its New Data Center Will Run Entirely on Wind
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/11/facebook-iowa-wind/
Facebook passed another milestone in the green data center arms race today with the announcement that its Altoona, Iowa data center will be 100 percent powered by wind power when it goes online in 2015.
This will Facebook’s second data center — after its Lulea, Sweden location — to run on all renewable power.
The electricity for the new data center will come from a nearby wind project in Wellsburg, Iowa, according to a blog post from Facebook. Both the wind project, which will be owned and operated by MidAmerican Energy, and the data center are currently under construction.
Green data centers have come a long way since environmental advocacy organization Greenpeace began railing against Facebook in 2010. Following criticism of their energy use patterns, companies like Facebook and Apple vowed to clean-up their acts.
But that’s not to say that these data centers are actually environmentally friendly as of yet. Reaching 100 percent renewable energy is tough to pull off. Apple claims that its data centers are powered by 100 percent renewable sources, but it’s using renewable energy credits to “offset” its use of coal and nuclear power.
But one of the biggest impacts of these sorts of projects is a boost in overall availability of renewable energy, says Greenpeace IT analyst Gary Cook
Tomi Engdahl says:
How green is your cabling and how would you know?
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-21/issue-10/features/how-green-is-your-cabling-and-how-would-you-know.html
With multiple perspectives on what makes a system environmentally friendly, several groups have their own individual views.
For many trades in the construction industry, the approval this past summer of the United States Green Building Council’s (www.usgbc.org) LEED v4 rating system is worthy of strict attention. Those that provide products, systems and services to property owners vying for the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) status meticulously follow the program’s requirements in a quest to earn the recognition that has become a prestigious symbol of sustainability and environmental stewardship.
So the differences between LEED 2009 and LEED v4 are a front-burner issue for many construction trades. But not all. As we have documented in the magazine and on our website, the essential nonexistence of cabling-related considerations in the LEED program has left the cabling industry on the outside looking in when it comes to LEED.
After some on-again, off-again discussions between the USGBC and trade groups associated with the cabling and information-technology systems (ITS) industry, several ITS-industry groups joined to develop the STEP Foundation (www.thestepfoundation.org). STEP is an acronym for Sustainable Technology Environments Program, and its founding organizations include the Telecommunications Industry Association, InfoComm and CompTIA.
The Manufacturers Group includes companies from the AV industry, communications cable and connectivity manufacturers, and suppliers of plastics and other materials that are used in the production of cable and many other products. DuPont’s regulatory affairs manager Fred Dawson chairs the group.
The initial rating system established by the STEP Foundation does not favor any media type over another (e.g. fiber, twisted-pair copper, wireless). Rather, it includes requirements like “Specify products which restrict the inclusion of hazardous materials,” “Identify opportunities for integrated building technology and energy management,” and “Employ design strategies to optimize infrastructure for sustainability”–undertakings that may be enhanced by one medium or another.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hubbell partners with energy-efficient wireless lighting developer Lutron to solve new building code reqs
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/11/hubbell-lutron-code.html
Hubbell Wiring Device-Kellems, a specialist manufacturer of electrical devices and energy management products, and Lutron Electronics, a provider of energy-saving, wireless lighting and shade control technology, announced that the companies are collaboratively developing new products that they say will enable the electrical industry to better comply with new building code requirements for controlling electrical outlets and their associated plug loads.
Hubbell will embed Lutron’s Clear Connect radio frequency (RF) communication technology directly into Hubbell’s Load:Logic plug-load control products. Hubbell says the partnership expands the interoperability of Clear Connect-enabled devices
The use of automated controls for lighting and HVAC has dramatically increased efficiencies of these systems in modern facilities, note the companies. In contrast, miscellaneous plug loads connected to electrical receptacles have been left uncontrolled and can now approach 50% of a high performance building’s energy footprint, claims Hubbell. To address this, ASHRAE 90.1-2010, California Energy Commission, and LEED v4 require that 50% of power outlets must be controlled in most areas of a building.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Pushes for More Clean Energy in Land of the Data Centers
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/11/green-source-rider/
It’s not easy to go green. More and more power is coming from renewable energy like wind, but most power grids in the United States are still predominately driven by non-renewable sources.
That’s a problem for tech companies like Facebook and Google, who want to give their energy-intensive computing systems a green tint. Facebook, for example, has vowed to source 25 percent of its data centers’ power from renewable sources by 2015. But without utility companies to supply the clean energy, reaching that goal is a challenge.
In North Carolina — home to data centers for Apple, Facebook, Google and many more — Duke Energy is beginning to lend a hand. The old-school power company may adopt a new program designed to help big data center operators — as well as manufacturers and other energy intensive customers — offset their dirty energy usage.
Today, the utility submitted the proposed program, called The Green Source Rider, to the North Carolina Utilities Commission. If approved, the program would purchase clean energy from both within and outside North Carolina to match some or all of the power consumed by participating customers. At present, Duke Energy Carolinas owns nuclear, coal-fire, natural gas, and hydroelectric plants. Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks says the program will be available for new facilities only.
The project is the result of a campaign by Google, Facebook and Apple, along with companies from outside the tech sector, to make more renewable energy available in the state.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3M, Allied Control debut immersion cooling data center at SC13
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/11/3m-immersion-data-center.html
At the recent SuperComputing 2013 (SC13) show in Denver, CO, 3M and Hong-Kong-based Allied Control, a professional services firm specializing in immersion cooling technology, released details behind significant jointly developed advancements in reducing energy use in data centers, while enabling much tighter component packaging for greater computing power in less space. Allied Control’s passive two-phase liquid immersion cooling system now employs a novel approach pioneered by 3M Novec Engineered Fluids. The companies say their newly developed “open bath method” permits easy access to hardware, while eliminating the need for costly, pressure vessel enclosures and charging/recovery systems, making the technology cost effective for large-scale data center applications.
Using 3M Novec Engineered Fluids as the primary coolant,
With standard 19-inch racks and enclosures built in a modular, open and universal design, the data center is capable of delivering a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.02 in the hot and humid climate of Hong Kong, without taking any free cooling into account.
The data center, despite being housed in Hong Kong’s sticky climate, saved more than 95 percent of its cooling electricity energy. This represented a staggering $64,000 savings per month in the 500kW facility by eliminating chillers and air conditioning units.
“This new data center project demonstrates the elegance of immersion cooling and showcases that it has what it takes to be the new gold standard in the industry,”
“Our client knows they are just beginning to scratch the surface on the potential enclosure capacity of their data center. They still have the ability to increase capacity by two- or threefold, and they intend to replace their hardware with the next generation without making additional changes for a long time to come,” adds Lau. “Using two-phase immersion cooling, the constraint is definitely not cooling-related. Others in the industry are quickly seeing that there is simply no other solution to cope with extreme densities beyond 150kW per rack in such an elegant way.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultra-green Europeans scorn Facebook’s data centre blueprint
Efficiency isn’t a dirty word! Crevice is a dirty word, but efficiency isn’t…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/21/europeans_scorn_open_compute_facebook/
Facebook’s Open Compute Project has found little overt support in Europe to date, the firm’s data centre boss said today, in part because of those crazy continentals’ obsession with carbon neutrality over efficiency.
Since the project was launched in 2011, OCP groups had started spontaneously in Japan and Korea, he said, and the firm was looking to support them: “When it started it was just us… it has grown beyond our wildest dreams.”
However, he added, “We still don’t see anything in Europe that’s coalescing around OCP.”
Asked by The Register whether this was a problem or a puzzle for Facebook he said: “We would love to see more people support it.”
As to whether there was something intrinsic to the European mindset that stopped data centre operators and/or vendors jumping into bed with Facebook, he said, “I don’t think so.”
But, he added, Europe (as much as you can talk about a single Europe) was very focused on carbon neutrality. Facebook, and by extension OCP, is “more into the efficiency side of the house”.
He continued, “one of the best ways” to move towards carbon neutrality was to increase the efficiency of the data centre.
Typically its front-end servers run at 60 to 70 per cent utilisation.
To date, most announcements from OCP have been about its server and networking blueprints.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Collaborating to build faster, more energy-efficient data centers
http://www.te.com/everyconnectioncounts/en/home.s_cid_corp_corp_te_var_aol_ECCgeneral_Onlineadv_701G0000000anHBIAY.html#datacenter
http://www.te.com/everyconnectioncounts/en/home.s_cid_corp_corp_te_var_aol_ECCgeneral_Onlineadv_701G0000000anHBIAY.html#datacentervideo
With the rise in popularity of cloud computing and users’ need to access and store vast amounts of data, traditional data centers are seeking new ways to deliver more speed while reducing overall operational costs.
TE Connectivity engineers are working with our customers to improve data center infrastructure by upgrading the speed, energy efficiency, and density of connections. Through delivering innovative new data center components and products at the connection level, TE Connectivity gives today’s modern data center architects greater design flexibility and the ability to manage operational costs more effectively than ever before.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cow FLATULENCE, gas emissions MUCH WORSE than thought – boffins
Burping bovines, fossil fuel in US may toast planet faster
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/26/potent_greenhouse_gas_emissions_much_higher_than_thought/
A new study has revealed that the amount of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent but far less prevalent than CO2 – released into the US atmosphere is significantly higher than previously thought.
“We find greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and fossil fuel extraction and processing (i.e., oil and/or natural gas) are likely a factor of two or greater than cited in existing studies,” reports a paper describing the findings, “Anthropogenic emissions of methane in the United States”, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can Fusion Energy Generate Unlimited Clean Energy by 2017?
http://www.industrytap.com/can-fusion-energy-generate-unlimited-clean-energy-by-2017/2894
The phrase “shooting for the moon” has for centuries been used as a symbol of something utterly unattainable; fusion energy, once thought to be fantasy is now locked in the crosshairs of a Lockheed Martin company – Skunkworks.
Charles Chase, Senior Program Manager of Skunkworks Revolutionary Technology Program, recently spoke at a meeting called “Solve for X”. He described the world’s current predicament: while the humanity produces 17 terawatts (TW) of power a year, enough for every man woman and child on the planet to experience the typical American household of appliances, TVs, cell phones, power distribution worldwide is uneven. One-sixth (1.1 billion) of the world’s population is without access to electricity.
Chase’s personal and professional goal is to bring power to those who don’t have it; the following image shows the technology that can make it happen: a fusion reactor.
The world is expected to require 28 terawatts (TW) a year by 2050 to meet the needs of a growing human civilization. Increasing energy output will require the addition of new energy resources some of which are not environmentally friendly. For example, there are 1,200 coal plants currently planned that will cost about $4 trillion with a significant negative impact on our health and our environment from emissions: just look at Beijing on its worst days to get an idea of what might come to pass.
Fusion is a zero emission approach to generating energy but it has been in development since the early 1950s with no success to date. Skunkworks has been looking at a simple fusion reaction as a possible solution.
There have been many different fusion concepts but the dominant one at present is called a “tokamak”; 200 have been built across the world in recent years. In a “tokamak” rotating plasma generates the magnetic field itself which becomes weaker as plasma expands.
In order for the “tokamak” process to work it must be built on a huge scale.
Chase’s lab is experimenting with a cylindrical 100 MW reactor just 2 meters in diameter and 4 meters long.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Small “Modular” Nuclear Reactors Being Tested Around the World
http://www.industrytap.com/small-modular-nuclear-reactors-being-tested-around-the-world/11042
Researchers in Japan are developing a modular nuclear reactor to power large apartment complexes. Small or modular reactors produce up to 500 MW of energy. The Japanese reactor is based on Rapid-L that was intended as a power supply for colonies on the moon. The reactor is just 19.6 feet (6m) tall and 6.5 feet (2m) wide making it about a fifth of the size of a typical nuclear plant.
Building a Fail-Safe Reactor
After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Japanese government is funding research and tests on the fail-safe mechanism for the reactor, which will shut down automatically if it overheats.
Mitsuru Kambe, of Central Research Institute of the Electrical Power Industry (CRIEPI), sees small modular reactors as a way for Japan to relieve peak loads. He believes the reactor will reduce risks associated with the use of nuclear power and become a flexible and more cost-effective use of resources.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IKEA Launches a Line of Solar Panels
http://www.industrytap.com/ikea-launches-a-line-of-solar-panels/14776
IKEA is known for furnishing everything under your roof and now the store wants to put its products on your roof too. The company has begun selling solar panels in branches of stores in the United Kingdom. The new product line is part of a partnership with Chinese energy company Hanergy and includes an in-store designed system for the consumer’s home.
Many people are put off by solar panels due to the cost, says IKEA in a statement about the partnership. A study conducted by the Swedish furniture giant stated only 6% of those surveyed have made the switch.
The new deal with IKEA aims to “bring home solar into the mainstream”, offering full installation of the panels as well, “at a price they can afford directly from the high-street, cutting out the middle-man”, according to the press release. IKEA is reportedly selling a full-home installation of the solar panels for £5,700 ($9,106 USD).
IKEA cites evidence that installing solar panels allows people to cut their home energy bills by nearly half and money spent on the panels could possibly be recouped in seven years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global Warming: Are the Skeptics Right?
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1366&doc_id=238562&cid=nl.dn14
Global warming is a contentious topic. Opinions on both sides can be loud and angry.
But in the past week, the loudness and anger climbed a few more notches. When a group of so-called “skeptics” expressed an opinion, a Huffington Post blog argued they were scared of science, saying, “the folks who deny scientific facts deserve to be laughed at and scorned.” A New York Times blog took a more measured tone, saying that the skeptics “appear to flunk climate economics.” Earth Times described their opinion as “a call to play with fire.”
“The oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true,” it said. “In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.”
But forget for a minute whether you do or don’t believe in global warming. Global warming — or “climate change,” as it’s now called — is an unbelievably complex subject that’s deeply understood by only a handful of people. In truth, most of us rely on conclusions from various studies, done by people we trust, to determine where we stand on the subject.
But, good grief, if an opinion of distinguished scientists doesn’t match our own, does it deserve scorn?
It’s worth noting that the 16 scientists who signed the editorial aren’t alone.
The signatories aren’t making a case for coal, oil, nuclear, wind, or solar power. They don’t mention whether we should buy electric cars or gas guzzlers. By most measures, their opinion seems apolitical. They just believe that CO2 isn’t a problem.
“The demonization of carbon has really distorted everything we do,” Happer told us. “If we could back off and say, ‘CO2 is probably good,’ it would change the way we do things. We’d like to get back to an honest economic discussion not based on carbon footprints or assumptions about ‘evil CO2.’ ”
Whether we agree or disagree with that assessment, it has the potential to affect everything that engineers do.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Private cars vs. public transportation, an epic battle
http://mikkosmostlyharmless.blogspot.fi/2013/12/private-cars-vs-public-transportation.html
Ground rule: use public transportation if you can. It is good for the environment and good for the city (if you are in a city) and it increases your sex appeal. However, the whole picture is much more complex than that.
City planners and bus manufacturers try to appeal to the public by launching publicity campaigns
These publicity campaigns consistently compare the “best case” scenario for buses and “worst case” for cars, and this may lead to unrealistic expectations.
The mass transportation model works well in crowded cities for commuting, but actual occupancy rates are often much lower. According to UK Department for Transport’s report, the estimated average occupancy rate (vehicle miles divided by passenger miles) of buses in London was 19.3, which is good – but only 9.1 outside of London (11.1 for the whole Great Britain). It also mentions that the current trend is that the rate for outside London is falling, potentially making mass transportation less effective and more challenging to maintain.
According to University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems’ report, average occupancy rate of all U.S. vehicles was 1.55 in 2011. The average rate varies by trip purpose – for leisure it is close to 2, for commuting it is often close to 1, and sometimes the car can also be full(!).
1.55 passengers is 31 % of a passenger vehicles maximum capacity (assumed five). 11.1 passengers is only 15.9 % of maximum capacity of a traditional city bus (40 seats and 30 standing, rough estimate).
With these figures, you only need two or three cars to match the average occupancy rate of a bus, and with a car you can travel from point to point with greater flexibility.
Conclusions
Based on these numbers, driving a passenger car alone is approximately as fuel efficient as it is to travel on a bus, and with at least two passenger, it is significantly more efficient. At the same time, it is much more comfortable, flexible, faster and safer, and it allows you to transport groceries, strollers and other items.
However, this is not the complete picture either, for many reasons.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft shows green energy momentum with investment in Keechi Wind Farm
http://blogs.technet.com/b/firehose/archive/2013/11/04/microsoft-shows-green-energy-momentum-with-investment-in-keechi-wind-farm.aspx
RES Americas developed and constructed the 343 megawatt Lower Snake River Wind Farm. The project, which began operating in 2012, is owned by Puget Sound Energy and is Washington State’s largest wind farm.
“All of the electricity we consume is from the power grid, through local utilities, which includes a mix generation resources including hydro, natural gas and wind,” says Brian Janous, director of energy strategy at Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services.
Microsoft has committed to a 20-year power purchase agreement with RES Americas to buy 100 percent of the electricity generated from the soon-to-be-built Keechi Wind Farm Project. It’s Microsoft’s latest investment in renewable energy and is just one of several innovative projects and approaches the company has pursued in the past few years.
“We have a long standing ambition to move in the direction of sourcing more clean energy as a company, so over the last few years we’ve increasingly purchased something called RECs – renewable energy credits (more than 2.3 billion kWh globally) – and so this is an opportunity to go to the next stage and invest directly in green energy,”
An internal carbon fee — which Microsoft charges to business groups based on their output of carbon, primarily through electricity and air travel – helps fund these projects and the Keechi Wind project. The fee is the cornerstone of Microsoft’s commitment to carbon neutrality. The funds generated from the carbon fee are used for investing in energy efficiency projects, carbon offsets and for the direct purchase of renewable energy.
One way customers can reduce their energy use is by transferring from on-premise installations to cloud computing, Bernard says. At the very least, that transfer causes a 30 percent energy reduction, up to a best case scenario of 90 percent, depending on an organization’s size, efficiency and what product lines they’re using.
“Public support for renewable energy is strong and growing. Consumers are more aware than ever of the harmful effects of carbon pollution and the role renewable energy can play in reducing these impacts. They want the electricity that powers their lives to be green,” Reilly says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Climatologist James Hansen Defends Nuclear Energy
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/12/08/1659258/climatologist-james-hansen-defends-nuclear-energ
“James Hansen, the former director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences, has been a strong defender of using nuclear energy to replace coal and renewable energy. He and three other researchers had written a letter, arguing just this.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top climate change scientists’ letter to policy influencers
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/03/world/nuclear-energy-climate-change-scientists-letter/index.html
Editor’s note: Climate and energy scientists James Hansen, Ken Caldeira, Kerry Emanuel and Tom Wigley released an open letter Sunday calling on world leaders to support development of safer nuclear power systems. For more on the future of nuclear power as a possible solution for global climate change
As climate and energy scientists concerned with global climate change, we are writing to urge you to advocate the development and deployment of safer nuclear energy systems. We appreciate your organization’s concern about global warming, and your advocacy of renewable energy. But continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity’s ability to avoid dangerous climate change.
We call on your organization to support the development and deployment of safer nuclear power systems as a practical means of addressing the climate change problem. Global demand for energy is growing rapidly and must continue to grow to provide the needs of developing economies
Renewables like wind and solar and biomass will certainly play roles in a future energy economy, but those energy sources cannot scale up fast enough to deliver cheap and reliable power at the scale the global economy requires. While it may be theoretically possible to stabilize the climate without nuclear power, in the real world there is no credible path to climate stabilization that does not include a substantial role for nuclear power
Quantitative analyses show that the risks associated with the expanded use of nuclear energy are orders of magnitude smaller than the risks associated with fossil fuels. No energy system is without downsides.
there will be no single technological silver bullet
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud Power Issue Looms, Says Cisco CTO
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320327&
The US is not funding the basic research needed to avert looming power consumption problems in datacenters, says a senior Cisco engineering manager. Separately, another Cisco exec predicts self-driving cars will someday become the norm.
Today’s largest Web giants are planning to build multiple datacenters that could consume as much 120 megawatts each by 2020. Breakthroughs in technologies such as silicon photonics could help reduce the need for such facilities, says Dave Ward, chief technologist of engineering at Cisco Systems
“As a society we are not investing to get to the root of major power problems,” Ward said, speaking at a press event where Cisco technologists gave their predictions for the future.
Today the largest datacenters for Web giants such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google each draw 40 to 50MW. All the largest players have plans on the drawing board for facilities two to three times that size, he said.
“That’s as much energy as it takes to power a city of 500,000 people — just to handle our data,” Ward said. Finding ways to build more power efficient datacenters “will be one of the most important questions for getting to 2020.”
Silicon photonics is seen as one approach for lowering power consumption in datacenters. Cisco, Intel, Mellanox, and others are developing silicon photonics products, but they are not expected until 2014 or later. Today’s datacenters are starting to adopt 10 Gbit/s Ethernet with moves to 40GE planned through 2018, Ward said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Climate change is like Y2k!’ – Oz senator
Yes, but not the way you think
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/10/climate_change_is_like_y2k_oz_senator/
The Australian government’s debate about climate change and carbon pricing has taken a turn for the silly.
The government’s bill to repeal the country’s price on carbon is stalled in the senate, to the frustration of the government, which led to this (as reported by AAP via the Murdoch press):
“Liberal senator Ian Macdonald has railed against the carbon tax and the stated threats of climate change, comparing it with the dire Y2K warnings before 2000.
“’I’m sure in years to come people will look back on history and say, yep, remember global warming … we’re still going,’ he told the chamber on Monday.”
But the parallels between the real narratives of Y2k and climate change are even more striking than the parallels between the fake narratives.
The problem was/is real – Even if the “disaster porn” stories were exaggerated, Y2k was a real problem.
The knowledge gap – Experts understood the Y2k problem, and experts understand the climate change problem. Both are subject to attacks on their expertise by non-experts – the very people they tried, or are trying, to help.
The longer you wait, the worse the pain – it was easier and cheaper to fix programs incrementally over a long period, than to commission a “big bang” project at the end.
Disaster is avoidable
Deadline – Y2k had a hard deadline: fix your software by December 31, 1999, or risk the crash. Climate science cannot offer a hard deadline, making it much harder to sell to people with money.
Vested interests – nobody had an interest in letting their computers crash on December 31, 1999. Alas, there are plenty of interests fighting to protect their business from any action whatever to reduce atmospheric pollution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s answer to AIRPOCALYPSE: Fire up the supercomputer
Tianhe-1A enlisted to analyse the cause of smoggy days
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/11/tianhe_supercomputer_model_air_quality/
China has decided to use the power of supercomputing to help in its on-going quest to beat the smog that is turning the country into an international coughing laughing stock.
The Tianhe-1A, which took number one spot on the oft-changing Top 500 list for a few months in 2010, will be set to work trying to figure out the cause of smoggy days.
It will work over the coming 3-5 years on a simulation model updated with data from real world monitors, of which there are 668 in 114 cities, according to Xinhua.
The hope is that it will be able to accurately forecast well in advance the conditions which create that perfect smoggy storm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data centers gobble electricity – consumption is to be curbed
Green ICT: to have been created for Finnish Transport and Communications Ministry’s own action .
It identifies three measures in the area. They apply to data centers, telecommunications networks and audiovisual services.
The first phase will focus on data centers and telecommunications networks, energy issues, as well as audio-visual services to the growing use. The aim is to produce research which can be conducted in the future measures to control consumption.
Data centers for energy efficiency aimed at improving the environmental classification, as well as the addition of a new environmental awareness. Information and communication networks, energy needs and challenges of explaining the end of 2015. At the same time consider whether the law barriers to reducing energy consumption.
The same television and video content is available to consumers in different distribution channels: television, home computers and smart phones. A significant impact on your viewing consumption caused by environmental costs. Among other things, the different distribution channels, energy efficiency is expected as part of the program.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/konesalit+ahmivat+sahkoa++kulutusta+halutaan+suitsia/a953997
Tomi Engdahl says:
Title of publication
Green ICT Action Programme
http://www.lvm.fi/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=2497123&name=DLFE-22412.pdf&title=Julkaisuja%2034-2013
The Ministry of Transport and Communications aims to promote material and energy efficiency in society and to decrease carbon dioxide emissions by means of information and communications technology products and services. The so-called green ICT initiatives are increasingly linked with conventional communications and environmental policy. At present, key priorities in green ICT include more extensive use of communications tools, electronic communications and better energy efficiency.
This Green ICT Action Programme is based on the Ministry of Transport and Communications’ strategic guidelines for research, development and innovation activities 2013-2015 and on the Environmental Strategy for Transport 2013-2020. The primary focus of the Action Programme is to find out the energy needs of the ICT infrastructure. A further goal of the Programme is research cooperation across sectors for the purpose of minimising the negative effects of ICT.
The Programme has three focus areas: energy efficiency, sustainable development and up-to-date research information. At the first stage, the measures in the Programme are directed to server rooms, communications networks and audiovisual services. The Green ICT Action Programme is part of the intelligent strategy in communications policy.
In accordance with the strategy’s essential principle, sustainable development, the aims and measures of this Action Programme, too, are developed to meet the changes in the operating environment and models. The progress and effects of the measures are monitored annually and information is collected for the needs of the authorities, including the Ministry’s administrative sector, and research.
Tomi says:
World’s top climate scientists told to ‘cover up’ the fact that the Earth’s temperature hasn’t risen for the last 15 years
Leaked United Nations report reveals the world’s temperature hasn’t risen for the last 15 years
Politicians have raised concerns about the final draft
Fears that the findings will encourage deniers of man-made climate change
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2425775/Climate-scientists-told-cover-fact-Earths-temperature-risen-15-years.html#ixzz2nQpeqcUj
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ph.D. dissertation titled Data Center Energy Retrofits
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/pervila/phd/
Within the eld of computer science, data centers (DCs) are a major
consumer of energy. A large part of that energy is used for cooling down
the exhaust heat of the servers contained in the DCs. This thesis describes both the aggregate numbers of DCs and key agship installations in detail.
We then introduce the concept of Data Center Energy Retro ts, a set of low cost, easy to install techniques that may be used by the majority of DCs for reducing their energy consumption.
The main contributions are a feasibility study of direct free air cooling, two techniques that explore air stream containment, a wired sensor network for temperature measurements, and a prototype greenhouse that harvests and reuses the exhaust heat of the servers for growing edible plants, including chili peppers.
We also project the energy savings attainable by implementing the proposed techniques, and show that global savings are possible even when very conservative installation numbers and payback times are modelled.
Using the results obtained, we make a lower bound estimate that direct
free air cooling could reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by
9.4 MtCO2 e already by the year 2005 footprint of the DCs.