Posted by jumperhead on April 30th, 2008
Ah, Microsoft. You’ve got to love them. They’ve come up with such great computing innovations as Clippy. You know - that annoying paperclip that used to pop up and say stuff like ‘it looks like you’re writing a letter. Can I help?’
But that’s not Microsoft’s only contribution to computing, oh no. It’s putting its not inconsiderable cash resources towards making datacentres that little bit more energy efficient, using two methods: pay for play, where energy consumption is lowered when a machine is idle or not doing that much, and improving energy efficiency for machines at peak load through the likes of better hardware design, software, networking, benchmarking, analysis, virtualisation or anything else it can think of.
It’s announced this week it’s giving out grants worth to $500,000 four academic computing projects which aim to cut the power that datacentres suck up.
After a slight fumble with the gold envelope, Greenbang can tell you the lucky winners are:
•“Control-Theoretic Power and Performance Management for Green Data Centers”; University of Tennessee; aimed at developing frameworks for integrating power and performance improvements in virtualized datacenters
•“Building a Building-scale Power Analysis Infrastructure”; Stanford University; for the design and deployment of a dense sensor network for power analysis, producing data for future research on power-aware computing
•“A Synergistic Approach to Adaptive Power Management”; Harvard University; for the development of a dynamic runtime environment that ensures that power consumption is proportional to the computational demands made on the system
•“Simulating Low Power x86 Architectures with Sooner, a Phoenix-based Simulation Framework”; University of Oklahoma; for the development of a simulation framework that supports the study of low-power microarchitectures for innovative multicore systems
Posted by jumperhead on April 7th, 2008
PC box shifter Dell is now powering its HQ - a bit of a beast at 2.1 million square feet and home to 10,000 Dell types - with ‘green power’. Greenbang had rather hoped that meant the company has The Incredible Hulk down in the basement and is milking him for his super strength.
But no.
It means Dell gets 40 percent of its energy from Waste Management’s Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy plant and the rest from wind farms provided by TXU Energy.
With the greening of its HQ under its belt, it’s also turning its attention to its Austin Parmer Campus, upping the green power quotient from eight to 17 percent of the campus’ energy needs, while its Twin Falls Idaho base it already 100 percent Hulk-like, with 97 percent of its energy needs met by wind and the teeny weeny three percent rest coming from solar.
Posted by jumperhead on March 28th, 2008
Like a more cashed up version of this little piggy went to market, some electronics firms have been going WEEE, WEEE, WEEE all the way home. WEEE, rather than an expression of porcine delight, is in this case the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive, an instruction by the EC which means that electronic gizmo manufacturers must make sure the goods they sell are taken back and recycled.
So a lot of firms are interested in getting involved with WEEE - after all, most people have a PC right now and there’s a rich seam of recycling dollars to be had in getting rid of them when they pass on to the great desktop heaven in the sky.
One WEEE firm, Shore Recycling, has been snapped up by Viridor Waste Management Limited for £23 million this week.
According to Viridor, the buy is in line with Viridor’s parent company Pennon Group strategy of expanding its waste management activities.
Shore is headquartered in Perth, Scotland and has recycling facilities in Perth, Manchester and St Helen’s, while Viridor is also based in Scotland and northern England.
Posted by jumperhead on March 27th, 2008
So, how green is your office? No, don’t look to the cheese plants for support, we’re talking sustainability here. If you fancy getting a bit of a handle on the subject, you can check out this handy tool from Xerox.
Granted it only covers your photocopiers and printers, but it’s a start. The calculator lets you take a look at what you could cut from your energy and paper use, solid waste, water, air and greenhouse gas emissions if you sorted out your printing.
Go on, treat yourself.
Posted by on January 14th, 2008
Poor old VCs, eh? Sometimes you have to pity them. For those who’ve invested in green tech, it’s a case of puffing contentedly on a pipe and warming a crumpet by the fire, safe in the knowledge they’ve backed a winning horse. For those yet to throw some cash at the environment, there’s a bit of a frantic search on to get involved.
Here’s a hint from The Guardian, green construction is considered quite tasty and has published a handy run down of what’s being spent where in green construction.
The [National Association of Home Builders] is also at present conducting a survey on the residential green building market as its last research which predicted growth from $7.4bn in 2005 to as much as $38b in 2010 are 18 months old.
Architects too are being urged to go green by their national body, the American Institute of Architects, although they still seem a little reluctant to forsake their old ways. In a recent survey conducted jointly by the AIA and design software vendor Autodesk, 50% of architects reported having clients enquire about green building on the majority of their projects. Yet only 30% of architects actually implemented green building elements. Only 10% of architects measure the carbon footprint of their projects.
The AIA, though, is determined to bring more architects on board and has made a commitment to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels used to construct and operate new and renovated buildings from the current level by 50% by 2010 and 10% or more each of the following five years so that buildings will be carbon neutral by 2030.
Posted by on January 10th, 2008
OK, OK, Greenbang takes it back a little, there was a bit of interesting news at CES, from General Motors, with CEO Rick Wagoner doing a bit of green flag waving and telling the good people of Las Vegas by 2010 half of all models will run on ethanol, says Wired. From that article:
Then there’s the E-Flex line, which will be able to derive power from a standard wall socket for a 40-mile range. For longer distances, the cars will include a motor fueled by ethanol, gas, diesel, or a hydrogen cell, which will charge their batteries. With the motor engaged, Wagoner said, the cars will get something on the order of 150 miles per gallon.
For his finale, Wagoner announced the world premiere of the Cadillac Provoq, the first luxury model in the E-Flex line. He said it gets 300 miles on a single tank of hydrogen, stored below the floorboard of the car, while a Lithium-Ion battery (with plugs on both sides of the car) stores electricity and engages for peak power situations.
Wired’s reporter goes on to say he checked out one of GM’s models and stuck his face up close to the exhaust pipe but could “detect only water vapor”. Nice.
Posted by Greenbang on January 4th, 2008
It is assumed by many that hybrid cars are the puppy’s privates when it comes to eco-friendly cars.
Not so, according to a Scandanavian study we’re about to blog about.
But first - this gem from AutoBlogGreen - a very good resource on eco-cars.
During his New Year’s Speech, Toyota’s CEO Katsuaki Watanabe announced some highlights about the future plans of his company. The most spectacular is the one we used as a headline: Each Toyota model will have a hybrid powertrain available so that Toyota can reach the goal of selling a million hybrids per year. Watanabe stated that since 1997, Toyota has saved 5 million CO2 tons from the atmosphere thanks to the marque’s 1.25 million hybrids already on the road.
Posted by Greenbang on January 2nd, 2008
Here’s a prediction then…
- Larger rounds of VC funding for clean-tech projects
- An increase in green legislation, or at the very least, a move towards it (it takes years to pass legal bills in the UK)
- Someone will find a way to store hyrdrogen so it can be used for cars
- The hype for crappy green gadgets and widgets that aren’t really green will go away, leaving the real stuff behind.
- And polar bears will take up arms with the humans. They will wear armour and tell people to stop melting their ice caps, please.
Posted by Greenbang on December 13th, 2007
GigaOM has this one -
“Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen tells us that the company has reached that goal with production at its San Jose, Calif., manufacturing facility. We’re not sure to what extent production is being done, but Roscheisen says there will be more info coming soon. The fact that Nanosolar is producing on schedule is a big step for the thin-film solar industry, as many thin-film companies have faced setbacks and delays.
“
Posted by Greenbang on December 7th, 2007
Australia’s agricultual industry is in serious danger of being ruined due to climate change, according to reports by Stuff
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) warns that production of wheat, sugar, dairy and beef could fall by about 10 per cent by 2030 if predicted climate change takes effect, Fairfax said.
By 2050, Australia’s total economic output could fall by five per cent, with agricultural exports cut by up to 79 per cent.
ABARE chief economist Don Gunasekera said that climate change could ruin the agricultural sector without innovation such as genetic modification.
“But I think the message has to be not just doom and gloom, it’s about how we can convert these challenges into opportunities,” he said.
