Green IT/Broadband and Cyber-Infrastructure

Green carbon trade market could mean billions for telecom, IT

2009-06-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

Green carbon trade market could mean billions for telecom, IT
TelephonyOnline - USA

Telecom and IT companies are well-positioned to tap the potentially $700-billion market for lowering carbon dioxide emissions, ...

http://telephonyonline.com/global/news/carbon-trade-arnaud-0626/

MIT to build zero carbon data center at rural hydrodam which will create jobs etc

2009-06-29T07:16:00.001-07:00

[Here is an excellent example of a unique partnership between MIT, Cisco, EMX to build a large data center in Holyoke, MA. With the advent of cap and trade, peak oil , shortage of energy supplies, and inadequate capacity transmission lines many organizations are realizing that locating your own independent sources of renewable power for your data center will be critical and provide a significant competitive advantage in the coming years. According to Grupp and Ellis there are only 6 sites left in the entire USA that can support a modern 40 Mw data center! As governments start to understand the significance of climate change and order a moratorium on building new coal plants or shutting down existing ones, not only will the cost of power skyrocket, but it simply may not be available at any price. Those sites that have arranged for their own source of energy, independent of the electrical grid, such as on-site windmills, run of the river turbines etc will be the real winners. And most of this capital deployment of data centers in rural/remote areas can be paid for though carbon offsets. Of course, high speed optical networks are essential for this strategy –BSA]

Data centers are running out of space and power
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/05/28/study-data-center-supply-near-all-time-low/

"Data Center Overload"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/magazine/14search-t.html

Cisco, EMC Team with MIT to Launch $100M Green Data Center
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2009/06/11/cisco-emc-team-with-mit-launch-100m-green-data-center
The city of Holyoke, with a ready source of cheap, relatively clean hydroelectic power, will host a new, energy efficient data center that will bring innovation and jobs to the city.

The data center will be managed and funded by the four main partners in the facility: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cisco Systems, the University of Massachusetts and EMC.

While the project is just at the launch of a 120-day planning phase, there are big hopes for the facility. "The potential for breakthrough technologies and research is enormous, and both the center and collaboration will undoubtedly serve to lift up the City of Holyoke and regional economies throughout Western Massachusetts," governor Deval Patrick said.

In addition to being the hub of a community-redevelopment project, the facility, if and when it is finished, will be a high-performance computing environment that will help expand the research and development capabitilities of the companies and schools that work there.

And hydroelectric power has long been a draw for big tech projects like the Holyoke facility, although rarely in as urban a setting as Holyoke -- the city is 10 miles outside Springfield, Mass., and is just 90 miles from Boston. Google's "Project 02," a code name for its massive data center in The Dalles, Ore., was sited in that location because of the cheap and abundant energy from a nearby hydroelectric plant. And last year, Microsoft was reportedly looking to site a data center near Quincy, Wash., and its nearby hydroelectric facility.

Convergence of new energy and communications causes econmic revolutions

2009-06-04T12:50:00.001-07:00

[Some interesting commentary by the famous seer Jeremy Rifkin, although I am suspect of his claims of a hydrogen economy. From every study I have seen production of hydrogen consumes more energy than it produces. Thanks to Eric Tsang for this pointer – BSA]

THE GREAT ECONOMIC REVOLUTIONS IN HISTORY: THE CONVERGENCE OF NEW ENERGY AND COMMUNICATIONS REGIMES
http://www.foet.org/lectures/lecture-hydrogen-economy.html

The great pivotal economic changes in world history have occurred when new energy regimes converge with new communication regimes. When that convergence happens, society is restructured in wholly new ways. In the early modern era, the coming together of coal powered steam technology and the print press gave birth to the first industrial revolution. It would have been impossible to organize the dramatic increase in the pace, speed, flow, density, and connectivity of economic activity made possible by the coal fired steam engine using the older codex and oral forms of communication. In the late nineteenth century and throughout the first two thirds of the twentieth century, first generation electrical forms of communication—the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, electric typewriters, calculators, etc.—converged with the introduction of oil and the internal combustion engine, becoming the communications command and control mechanism for organizing and marketing the second industrial revolution.
A great communications revolution occurred in the 1990’s. Second generation electrical forms of communication—personal computers, the internet, the World Wide Web, and wireless communication technologies—connected the central nervous system of more than a billion people on Earth at the speed of light. And, although the new software and communication revolutions have begun to increase productivity in every industry, their true potential is yet to be fully realized. That potential lies in their convergence with renewable energy, partially stored in the form of hydrogen, to create the first “distributed” energy regimes.
The same design principles and smart technologies that made possible the internet, and vast distributed global communication networks, will be used to reconfigure the world’s power grids so that people can produce renewable energy and share it peer-to-peer, just like they now produce and share information, creating a new, decentralized form of energy use. We need to envision a future in which millions of individual players can collect, produce and store locally generated renewable energy in their homes, offices, factories, and vehicles, and share their power generation with each other across a Europe-wide intelligent intergrid. (Hydrogen is a universal storage medium for intermittent renewable energies; just as digital is a universal storage mechanism for text, audio, video, data and other forms of media)
The question is often asked as to whether renewable energy, in the long run, can provide enough power to run a national or global economy? Just as second generation information systems grid technologies allow businesses to connect thousands of desktop computers, creating far more distributed computing power than even the most powerful centralized computers that exist, millions of local producers of renewable energy, using hydrogen storage and intelligent utility networks, can potentially produce far more distributed power than the older centralized forms of energy – oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear – that we currently rely on.
The creation of a renewable energy regime, partially stored in the form of hydrogen, and distributed via smart intergrids, opens the door to a Third Industrial Revolution and should have as powerful an economic multiplier effect in the 21st century as the convergence of mass print technology with coal and steam power technology in the 19th century, and the coming together of electrical forms of communication with oil and the internal combustion engine in the 20th century.
European industry has the scientific, technological, and financial know-how to spearhead the shift to renewable energies, a hydrogen economy, and an intelligent power grid and, by so doing, lead the world into a new economic era. Europe’s world class automotive industry, chemical industry, engineering industry, construction industry, software, computer and communication industries, and banking and insurance industries, give it a leg up in the race to the Third Industrial Revolution.
By fostering renewable energies, a hydrogen infrastructure, and a continent-wide intelligent intergrid, the European Union can help create a sustainable economic development plan for its 500 million citizens in the first half of the 21st century.
The Third Industrial Revolution will require a wholesale reconfiguration of the transport, construction, and electricity sectors, creating new goods and services, spawning new businesses, and providing millions of new job.
Being first to market will position the European Union as a leader in the Third Industrial Revolution, giving it the commercial edge in the export of green technological know-how and equipment around the world. Producing a new generation of renewable energy technologies, manufacturing portable and stationary fuel cells, reinventing the automobile, transforming Europe’s millions of buildings into power plants to produce renewable energy for internal consumption or distribution back to the grid, reconfiguring the electrical power grid as a intelligent utility network, as well as producing all of the accompanying technologies, goods and services that make up a high-tech Third Industrial Revolution economy, will have an economic multiplier effect that stretches well toward the mid decades of the 21st century.
The coming together of distributed communication technologies and distributed renewable energies via an open access, intelligent power grid, represents “power to the people”. For a younger generation that’s growing up in a less hierarchical and more networked world, the ability to produce and share their own energy, like they produce and share their own information, in an open access intergrid, will seem both natural and commonplace.
The key challenge that every nation needs to address is where they want their country to be in ten years from now: In the sunset energies and industries of the second industrial revolution or the sunrise energies and industries of the Third Industrial Revolution. The Third Industrial Revolution is the end-game that takes the world out of the old carbon and uranium-based energies and into a non-polluting, sustainable future for the human race.

Jeremy Rifkin is president of The Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, DC. and teaches at the Wharton School’s Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Rifkin is currently advising the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša, during his presidency of the European Union (January to July 2008). Mr. Rifkin also served as an adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal during their respective European Council Presidencies, on issues related to the economy, climate change, and energy security. He currently advises the European Commission, the European Parliament, and several EU heads of state, including Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain and Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy. Mr. Rifkin is the author of seventeen books on environmental, energy and economic related issues including The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth (Tarcher/Penguin).

CANARIE announces launch of $3 million Green IT Call for Proposals

2009-06-01T12:20:00.001-07:00

CANARIE Announces $3 Million Call for Proposals to Fuel the Development of Advanced Computing and Networking
Technologies that Reduce Carbon Emissions and Help to Slow the Rate Global Warming

June 1, 2009 (OTTAWA, Ontario)–CANARIE today announced a $3 million Call for Proposals to fuel the development of advanced computing and networking technologies that reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) infrastructure (including computer hardware, software and networks), and enable collaboration on promising green IT solutions that will help slow the rate of global warming.

The CANARIE Green IT Pilot Program will help Canadian innovators to capitalize on emerging opportunities in Green ICT—a global market that, according to Insight Research Corporation, is expected to reach over US $600 billion by 2013. Specifically, it aims to facilitate national and international collaborative research projects that demonstrate the

• technical feasibility and usability of relocating computers and other cyber infrastructure to zero-carbon data centers that are connected by optical networks, and powered solely by renewable energy sources such as the sun or the wind, and
• business case for providing carbon offsets (and/or equivalent services) to university researchers and IT personnel who reduce their carbon footprint by relocating computers and instrumentation to zero-carbon data centers
CANARIE expects to award up to $2 million for major zero-carbon data center pilot projects; and about $1 million for the development of business cases and smaller projects. The outcomes of this pilot project could influence the development of ‘Canadian-designed’ green ICT approaches, products and services that could be marketed around the world. As countries such as the United States, Britain, Singapore and Australia consider injecting billions of dollars into green and broadband strategies, these initiatives could help put Canada ‘in the global game’, stimulating business development opportunities and opening new markets for Canadian companies.
“This Call for Proposals aims to capitalize on Canada’s expertise in ICT and the development and use of advanced networks to accelerate the adoption of low-carbon ICT infrastructure and management strategies,” said Guy Bujold, President and CEO of CANARIE. “It will enable innovators to collaborate on the development and validation of novel green technologies, assess the feasibility of zero-carbon data centres, and propose cost-effective and environmentally sound IT strategies that could benefit companies in many sectors. This reinforces CANARIE’s commitment to partner with industry, academia and government to address global sustainability challenges such as climate change.”
“This Call for Proposals underscores CANARIE’s critical role as a change agent in the ICT landscape”, said Brian Fry, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for RackForce, a leader green datacenters based in Kelowna, BC. “It will provide enormous lift for companies such as RackForce that aim to develop, implement and promote the use of green data centers to reduce our carbon footprint. For example, winning project teams could influence the development of new standards, discover new ways to optimize zero-carbon data centers, and help to stimulate increased uptake of green ICT approaches. This represents a win for industry–and for society.”
The deadline for initial proposals is June 29, 2009 at 5PM EDT, with full applications to be submitted by September 10, 2009 at 5PM EDT. Selected proposals will be announced in October 2009. For additional information on this program, please visit: http://www.canarie.ca/funding/greenit/call_for_proposals.html

Obama Adviser Looks At Deploying National U.S. Broadband Network

2009-05-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

[As I have mentioned several times in my postings there is soon going to be a huge pot of money available to pay for several national broadband networks, as well as cyber-infrastructure facilities in the US and possibly elsewhere.

The Waxman-Markey bill wending its way through Congress will require that utilities purchase $1.25 in carbon offsets for every $1.00 they spend on emission permits (although its not clear whether this will apply to the free permits that are proposed to be allocated under the bill)

Broadband networks and cyber-infrastructure can go a long way in helping reduce the US carbon footprint. Estimates of 15-20% overall reduction of CO2 are possible through virtualization and dematerialization using broadband networks.

Qualifying these reductions as high quality offsets as per the Waxman-Markey bill will more than pay for a national broadband rollout.

On June 1st CANARIE will launch its long awaited Green IT Pilot program which will help Canadian universities, industries and R&E networks learn how to develop the necessary protocols under ISO 14064 to make cyber-infrastructure and broadband networks eligible to earn such carbon offsets.

The Waxman-Markey bill could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in carbon offsets.

Thanks to Eric Lee for this pointer on posting from Gordon Cook’s Arch-econ list—BSA]

Bill

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Obama Adviser Looks At U.S.-Built Broadband Network

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
by David Hatch

A senior adviser to President Obama is touting the idea of spending
tens of billions of dollars in public funds to build a nationwide,
state-of-the-art broadband network featuring speeds 100 times faster
than today's technology.

While there has been no formal Obama administration commitment to such
infrastructure investment, Susan Crawford, special assistant to the
president for science, technology and innovation policy, has said she
is "personally intrigued" by an ambitious plan by Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd.

His plan proposes a public-private partnership that would invest up to
$33 billion over eight years to build and operate a fiber-optic
broadband network reaching 90 percent of homes and workplaces.
Wireless and satellite technology would be used to reach the remaining
10 percent in the outback.

Obama and congressional Democrats have backed a $7.2 billion cash
infusion to stimulate domestic broadband investment as part of this
year's economic stimulus package, but experts have acknowledged that
gaps in availability and bandwidth will remain, with pockets of the
United States left with no service or antiquated technology.

Proponents of Australia's program argue that the government-subsidized
network promises myriad opportunities for online businesses and
enhancements to energy efficiency, media distribution and public
safety.

A chief concern here is that a public broadband network would be
costly -- upward of $430 billion. While U.S. consumers would benefit
from the increased competition and lower monthly rates, they would
foot the bill through tax dollars.

"I think it's a pipe dream at this point," said a telecommunications
industry source, who added, "Good luck finding the money in this
fiscal environment."

Other industry sources also cautioned that a government-subsidized
network might dissuade private sector investment, leaving Americans
with fewer options down the road. "You can't just build it and you're
done," one critic cautioned, emphasizing the government would have to
spend billions on upgrades and would be saddled with customer service
responsibilities. "The government's continually going to have this
'white whale' it's going to have to keep pouring money into."

As the FCC prepares a national broadband strategy to be presented to
Congress by Feb. 17, there's already speculation that the agency -- at
the prodding of the White House -- will give serious thought to
adapting Australia's model for the United States.

Crawford, a member of Obama's National Economic Council, raised
eyebrows when she discussed Australia's plan at a policy forum in
April.

"Simply put, a digital economy requires fiber, and Australia is making
the determination that for that to work it will require a utility
approach," Crawford said, noting that Singapore is making a similar
investment and Britain and the Netherlands are exploring the concept.

"These governments understand that a wholesale network can deliver
massive social and economic benefits," she said, referring to capacity
that would be made available to carriers at reduced rates. (For a
fuller version of this article, go to CongressDaily's TechCentral at
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/techcentral/.)

The Challenge of Smart Grids - a rallying cry to R&E networks and Internet community

2009-05-27T08:56:00.002-07:00

[There has been a lot of news in the press recently about SMART electrical grids. Cisco recently announced that Smart Grids will eclipse the size of the Internet and Google announced its plans to launch Home Energy Management software. Even some telephone companies are looking to get into the business of home energy management. Can you imagine the same companies that brought you the two tiered Internet, are now going scaling up to bring you the two tiered electrical grid. Not only do they want to manage your Internet application but they want apply the same mindset to managing your appliances.

The big challenge with today’s Smart Grids strategy is that it is all based on managing peak load and are designed around a “gosplan” utility megawatt mindset architecture of huge centralized databases for the acquisition, management and control of consumers meters and appliances. (Another aspect of Smart grids is for utilities to better manage their own infrastructure which makes sense, but that is separate issue than managing consumer devices) .The main beneficiary is not the consumer but the utility operator in avoiding having to build new power plants for peak load. The environmental benefits are minimal and the savings to the consumer are marginal (around 10%) based on data from the Smart Grid trial at PNNL in Washington State. There are also huge challenges with respect to security as outlined by Rahul Tongia at CMU in his e-mail on Dave Farber’s IPer list. Imagine if someone hacked such a network and were able to turn off and on your appliances and electricity at will.

Innovation rarely comes from large monopolies like electrical utilities and telcos. But the Internet research and education community has a long of history of innovation particularly in adopting principles of the Internet in terms of intelligence at the edge and broadband network infrastructure as exemplified in the excellent paper “Unleashing Waves of Innovation” http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/comments/488.pdf. R&E networks around the world have been instrumental in network innovation and working with communities in broadband infrastructure such as initiatives led by Educause, Internet 2, NLR, KAREN, i2Cat, etc. I believe the same organizations have the capability, infrastructure and knowledge to pioneer new techniques for smart grids built around the principle of intelligence at the edge and customer control. Universities, schools and research institutions in partnership with R&E networks are well suited to work with communities on exploring new architectures and solution for Smart grids that will have genuine benefits for the consumer (as opposed to the utility) as well as the environment.

Germany happens to be a world leader in this area and has many great examples of new smart grid architectures where consumers can also supply power to the grid. The 5th estate video compares and contrasts the German approach to what is largely happening in North America. In Germany consumers can arrange for their own meter independent of the utility and subscribe to different energy providers. Thanks to John Spence and Frank Coluccio for these pointers – BSA]

Great 5th estate video on green in Germany versus Canada in Smart grids and renewable energy http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2008-2009/the_gospel_of_green/video.html

Opportunity is promising, but utility cooperation will be the challenge

By Sean Buckley | Telecommunications Magazine | March 31, 2009

"As I head out to CTIA to help host our one-day Machine to Machine: Show me the Money panel series, it’s hard not to notice reports that Verizon is considering the idea of adding energy management services as one of the services it could offer over a home network connected to its FiOS FTTH service. Other than saying they will offer videoconferencing, Verizon has not formally confirmed a plan for an energy management service. I don’t think the idea of a telco like Verizon, or any service provider for that matter, offering energy management is far-fetched. Service providers, especially those like Verizon and their RBOC counterparts (AT&T and Qwest) are looking to find new ways to differentiate themselves and avoid having others leverage their connections into the home for applications they don’t control."

[Indeed!]

Cont.: http://www.telecommagazine.com/newsglobe/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_5074

Rahul Tongia tongia@cmu.edu from a posting on Dave Farber’s IPer list

As a researcher in the "smart grid" space, I will mention several facts/observations about smart grids:

1) People are throwing solutions out before figuring out what the problems are. Adding billions of $ to the mix (with strange rules to boot - e.g., sizes and $ limits per project) doesn't help. 2) The fundamental thing utilities need to understand when designing systems is what their functional goals are: audit (important in a place like India, with 10-20% theft), monitoring, or control. You need different
designs. These then lead you to the issue of communications design.
It's NOT bandwidth that is the concern, but predictability and reliability. Should the utility own it themselves, or rely on outsiders? I could user outsiders with the former, but is it appropriate for things like control? I don't think so (IMHO). 3) Some of the largest vendors of meters and affiliated technology are behind the curve in technology. Some of the best firms in this space are relatively small.
4) Security cannot be an add-on. Everyone pays lip service to security, just like being "green." But have we developed the right, lightweight solutions?
5) Open standards are going to be critical, else we will end up with $ $, proprietary, and sometimes inferior solutions. 6) Getting communications right in both directions is the key challenge. We need to innovate more! Both directions means from the user/meter to and from the utility. Then, from a user's central point (maybe meter, maybe inside), signaling to appliances and devices.
One has to realize how little the costs could be for smart systems.
Take a smart fridge. No, I don't want it to order milk when my an RFID chip on the milk carton says expired. I just want energy efficiency and load control. If a fridge knows when peak electricity is, then there is no reason it should run the compressor, or five times worse, the defrost cycle, during peak periods. Extra cost at the fridge level for the intelligence AND short-range communications? A few dollars (if built to standards in high volume). The issue is chicken- and-egg. Who signals, where, and how is an unanswered Q. The utility?
Governement? A neutral grid operator? Consumer aggregators (energy service providers)? Or the consumer himself/herself?
I think automated systems that don't rely on humans are going to work better than people staring at a household display (thermostat/meter) to take actions. As a consumer, I should be in charge of that, unless
I am willing to give the utility or a 3rd party such control.
Certainly price signals are important. Here Time of Use is not as good as Real-time (near real time) since (1) ToU can become a self- negating prophecy and (2) only the latter can deal with unforeseen events.
A relatively sophisticated (but low bandwidth) solution is important.
We need bidirectional communications once we go beyond automated metering as a goal. For starters, you need that if you consider communications security. You need to have touchless upgrades and security enhancements - a meter will last 15-20 years. Can anyone
swap out a network key with a one-way radio broadcast and verify it?
Bidirectional is also important when we consider compliance (if not "theft"). I'm not talking the India or Nigeria kind. I remember a story about direct load control in the Detroit area in the early 1920s or 30s. The utility would pay people to let it control their water heaters or other such load, using analog radio signals. People then figured out they could get paid but yet have no discomfort if they just put aluminum foil over the receiver!

The good news is the amount of load control we need to make a difference isn't much. Avoiding blackouts is cutting loads of maybe 5-10% or so. Saving 5% of PEAK electricity is (rule of thumb) some 25% of generation costs.
Rahul

>

CISCO: SMART GRID WILL ECLIPSE SIZE OF INTERNET Cisco sees a $100 billion market opportunity in the smart grid. The company make communications equipment for the electricity grid -- everything from routers in grid substations to home energy controllers. Cisco's move is a sign that the creaky electricity distribution system is poised for a digital upgrade. Other high-tech companies, including IBM, Intel, and several start-ups, are ramping up smart-grid efforts to capitalize on expected investments from utilities and federal governments. Cisco estimates that the communications portion of that build-out is worth $20 billion a year over the next five years. The idea of the "smart grid" is to modernize the electricity industry by overlaying digital communications onto the grid. Smart meters in a person's home, for example, can communicate energy usage to utilities in near real time. That allows the utility to more efficiently manage the electricity supply and potentially allow a consumer to take advantage of cheaper rates.

>

Courtesy of the Benton Foundation RSS Feed:

Electricity consumption by consumer electronics exceeds that of traditional appliances in many homes

2009-05-27T08:56:00.001-07:00

[More alarming data on the contribution of ICT, especially consumer devices to energy consumption and resultant CO2 emissions. We know that demand for ICT products and services will grow much faster than growth rate of overall economy. Will energy efficiency be able to keep pace with this growth in demand for ICT equipment, especially as ICT is also used for energy reduction and CO2 abatement? Already consumer electronics are predicted to produce approximately 1/6 of CO2 in the US. Excerpts from Globe and Mail and IEA press releases—BSA]

http://www.iea.org/journalists/headlines.asp
IEA - Rising numbers of electronic gadgets undo efficiency gains
Reporting about the new IEA publication Gadgets and Gigawatts which finds that the rapidly growing number of televisions, laptops and other electronic devices will triple energy consumption by 2030, the newswire quotes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090513.wgadgetsstaff0513/BNStory/Technology/home

Power alarm over home electronics
In a report yesterday, the Paris-based IEA urged governments around the world to quickly adopt new standards that would make electronic devices such as televisions, laptops and game consoles more energy efficient.
All those PlayStations that are hooked up in the family rooms of the nation are notorious energy vampires. So, too, are the chargers that are needed to keep juiced the iPods, cellphones, laptops and cordless phones that are staples of modern living.
In its report yesterday, the International Energy Agency said the boom in electronics threatens to undermine efforts to reduce residential power demand and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“Despite anticipated improvements in the efficiency of electronic devices, these savings are likely to be overshadowed by the rising demand for technology” in both the rich world and developing countries, IEA president Nobuo Tanaka said in a release.
Residential power demand is soaring with the proliferation of MP3 players, home video games, set-top boxes, wireless routers, portable phones and flat-screen, high-definition digital televisions. In the typical rich-world household, electricity demand from consumer electronics now far exceeds the amount of power used by appliances like fridges and dishwashers.
Last year, the world spent $80-billion (U.S.) on electricity to power these household electronics, and that is expected to grow to $200-billion by 2030. To meet the demand would require the output of 200 new power plants, and would double greenhouse gas emissions to one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/add.aspx?id=361
Gadgets and Gigawatts -- Policies for Energy Efficient Electronics, ISBN 978-92-64-05953-5, paper €100, PDF €80 (2009)
Type: Studies
Subject: CO2 Emissions ; Electricity ; Energy Efficiency ; Sustainable Development
By 2010 there will be over 3.5 billion mobile phones subscribers, 2 billion TVs in use around the world and 1 billion personal computers. Electronic devices are a growing part of our lives and many of us can count between 20 and 30 separate items in our homes, from major items like televisions to a host of small gadgets. The communication and entertainment benefits these bring are not only going to people in wealthier nations - in Africa, for example, one in nine people now has a mobile phone. But as these electronic devices gain popularity, they account for a growing portion of household energy consumption.

How “smart” is this equipment from an energy efficiency perspective and should we be concerned about how much energy these gadgets use? What is the potential for energy savings?

This new book, Gadgets and Gigawatts: Policies for Energy Efficient Electronics, includes a global assessment of the changing pattern in residential electricity consumption over the past decade and an in-depth analysis of the role played by electronic equipment. It reviews the influence that government policies have had on creating markets for more energy efficient appliances and identifies new opportunities for creating smarter, more energy efficient homes. This book is essential reading for policy makers and others interested in improving the energy efficiency of our ho

Using Carbon offsets to fund network services, cyber-infrastructure and ICT equipment

2009-05-13T09:44:00.003-07:00

[If you have been following the development of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill in the US Congress you will note that they are proposing that organizations who are regulated to emit CO2 will be required to purchase $1.25 in offsets for every $1.00 they acquire in emission permits. It is expected that Canada will follow the US lead in the adoption of a North American cap and trade market.

Most research universities in the US will have to register as primary emitters under the proposed EPA regulations for all institutions that emit over 25,000 mtCO2e. A typical research university can produce as much as 500,000 tons CO2 (both Scope 1 and Scope 2) of which cyber-infrastructure and ICT can contribute 300,000 tons (mostly Scope 2). Many research universities also have their own power and heating plants.

According to data from Cisco , business ICT in buildings is also a major culprit, as buildings account for 50% of all CO2 emission of which 25% can be attributed to ICT equipment (not counting cooling)

It is estimated that 15-20% of Waxman-Markey cap and trade will be spent on these offsets which could represent billions of dollars in potential revenue. Cyber-infrastructure and ICT is the one sector where we can quickly move to a zero carbon strategy by moving to clouds, virtualization and de-materialization (see my posting on Kindle DX) where the underlying cyber-infrastructure is located at zero carbon data centers connected to universities through high capacity, low latency R&E networks. The costs of such a strategy including network capacity could be easily paid for by the carbon offsets, and perhaps permit offsets as well – but what is needed is well defined protocol and methodology to measure, quantify and audit the offsets. One of the major problem with today’s carbon offset market is the lack of transparency and audibility. Today’s offset markets are riddled with fraud and bogus claims of CO2 reduction. What is needed is a rigorous process to quantify and qualify the offset claims (this is particularly true of many claims about energy efficiency). The ISO 14064 standards are the de facto process for doing this, but we need specific protocols to be adopted under these standards to address ICT and cyber-infrastructure. CANARIE’s upcoming Green IT pilot hopes to start this process to enable universities and business to learn how to calculate carbon offsets and develop ISO 14064 protocols for virtualization, clouds, networks etc. It may even be possible to use “virtual” offsets where ICT companies and networks offer products in service in exchange of offsets instead of cash –BSA]

More reading on Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill and offsets
http://climateprogress.org/2009/05/12/waxman-markey-domestic-offsets/

More on Amazon Kindle DX from Slashdot
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/09/1615247

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what's the noblest Amazon Kindle DX project of all? While other universities announced similar programs, Princeton is boasting its project is unique in that it will focus on sustainability by reducing the amount of electronic-reserve course materials that students print. Under the pilot program, $60,000 will reportedly be used to provide 50 lucky Princeton students with $489 Kindle DX devices loaded with materials for three courses. In a FAQ, students are told not to worry about 'this time of severe economic constraints' — Princeton and Amazon have managed to tap into a fund specifically endowed to support sustainability projects to provide Kindles at no cost. In addition to a $30,000 grant from the High Meadows Foundation, which is headed by Princeton alum Carl Ferenbach (who, coincidentally, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Environmental Defense Fund with the wife of Amazon Director John Doerr), a matching amount will be provided by Princeton alum Jeff Bezos' Amazon. The E-reader Pilot Program has more information

http://blogs.msdn.com/see/archive/2009/03/31/software-downloads-help-microsoft-and-customers-reduce-carbon-footprint.aspx
Software Downloads Help Microsoft and Customers Reduce Carbon Footprint
Today, Microsoft released the results of a comparative carbon footprint study which found significant environmental benefits to providing its software to consumers online. The study concluded that downloading Office 2007 avoided 8 times the amount of carbon emissions compared to producing and shipping a DVD and its associated packaging through traditional retail distribution channels.
The study determined that carbon emissions avoided through online purchasing of 10 million copies is equivalent to:
• the electric consumption of 7,715 US households, or
• 13,008 passengers cars driven in one year, or
• 231 acres of avoided Amazon rainforest deforestation.
Microsoft worked with its partners, Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy, to apply leading standards for product carbon footprinting in accounting for greenhouse gas emissions arising from the complete lifecycle of its software products. Based on several distribution scenarios, the study captures carbon emissions associated with the raw materials, production, distribution, customer purchase, and end-of-life processes for 10 million off-the shelf retail software products. Microsoft then compared these results to the online delivery model for 10 million downloads, accounting for the data centers used for hosting software downloads and even the energy used by a consumer’s personal computer to download the Office 2007 program. Not surprisingly, transportation and packaging materials were identified as the largest contributors to carbon emissions for the off-the-shelf product. Avoided carbon emissions associated with downloading 1 copy of Office 2007 are roughly equal to 1 gallon of gas.
Read more at http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/go-green/

Japan to build massive cloud infrastructure for e-government as a Green ICT strategy

2009-05-13T09:44:00.001-07:00

[Japan has launched a massive ICT stimulus package of which a key component will be Green ICT focused around a nation wide “private” cloud for e-government. The use of private clouds gets around the many concerns of privacy and security. Kudos to Japan government for this initiative. Some excerpts – BSA]

http://www.greentelecomlive.com/2009/05/13/japan-to-build-massive-cloud-infrastructure-for-e-government/

Japan to build massive cloud infrastructure for e-government

In a document that outlines a Digital Japan Creation Project, dubbed the ICT Hatoyama Plan, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications revealed plans to build a massive cloud computing infrastructure to support all of the government’s IT systems.
Called tentatively the Kasumigaseki Cloud, the new infrastructure will be built in stages from now until 2015. The goal of the project consolidate all government IT systems into a single cloud infrastructure to improve operation efficiency and reduce cost.
“The Kasumigaseki Cloud will enable various ministries to collaborate to integrate and consolidate hardware and create platforms for shared functions,” the MIC said. “Efforts will be made to efficiently develop and operate information systems with the aim of greatly reducing electronic government–related development and operating costs while increasing the pace of processing by integrating shared functions, increasing collaboration among systems, and providing secure and advanced governmental services.”
According to the MIC, the Kasumigaseki Cloud will eliminate the need for individual ministries to maintain their own IT systems by consolidating current data centres, and allow each ministries to use only the computer resources necessary through the cloud platform.
Additional proposals were put forth to develop and implement ubiquitous Green ICT solutions, including initiatives like the Kasumigaseki Cloud, boost ICT human resources, and the creation of “safe and secure networks” for the public.

Alarming new data depict a worsening climate crisis

2009-05-13T09:43:00.001-07:00

[It is not only Al Gore that is raising the alarm about worrying climate trends, but new data from the National Academies of Science, MIT and other sources point to similar trends. We don’t have the luxury of waiting until 2050 to undertake serious climate action. Drastic steps are required now, in all aspects of society including universities and research networks – BSA]

At TED2009, Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on "clean coal". (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 7:44.)
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TEDBlog/~3/UkUwC_RvGII/alarming_new_sl.php

Preparing for the next 911 catastrophe – some useful pointers:

Obama’s National Science Advisor John Holdren on Global Climate Disruption
http://greenmonk.net/john-holdren-on-global-climatic-disruption/
Stephen Chu – new head of DoE – “Wake up America!!”
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/california-agriculture-global-warming-47020402
MIT report predicts median temperature forecast of 5.1C
http://globalchange.mit.edu/pubs/abstract.php?publication_id=990
Last Ice age average global temperature was 6C cooler than today
Most of Canada was under 2-3 km ice

USGS Abrupt Climate Change report finds that future climate shifts have been underestimated and warns of debilitating abrupt shift in climate that would be devastating.
– http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-4/final-report/default.htm
– http://climateprogress.org/2008/11/24/what-are-the-near-term-climate-pearl-harbors/
Tipping elements in the Earth's climate -National Academies of Science
– http://www.pnas.org/content/105/6/1786.abstract?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=tipping+elements+lenton&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
“Society may be lulled into a false sense of security by smooth projections of global change. Our synthesis of present knowledge suggests that a variety of tipping elements could reach their critical point within this century under anthropogenic climate change.

More on how the new Kindle DX can help reduce CO2 at universities

2009-05-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

[Several people pointed out an error in my calculations. Carbon is priced per metric ton not by pound. The carbon offset value of placing a textbook on Kindle is about 25 cents per textbook with carbon at $100 per ton. If the Kindle can hold 1000 textbooks then the carbon offset value is about $250, which is still significant – but not thousands of dollars. But I still believe the real value for the Kindle is in gCommerce application where the Kindle DX and its content can be given away for free to students and faculty in exchange for them reducing their personal carbon footprint, for example by taking public transportation, or paying a premium on parking and faculty travel. Collatech is live on second Life – watch for my avatar. – BSA]

Collabtech Conference
http://www.case.edu/its/collabtech09/

The carbon footprint of textbooks, paper etc
http://www.stewartmarion.com/carbon-footprint/html/carbon-footprint-stuff.html
One pound of printer paper generates 4 pounds of CO2; one pound of newspaper produces 3 pounds of CO2; one pound of textbooks produces 5 pounds of CO2; one pound of 20oz plastic bottles creates 1 pound of carbon dioxide; and one pound of aluminum cans produces 5 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Amazon’s Kindle DX
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Amazons-Wireless-Generation/dp/B0015TCML0

How the new Kindle DX can help reduce CO2 at universities

2009-05-07T07:55:00.001-07:00

[I am currently at the very exciting Collabtech Conference at Case Western which is about using information and network technologies for collaborative research and education. This morning Case Western announced a partnership with Amazon to deploy the Kindle DX. Amazon has made arrangements with a number of textbook publishers to make textbooks available on the Kindle for students at Case Western. Not only with this improve access to the textbooks, lower their costs and save student backs, but it will also help to significantly reduce the university’s carbon footprint. According to a study at the Babcock School of Business the production and shipping of average textbook result in 5 pounds of CO2. This means that if carbon is $20 a ton, the carbon offset value of making a textbook available on Kindle is $100, and if carbon trades at $100 per ton, as is expected to happen to the price of carbon with cap and trade then the offset value is $500 per textbook. One Kindle can hold hundreds, if not thousands of textbooks and other documents – so the offset value of a single Kindle can be worth thousands of dollars! (Of course you have to discount life cycle CO2 cost of Kindle itself and additionality of the extra textbooks). There are only 160 students at the Babcock School of Business and they estimate the carbon footprint is 45 tons per year for the textbooks purchased by these students. But not only does the Kindle have a direct CO2 reduction potential it can also be used a powerful tool for “gCommerce” applications where the Kindle DX and its content can be given away for free to students and faculty in exchange for them reducing their personal carbon footprint, for example by taking public transportation, or paying a premium on parking and faculty travel. Collatech is live on second Life – watch for my avatar. – BSA]

Collabtech Conference
http://www.case.edu/its/collabtech09/

The carbon footprint of textbooks, paper etc
http://www.stewartmarion.com/carbon-footprint/html/carbon-footprint-stuff.html
One pound of printer paper generates 4 pounds of CO2; one pound of newspaper produces 3 pounds of CO2; one pound of textbooks produces 5 pounds of CO2; one pound of 20oz plastic bottles creates 1 pound of carbon dioxide; and one pound of aluminum cans produces 5 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Amazon’s Kindle DX
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Amazons-Wireless-Generation/dp/B0015TCML0

Al Gore to Keynote 22nd Annual Supercomputing & Networking Conference, SC09

2009-05-07T07:52:00.001-07:00

[Al Gore was instrumental in raising consciousness in the 2 most important planet changing issues of the last 50 years – the Internet and Climate Change. He now brings these two themes together at his upcoming talk at SC09 in Portland, which I think confirms the critical role that research Cyber-infrastructure and the Internet will play in addressing the challenge of climate change. SC09 is the preeminent conference for cyber-infrastructure involving supercomputing and advanced networks. Thanks to Harvey Newman for this pointer – BSA]

Al Gore to Keynote 22nd Annual Supercomputing Conference, SC09
http://www.computer.org/portal/site/ieeecs/menuitem.c5efb9b8ade9096b8a9ca0108bcd45f3/index.jsp?&pName=ieeecs_level1&path=ieeecs/press/April09&file=algore.xml&xsl=brief_display.xsl&

PORTLAND, Ore.—27 April, 2009 – SC09, the 22nd annual event in the SC conference series, recognized globally as the premier international conference on high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, announced today it has selected former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to deliver the conference keynote address.
SC09 has adopted the theme of “Computing for a Changing World,” and will present a special focus on initiatives related to Sustainability, Bio-Computing and the 3D Internet.
Gore will deliver the keynote presentation on Thursday, 19 November for the anticipated crowd of 11,000 attendees made up of leading computational scientists, researchers, and supercomputing experts from around the globe, many of whom work on High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms and supercomputers researching life-changing issues such as disease understanding, drug discovery, renewable energy, and global climate change.
Gore has been an evangelist on global climate and energy-related issues since the 1980s. He has lectured around the globe and his climate change documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Academy Award and was instrumental in his selection as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
“Al Gore has been a champion of applied computing technology for more than two decades,” said Dr. Wilfred Pinfold, General Chair of SC09. “The High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991, often referred to as ‘The Gore Bill’ was undoubtedly a milestone in Internet history. That bill led to formation of the National Information Infrastructure (NII), which Gore labeled the Information Superhighway. We are honored to name Al Gore as our SC09 keynote speaker.”
About SC09
SC09 will be held 14-20 November, 2009 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. SC09 is sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), and offers a complete technical education program and exhibition to showcase the many ways high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis lead to advances in scientific discovery, research, education and commerce.
This premier international conference includes a globally attended technical program, workshops, tutorials, an exhibit area, demonstrations and hands-on learning. The SC conference series is among Tradeshow Week magazine’s Top 200 events. For more information on SC09, please visit http://sc09.supercomputing.org/.
________________________________________

Australian Minister for Broadband speaks about broadband and climate change

2009-04-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

[The Australian government gets it. The fact that they have a minister for broadband, communications and digital economy speaks volumes about the importance the government places on this issue. It is also likely that the Australian R&E network AARnet will play a critical role in the deployment of the nation’s broadband strategy. Being a facilities based R&E network (i.e it owns the underlying fiber) gives AARnet considerable flexibility and adaptability to such opportunities. Thanks to Paul Budde for a posting on Gordon Cooks Arch-econ list for this pointer . Some excerpts– BSA]

http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/speeches/2009/013

“Digital technologies will underpin our future carbon constrained economy.

broadband infrastructure will be the platform upon which the economy operates in the 21st century.

Australia has set ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions by 2020 and this will require an economy-wide response.

The fact is, broadband is green technology.

In fact, it is an enabler of efficiencies that could drive major reductions in carbon emissions.

In the energy sector, providers plan to use broadband to improve the way they monitor and manage power distribution.

Using broadband to connect power consumers with power generators allows them to harness ways to make distribution more efficient and reliable.

Smart grids connected by broadband raise the potential to not only monitor energy use but to allow remote adjustment of lights or temperature.

For households this means opportunities for reduced power consumption and costs.

Remote control of connected appliances, thermostats and electric meters will help energy companies balance the peaks and troughs of daily usage.

This in turn allows them to sell the recovered power on the market, reducing the need for new power generators.

For the country it means the very real possibility of significant carbon emission reductions.

In Australia and elsewhere, providers are already testing smart grid networks.

Estimates in the US have put the cost savings for consumers between 5 and 25 per cent.

One couple, early adopters of a pilot smart grid in Miami, claim they are saving $100 a month simply by keeping an eye on their digital energy meter.

The information allows them to understand household consumption trends and to adjust their habits accordingly.

The Fibre-to-the-Home Council commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to research the potential sustainability benefits of broadband.

Based on a count of 20 million FTTH users in Europe with 10 per cent of the population teleworking three days per week by 2015, it estimates greenhouse-gas emission savings per user of 330kg, equivalent to a car travelling 2,000 kilometres.

Research also shows that improving telecommunications use could result in significant savings for Australia.

In fact, Climate Risk has estimated that local energy and travel savings alone could be worth up to $6.6 billion annually.

It noted a number of major opportunities for communications to improve energy efficiency, including:

* Remote appliance power management,
* De-centralised business districts,
* Real-time freight management,
* Increased renewable energy, and
* High Definition video conferencing.

These are exactly the kind of applications that will be enabled via the National Broadband Network.

More on the paradox of energy efficiency and becoming "IT resource positive"

2009-04-27T10:21:00.001-07:00

[Jay Gill, Doug MacLeod and Rod Tucker have made some thoughtful comments on the paradox of energy efficiency that need re-emphasizing and may not have been stated clearly in my original posting . In email correspondence Jay points out that although efficiency may lead to greater consumption –“ this effect is only true to the extent that efficiency is pursued without corresponding policies to limit CO2.” And as Rod Tucker points out, rather than wasting energy, a carbon neutral homes should be feeding energy back into the grid, something which Doug Macleod refers to being as being resource positive. This begs the question not only can ICT be used for GHG abatement as outlined by SMART 2020, but also perhaps be resource positive in actually reducing demand for dirty energy – BSA]

Dear Bill,

I read with interest your April 21, 2009 post titled “The fallacy of energy efficiency, green data centers and smart grids”, in which you argue that energy efficiency is not the most important consideration. I agree that ultimately a reduction of global CO2 emissions is paramount. But it is a mistake to translate this notion to a requirement that every individual system on the planet should be independently carbon neutral.

Take, for example, your closing comment about carbon neutral homes, where you state that “Once you are zero carbon you can be as wasteful or efficient with energy as your heart desires”. In a socially-responsible context this misses the point. There is a limited supply of renewable energy on the planet (e.g. solar cells, wind turbines etc.) and the only responsible treatment of this energy requires that it is used efficiently. Rather than wasting energy, a carbon neutral home should be feeding energy back into the power grid, or in some other way providing neighbors with the surplus energy.

Energy efficiency is just as important as carbon neutrality. The only way to save the planet is to combine renewable energy with energy efficiency in everything. One severe limitation of the Khazzoom-Brookes postulate is that it is not reversible. In other words, while the Khazzoom-Brookes postulate shows us how increased energy efficiency can result in increased energy usage (e.g. wide-bodied jets) it provides us with no advice on how to solve the inverse problem, which is to reduce energy consumption.

In the context of the Internet and cloud computing, last year’s Smart2020 report from the Climate Group http://www.smart2020.org/ showed that even though the greenhouse footprint of Information and communications Technologies (ICT) will increase by a factor of three from 2002 and 2020, the carbon abatements resulting from clever usage of ICT (e.g. travel replacement via video conferencing) could result in a global reduction of 7.8 Gtonnes of CO2 per annum. This reduction in CO2 is equivalent to five times the direct ICT footprint in 2020. So growth of the Internet and ICT can lead to very beneficial outcomes.

My conclusion is that network engineers have a responsibility to focus on improving energy efficiency in every part of the network. Wherever possible (but realistically, not everywhere), one should use renewable sources of energy to power the network. And in situations where improvements in network efficiency result in a surplus of renewable energy, that surplus renewable energy can be used to replace polluting power sources that power other infrastructure.

Rod Tucker

Bill – I wanted to thank you for your recent posting on alternative energy and energy efficiency. You end by mentioning the value of a net zero approach and I wanted to share with you an emerging idea called “resource positive” design that suggests that the things we create should improve the environment. This means, for example, that a building would generate more energy than it needs or that a community would purify more water than it uses. A resource positive approach would also have enormous economic impact including in areas such as networking and connectivity. One of your previous posts mentioned the sharing of cellular towers and we all know of the example of overlapping wireless networks in residential neighbourhoods. What if our communities took on the responsibility of sharing connectivity through wireless mesh networks and for connecting to other communities nearby? What if we also acknowledge that the current generation is beginning to produce more content than they consume (albeit often in recycled form)? In effect we would be reversing many of the economic equations which currently see consumers paying more and more for utilities, content and services and getting less and less.

I have included the url to a recent article I wrote for Canadian Architect on the subject which will provide more background and examples – please feel free to share it with others if you find it of interest.

http://www.canadianarchitect.com/Issues/ISarticle.asp?id=208517&story_id=106700084744&issue=03012009&PC=&RType=

Regards
Douglas MacLeod
Executive Director

Okanagan Science & Technology Council
Suite 320, 1632 Dickson Avenue, Kelowna, BC V1Y 7T2
Phone: 250.712.3343 Fax: 250.861.4728
E-Mail: execdir@ostec.ca
Web: www.ostec.ca

More on tools for universities, virtualization and clouds on reducing CO2 footprint

2009-04-21T08:36:00.002-07:00

[Here a couple of good pointers on calculating GHG footprint for schools and universities. In my last post I erroneously reported that new EPA reporting requirement is 15000 mtCO2e when it should have read 25,000 mtCO2e—BSA]

http://www.worldenergy.com/knowledge_center/webinars/default.cfm?id=11
This is relevant as the US EPA announced GHG reporting requirements for facilities with a GHG footprint of 25,000 tonnes/yr or more. We estimate this is 15,000+ facilities in the US and may affect industry, institutions, schools, hospitals, etc. We anticipate Canada will follow the US lead on reporting and future compliance.

Carbon Footprinting 101: Establishing a Baseline for Your GHG Emissions
Complimentary Webinar, presented by World Energy and ClimateCHECK
April 22, 2009 at 2:00 PM EDT
President Obama has stated that his administration will pursue aggressive policies to curb climate change and many expect legislation imposing mandatory control on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to pass in 2010. While there is much debate about what shape this legislation will take, many organizations are taking action now to understand the potential risks and enhance opportunities. Will your organization be ready?

Join Steve McDonough, Vice President, GHG Management Innovations, for a complimentary one hour webinar as he discusses early stage strategies organizations can take to understand the risks and opportunities associated with current regional regulatory programs (RGGI, WCI, etc.), voluntary programs and the likely requirements of federal legislation.

In this webinar, Steve will focus on the steps organizations can take to inventory and report their current GHG emissions (carbon footprinting) while also providing an overview of best practices to manage and reduce future GHG emissions including inventory management plans, GHG information management systems, and supply chain analysis.

Key takeaways:
• Steps involved in GHG inventory development and reporting
• GHG best management practices to help support inventory development and reporting
• Strategies to identify internal emission reduction activities
• Things to consider when evaluating and purchasing offsets
• Overview of current regional regulatory programs and latest federal regulatory updates
Webinar Details:

Zerofootprint and Cybernomics launch One Minute ECOnomics Carbon Calculator

Calculator gives personalized metrics to business looking to employ a
sustainability strategy within their IT department based on carbon
measurement

Toronto, March 25, 2009 – Zerofootprint and Cybernomics are proud to
announce the launch of their One Minute ECOnomics Carbon Calculator, found
on both www.thinkgreenalliance.com and www.cybernomics.net. Designed to
measure IT infrastructure energy usage, the carbon calculator showcases
technologies such as virtualization. Calculations are based on real-time IT
statistics captured by Cybernomics’ Analytics platform and presented as a
benchmark for comparison of an individual company’s performance. The
calculator’s carbon engine is powered by Zerofootprint and is focused on
helping businesses measure and reduce their carbon footprint.

The ECOnomics calculator lays out exactly where a company is using the most
energy and illustrates how measures such as server virtualization, thin
client strategies, and using LCD/LED monitors can translate into immense
carbon savings. Cutting down on energy, hardware and overall management
costs through a Sustainable IT strategy is also a concrete way of better
controlling overall IT expenditure, as well as reducing carbon emissions.

Zerofootprint and Cybernomics are both members of the Think Green Alliance,
which is a business community whose members show a commitment not only to
environmental sustainability, but to the intrinsic link between
environmental and financial sustainability. Through the Think Green
Alliance, Zerofootprint and Cybernomics have also developed a mutually
beneficial working relationship: Cybernomics has recently completed a
Sustainability Audit of Zerofootprint’s IT including all servers, computers
and networks. In turn, Zerofootprint is currently undergoing a complete
Carbon Audit of Cybernomics’ business operations, offices and datacentre.
Zerofootprint and Cybernomics encourage you to visit
www.thinkgreenalliance.com and calculate your business’ IT infrastructure
carbon footprint.

For more information please contact:

Cybernomics
Rhea Johnson
rhea@cybernomics.net
+1 416.915.4048 ext. 103

Zerofootprint
Kelly McGregor
kelly.mcgregor@zerofootprint.net
+1 416.365.7557 ext. 156

The Fallacy of energy efficiency, green data centers and smart grids

2009-04-21T08:36:00.001-07:00

[I am spurred to write this long winded post based on press release issued by Verizon today. Verizon claims that a 3% improvement in CO2 efficiency per million dollars in revenue. This sounds all very laudable, until you realize the Verizon’s year on revenue increase from 2007 was almost 5% which means that Verizon’s overall absolute value of CO2 emissions have increased. Efficiency in energy or Co2 emissions, like that cited by Verizon, is one of the enduring myths that surround the entire issue of climate change. While I agree there can be cost savings and energy efficiencies with smart use of ICTs, energy consumption is NOT the problem facing the planet. Greenhouse gas emissions are the number one problem and often energy or CO2 “efficiency” solutions as we have seen from Verizon may mask the real issue of how to reduce overall CO2 production . Far too often people confuse energy efficiency with helping reduce CO2, where in fact the problem is the energy mix. Ensuring that most, if not all, your energy comes from non-fossil fuel sources, will have much more direct impact on CO2 emissions regardless of how efficient or wasteful you are with that energy. If you are genuinely concerned about global climate change, one’s investments in technology and energy solutions should be first and foremost predicated on how they reduce CO2 emissions, and not efficiency .

The paradox of energy efficiency has been demonstrated over and over by many economists and is often referred to the Jevons paradox or Khazoom Brookes postulate where paradoxically energy efficiency increases energy consumption – and if that energy comes from dirty power sources it then increases CO2 emissions. More accurately in a paper by Horace Herring [http://technology.open.ac.uk/eeru/staff/horace/kbpotl.htm] the postulate states that "energy efficiency improvements that, on the broadest considerations, are economically justified at the microlevel, lead to higher levels of energy consumption at the macrolevel.". The paradox applies not only to energy but also to improved efficiency in a variety of markets from labour to aircraft travel as illustrated by Herring:

“Employees are told that they must raise their productivity if they are to improve their job prospects. On the local microlevel this seems absurd, as many shop stewards (and the Luddites) once argued. However on the macrolevel the increased economic output, resulting from higher labour productivity, has lead (in the long term) to a growth in the number of employees; and

The introduction of wide bodied passenger aircraft, to replace smaller aircraft, was forecast to reduce the number of flights. In fact the resulting lower cost per passenger led, in a competitive market, to a large increase in air travel that more than offset the increased size of the aircraft. The raised productivity per aircraft called for more aircraft, not fewer .”
[From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazzoom-Brookes_postulate]
“Increased energy efficiency can increase energy consumption by three means. Firstly, increased energy efficiency makes the use of energy relatively cheaper, thus encouraging increased use. Secondly, increased energy efficiency leads to increased economic growth, which pulls up energy use in the whole economy. Thirdly, increased efficiency in any one bottleneck resource multiplies the use of all the companion technologies, products and services that were being restrained by it. One simple example is that suburban development limited by water use can be doubled if the houses adopt water efficiency measures that cut their water demand in half. That way a small efficiency can have large opposite multiplier effect. Similarly cars that use less fuel are likely to cause matching increases in the number of cars and trips and companion travel activities rather than a decrease in energy demand. It appears that these latent multipliers of opposite effects may be generally greater than the linear result of the original effect. As of late 2008 this appears to not have been factored into the general discussion of sustainability and global warming mitigation strategies.”
Green data center PUEs are another classic symptom of the same problem. While at the micro-level improving PUE is laudable the net effect is to reduce the cost of virtualization, clouds and relocating computers to data centers. We are then likely to see new applications and services take advantage of this much lower computational and storage cost, that would not be practical with todays stand alone PCs and servers, resulting in increased demand for more energy consuming data centers. If we do not design zero carbon data centers and networks from the get go, then ultimately we may end up producing more CO2 than we do today, despite a PUE approaching 1.0

The same analysis applies to Smart grids – which are being foisted on an unsuspecting public in the name of being “green”. Today’s Smart’s grid only do load displacement where the biggest beneficiary is the utility in not having to finance a new power plant. There is very little benefit to the consumer other than a modest reduction in the utility bill, which most consumers are likely to ignore in the name of convenience. Rather than load displacement smart grids utilities should be focused on offering customers tools to purchase directly energy from renewable sources on the spot market. Utilities are inherent conflict of interest with respect to smart grids are their responsibility is to make money by selling energy. An smart grid modeled on the Internet as proposed by Dr Randy Katz will probably a much better solution.

As much as possible, in every aspect in our lives aim for zero carbon as opposed to energy efficient solutions. A good example is this initiative in the UK to build zero carbon homes. Once you are zero carbon you can be as wasteful or efficient with energy as your heart desires. – BSA]

Building zero carbon homes
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/1101177.pdf

See also:
Building a zero carbon Internet
http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/building-a-zero-carbon-internet

“Smart Grid”: R&D for an Intelligent 21st Century
Electrical Energy Distribution Infrastructure
Randy H. Katz
UC Berkeley

http://www.cra.org/ccc/docs/init/Energy_Grid.pdf

Technology Opportunities: The Smart Grid, Pushing Intelligence to the Edges, to
Integrate a Diversity of Energy Sources and Loads
There is much that can be done near-term to exploit information technology to improve the
reliability, visibility, and controllability of the existing grid and to support loads that reduce their
energy demand in response to price signals, through such technologies as synchronized phasors
and intelligent metering. Longer-term and more transforming, the Internet suggests alternative
organizing principles for a 21st Century Smart Grid. It succeeded by pushing intelligence to the
edges while hiding the diversity of underlying technologies through a well-defined interface.
Any device can be a source or sink of routable traffic and intelligent endpoints adapt their
behavior to what the infrastructure can deliver in accordance with localized utility functions.
Radical proposals to replace existing infrastructures, given their wide deployment, high capital
costs, and well-understood technologies, are unlikely to succeed. Here, too, the Internet offers a
model — of infrastructural co-existence and service displacement. The early network was
deployed on top of the telephone network. It provided a more resilient set of organizing
principles, became its own infrastructure, and eventually the roles reversed: services such Voice
over IP (VoIP) telephony are recent additions, having been added over time. The same approach
can yield a new architecture for local energy generation and distribution that leverages the
existing energy grid, but achieves new levels of efficiency and robustness, similar to how the
Internet has improved the phone network.
1 For the most current version of this essay, as well as related essays, visit http://www.cra.org/ccc/initiatives
Imagine a system built on packetized energy: store energy where it is generated, “route” it to
where it is needed. The existing infrastructure is generally unable to store energy for later use,
yielding a centralized system with crude mechanisms to adapt load (e.g., regional exchanges,
peaker plants, curtailment) and provisioned so that users lack the means to present an easier-tomanage
load to the infrastructure. New environmentally friendly energy storage technologies are
needed, with capacity/cost metrics suitable for deployment in homes, buildings, and throughout
the transmission and generation system, including renewable/intermittent energy sources.
Combining intelligent communication protocols with energy transmission in a common
architecture makes possible distributed control and demand response to pricing signals.
Such an infrastructure design would permit a shift from peak/worst case to the average case
“with sufficient headroom,” analogous to statistical multiplexing in packet networks. The key is
to use this headroom as an input for controlling generation, storage, and loads. Standardized
intelligent “interfaces,” at the level of homes or even individual appliances, allow independent
powered operation, distributed generation, and energy exchange. The architecture should allow
aggregation to plug into the regional grid, the neighborhood peer-to-peer grid, or the facility grid
to use localized storage and control to smooth load, adapt demand, and engage in exchange.

Verizon Achieves 3% Improvement in CO2 Efficiency
Verizon's rate of 64 metric tons of CO2 emissions per million dollars in revenue in 2008 represents a year-over-year improvement of 3 percent, according to figures cited by the company. Overall, Verizon's "carbon intensity" is approximately nine times below the U.S. average, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Verizon cited a number of ongoing initiatives that should see its energy efficiency improve even more in the years ahead. In 2008, Verizon:
• Became the first telecommunications company to require that the network equipment it purchases be 20 percent more energy efficient.
• Launched an initiative to limit engine idling, which cut fuel consumption by more than 1 million gallons (equivalent to taking some 1,600 cars off the road for a year.
• Electronically delivered approximately 100 million bills to customers.
• Collected more than 1.1 million cell phones, an increase of 6 percent from 2007, through HopeLine, a Verizon Wireless program that collects, refurbishes and sells used phones to benefit domestic violence prevention programs.
• Recycled 35.1 million pounds of telecommunications equipment. (equivalent to the weight of more than 11,500 Toyota Prius sedans.)
• Focused on purchasing goods containing recycled material. As a result, 60 percent of all goods purchased by the company contained recycled material.

http://www.verizon.com

Tools and resources for Cyber-Infrastructure users and university CIOs to reduce CO2

2009-04-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

[Under the new EPA rules in the USA any institution that produces over 15,000 tons CO2 must register with the EPA as primary emitters (and will likely be subject to cap and trade restrictions when, and if, they are implemented by Congress). Research universities produce upwards as much as 500,000 tons of CO2 per year of which anywhere from 30-50% comes from cyber-infrastructure and campus IT. In the very near future University presidents and politicians are going to quickly realize who are the major contributors to CO2 on their campus and are going to start to demand solutions. It is also likely that research and university funding agencies, like those in the UK will also demand both university researchers and CIOs to incorporate the cost of carbon in their research or IT proposals. Here are some tools designed specifically for university IT departments and researchers that will help them reduce their CO2 footprint. I also recommend that all IT staff undertake carbon accounting courses through the not-for-profit GHG institute. Special kudos to Educause, NACUBO, ZeroFootprint and ClimateCheck for these pointers – BSA]

Update on EDUCAUSE IT Sustainability Resources [Thanks to Norma Holland for this compilation]

Recently completed
• E-Live! with Bill St.Arnard, Chief Research Officer, CANARIE, Inc. – How Universities and R&E Networks Can Be Global Leaders in Helping to Reduce Global Warming. Feb 10, 2009 http://www.educause.edu/Resources/HowUniversitiesandRENetworksCa/163721
• White Paper on The Role of IT in Campus Sustainability Efforts, Carie Lee Page and IT Greening and Sustainability Planners, January, 2009, http://www.educause.edu/Resources/TheRoleofITinCampusSustainabil/163615
• MARC Plenary and Podcast – What’s Your Carbon Footprint? Sustainability and Green IT Initiatives That Make A Difference, Jeffry Cepull, Joe Cruz, Amy Phillips, Don Spicer http://www.educause.edu/Resources/WhatsYourCarbonFootprintSustai/163655
• Sustainable IT Constituent Group – chaired by Joyce Dickerson, Stanford http://www.educause.edu/SustainableITConstituentGroup/139495
• NERCOMP – What’s Your Carbon Footprint? Linda Howell, Cornell; David Todd, U Vermont http://www.educause.edu/Resources/WhatsYourCarbonFootprintSustai/163831
• SWRC – What’s Your Carbon Footprint? Sustainability and Green IT Initiatives that Make a Difference, Elizabeth Davey, Tulane; Edward Kelty, Rio Salado; Pattie Orr, Baylor http://www.educause.edu/Resources/WhatsYourCarbonFootprintSustai/163769
• MWRC – Discussion Session - IT Greening and Sustainability: What’s Your Carbon Footprint? Joel Cooper, Carleton College
http://www.educause.edu/blog/llarsen/ITGreeningandSustainabilityDis/169871
• E-Live! with Joyce Dickerson, Director, Sustainable IT, Stanford University – Sustainable IT, April 3rd, 1-2pm ET http://www.educause.edu/Resources/FromDesktopstoDataCentersSusta/169459
• Monthly EQ Columnists – Wendell Brase, Mark Askren http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/WhereDoesYourInstitutionStand/163861
• NACUBO – Smart and Sustainable Campus meeting – Norma attended, Wendell Brase presented.
• SWRC Session – What’s Your Carbon Footprint? Elizabeth Davey, Director of the Office of Environmental Affairs, Tulane University, Edward Kelty, Vice President/CIO Information Services, Rio Salado College, Pattie Orr, VP for IT and Dean of University Libraries, Baylor University http://www.educause.edu/Resources/WhatsYourCarbonFootprintSustai/163769
• WRC Plenary – What’s Your Carbon Footprint? Part 1, Wendell Brase, U California, Irvine -
http://net.educause.edu/Program/1020348?PRODUCT_CODE=WRC09/GS02
• WRC – What’s Your Carbon Footprint? Part 2, Jennifer Allen, Portland State; Mark Askren, U California, Irvine; Joyce Dickerson, Stanford http://net.educause.edu/WRC09/Program/1020348?Product_Code=WRC09/GS03

Upcoming
• NACUBO – Annual Conference with Sustainability Focus – Norma Attending http://www.bsu.edu/greening/
• SERC Plenary – Leadership: The Key to a Sustainable Future, Joel Hartman, U Central Florida http://net.educause.edu/SERC09/Program/1020814?PRODUCT_CODE=SERC09/GS01
• Enterprise2009 Plenary – Greening IT: Sustainability in the Data Center and Across Campus, Mark Askren, U Cal, Irvine
• ECAR – Study on Green IT
• EDUCAUSE Theme Article – Wendell Brase, Mark Askren, December, 2008

Significant Developments
• NACUBO and EDUCAUSE collaboration on possible 09 event -- how IT sustainability can lower costs.
• Collaboration with HEASC, Higher Education Sustainability Consortium - sharing resources
• Collaboration with COSN, Consortium of State Networks – sharing resources

ZeroFootprint Carbon reduction services for universities
http://www.zerofootprint.net/we-help/universities

We Help Universities
Zerofootprint Universities is an online application that can help mobilize and empower your university community to take action on climate change. The web-based calculator and social networking application gives students, faculty, staff, alumni and offsite learners the ability to measure, track and manage their individual carbon footprint, and to collaborate with other members of the university to achieve environmental goals.
You can aggregate the carbon footprints of your community by segment or across the entire university population. The application will measure carbon reductions that result from changes your community makes, and you can attribute these reductions to your university, and publish and celebrate them. Your university can also use the data gathered by the application to inform and support other climate change initiatives on the campus. In addition, Zerofootprint Universities supports competitions and challenges between individuals, departments or other groups, as well as with other universities who are using the application. The application also links to a marketplace of green products and services, as well as events and news.
Universities, especially when acting together, are like countries without borders, and the aggregated actions of their communities can make a significant contribution to a greener world. Knowing they are part of a larger effort gives university members a sense of empowerment to bring about positive change.
Zerofootprint Universities features
• University members can each calculate their own carbon footprint and track it through time.
• University members can see their footprint relative to others.
• Your university can link the “Tips” in the calculator to other current environmental initiatives.
• Your university and/or its members can set footprint reduction goals.
• University members can see the impact of achieving goals on their footprint.
• University members can pledge and commit to taking certain actions to meet goals.
• University members can see and link to others who are also using the calculator, and create or join groups around goals.
• University members can also use Zerofootprint’s One Minute Calculator for a quick measure of their footprint.
• The application links to a marketplace of green products services, events and news
Zerofootprint Universities customization
You can customize Zerofootprint Universities to your requirements. We co-brand the application, and link it to your website, with your university’s logo appearing on all pages. You can tailor the questions in the carbon footprint calculator to suit your community, and we program in the appropriate emissions factors for your location which will be used for all the calculations. You can adapt the “Community” section of the application to allow challenges between your departments, classes or other groups

GreenHouseGas Institute On-line Training program for IT professionals on Carbon Cost accounting
www.GHGinstitute.org

The next killer app for the Internet - dematerialization

2009-04-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

[I am here at the fantastic Freedom to Connect conference which is well worth watching on webcast (http://freedom-to-connect.net/). Many scientists are warning that the planet may be close to a tipping point where we will experience run away global warming (see Andy Revkin’s recent blog from the NYTimes for a summary of several studies on this issue). We simply may not have the luxury time for small incremental adaptations to address the challenge of global climatic disruption. One of the major ways we can reduce our CO2 footprint is through de-materialization where we replace physical products with virtual ones delivered over the Internet. Some studies indicated that we can reduce Co2 emissions by as much as 20% with materialization. I argue that dematerialization can be further amplified through carbon rewards (instead of Carbon taxes) where consumers are rewarded with a variety of virtual products in exchange of reducing their carbon footprint in other walks of their lives. But to take advantage of this opportunity of dematerialization we need open high speed broadband networks everywhere. Hence the importance of conferences such as Freedom to Connect. From a pointer by Tim OReilly on Dave Farber’s list – BSA]

Andy Revkin blog on the planet being at a tipping point
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/tipping-points-and-the-climate-challenge/

Interesting seybold piece on the environmental impact of publishing:
http://www.seyboldreport.com/ready-or-not-welcome-age-low-carbon-publishing

Have you ever considered what the carbon footprint of a magazine or an eReader is? What about the carbon footprint of your publication? Not everyone cares about carbon footprints or defers to the authority of science on climate change, but when Coke, Pepsi and Apple begin to carbon footprint their products, and Taco-Bell begins to open LEED-certified restaurants with low carbon footprints, it may be time to start.
According to information recently released by Apple, the lifecycle carbon footprint of an iPhone is responsible for the emission of 121 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over the course of a three year expected lifetime of use. Over 10 million iPhones have been sold to date. Though it is not a direct comparison, it is interesting to note that Discover magazine estimated that the lifecycle carbon footprint of each copy of its publication is responsible for 2.1 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, the same amount produced by twelve 100-watt light bulbs glowing for an hour or a car engine burning 14 ounces of gasoline. Over the next few years it can be expected that the reporting of lifecycle data and the carbon labeling of all products will move from the margins to the mainstream - including the footprinting of print and digital media products. Welcome to the age of low carbon everything.

There are billions of kilowatt hours of electricity embodied in the paper, ink and digital technologies we use each day, and close to a kilogram of CO2 is emitted for each kilowatt, but the energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with print and digital media supply chains have typically been overlooked, misunderstood or underestimated. Those days are drawing to an end. Increasingly major brands like Walmart, Pepsi, Coke, TacoBell and Timberland see carbon footprinting and carbon disclosure as an opportunity to differentiate themselves and grow - even in the face of a global recession.
[…]
Before you use one of the many carbon calculators popping on the Web to measure the carbon footprint of whatever medium you use, it's important to realize that the results can vary dramatically - as do their underlying assumptions. Most fail to employ standards. Until now, lots of calculators and "carbon neutral" companies have made promises to help you reduce your footprint. But there's been no single authority or regulatory agency to dictate how carbon usage should be calculated or disclosed. Standards and specifications for carbon footprinting such as ISO 14040, ISO 14064 and PAS 2050 now do exist, and open standards-based Web 2.0 platforms like AMEE are now available that enable accurate carbon footprinting, like-for-like comparisons and large-scale supply chain analysis.

Carbon rewards instead of carbon taxes
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/

The next killer app for the Internet - dematerialization

2009-03-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Stunning demo on the future of cell phones and computers

2009-03-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

[Here is a fascinating TED video showing demonstrating a novel new human-machine interface for cell phones/computers. One of the big challenges of computer miniaturization and power consumption is the large interface devices required for humans to access computers and cell phones – namely the screen and keyboard. This MIT demo is a brilliant demonstration of another approach. Solving the power consumption issues of the human machine interface is critical because, as reported in the ABI research paper – zero carbon networking is the next big thing. ABI Research forecasts that in 2009 over 800,000 cell phone base stations will utilize alternative energy solutions such as wind or solar energy. ABI Vice president Stuart Carlaw says, “One only has to look at the splash of solar powered mobile devices at Mobile World Congress 2009 to see that environmentally friendly solutions are becoming increasingly important to mobile consumers, service providers, application developers and OEMs alike.”
Companies that focus on building zero carbon optical and wireless Internet networks and related computer equipment will be the big winners. This will be driven not so much by the requirement to make the Internet zero carbon, whose contribution to overall CO2 emissions is only about 2-3% globally, but by “gCommerce” applications where consumers and businesses are rewarded with free telecommunications products and services in exchange for paying a voluntary carbon tax on their automobile, home heating/cooling etc –BSA]

Stunning demo on the future of cell phones and computers
http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

800,000 Alternative Energy-Powered Base Stations in 2009
http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1390-800%2C000+Alternative+Energy-Powered+Base+Stations+in+2009+%96+Clean+Telecoms+is+the+Next+Big+Thing

“gCommerce”
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/

Building a zero carbon Internet

2009-03-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

[Most people still don’t appreciate the sacrifices that are going to have to be made in order to achieve CO2 reductions in line with Kyoto agreement or upcoming Copenhagen agreement as documented in a recent MIT study that public attitudes about climate change reveal a contradiction: “ Surveys show most Americans believe climate change poses serious risks but also that reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions sufficient to stabilize atmospheric GHG concentrations or net radiative forcing can be deferred until there is greater evidence that climate change is harmful. US policymakers likewise argue it is prudent to wait and see whether climate change will cause substantial economic harm before undertaking policies to reduce emissions. Such wait-and-see policies erroneously presume climate change can be reversed quickly should harm become evident, underestimating substantial delays in the climate’s response to anthropogenic forcing.”

http://climateprogress.org/2008/02/01/mit-study-sterman-stabilizing-carbon-dioxide-concentrations-not-emissions/

Overall we need 80% reduction in GHG emissions in the coming years in order to simply stabilize the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We have not yet begun to experience the severe climatic disruption that will occur with the existing CO2 in the atmosphere, never mind the additional GHG gasses that will be emitted in the coming years. Every sector of society is going to be affected, including the Internet and ICT industry even though their collective contribution to global GHG emissions is relatively minor at 2-3% (but projected to double about every 4 to 6 years)

Improvements in energy efficiency, or PUE ratios at data centers are simply not going to be enough, especially when you consider the overall growth in the Internet and ICT in general. The overall absolute value of GHG emissions from the Internet and ICT is bound to increase despite all our best efforts in energy efficiency. Hence, as much as possible we need to strive for a zero carbon policy. It will not be easy to move towards zero carbon in some sectors of society like transportation, that is why other sectors must make an additional effort to move to zero carbon in order to achieve an overall target of 80% reduction. (Nothing is truly zero carbon – we use the term zero carbon when CO2 emissions are insignificantly small from the energy production itself)

CANARIE in partnership with ITAC recently held a workshop on this subject on the many technical and business challenges of building a zero carbon Internet. CANARE intends to fund a pilot demonstrating the technical and business advantages of building a zero carbon Internet. Many of the presentations at the workshop are now available at:

http://www.slideshare.net/event/canarieitac-green-it-workshop

One of the challenges building a zero carbon Internet is finding renewable sources of energy to power data centers, routing nodes, carrier hotels etc. One option is to purchase renewable power from the local utility. But this is fraught with various issues in that purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) does not eliminate the need for dirty coal plants and it does not protect the customer from significant jumps in the price of power as cap and trade comes on line. Even if the customer is purchasing RECs, renewable power delivered over the grid will increase in cost versus dirty power, as there will be significant demand for such power when cap and trade significantly pushes up the price of dirty power.

The “megawatt mindset” of most utilities also remains a major challenge to building a zero carbon Internet. Fortunately there are now companies that building windmills and run of the rivers turbines specifically for the Internet and ICT industry that will work independent of the electrical grid, even in urban settings. Windmills designed for the utility industry tend to be monstrous devices in order to get economies of scale and cause all sorts of nimby responses. But most data centers and Internet network nodes need far smaller devices that can be mounted on roofs. Since they are not part of the electrical grid, there are no transmission lines and the customer is assured of clean, renewable electricity at a long term guaranteed price.

A good example is Ecotricity in the UK which builds and operates wind turbines on partner sites such as data centers, factories and other facilities. Ecotricity takes on all the capital costs of the project, including the turbine itself. The partner agrees to purchase the electricity from the turbine and in return receive they received their own dedicated supply of green energy at significantly reduced rates. There is no finical risk to the data center or Internet node.

http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/mwp/mwp.html

A number of companies are also building specialized wind turbines for computer and telecommunication nodes that are much smaller scale in scale than the massive wind turbines used by the utilities. Ericsson for example is deploying cellular radio towers that are solely power by the wind.

http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2008/10/wind-powered-cell-phone-tower.html

Vertical axis wind turbines originally developed at the National Research Council in Canada are also very popular. There is no rotating blades the units are extremely compact and yet can operate in all sorts of wind conditions beyond the range of normal wind turbines
http://www.windports.com/ereal.html

There is also tethered air rotor systems which provide more sustained power because they operate at higher altitudes

http://www.magenn.com/index.php
Of course moving to a less reliable energy supply imposes new challenges on the Internet architecture and routing. In the past re-booting routers or route flaps were seen as a bad thing. Manufacturers went to considerable trouble to make “carrier-class” routers and equipment that never needed re-booting. But with intermittent availability of energy at every computing and routing node we have to re-visit many of the architectural principles of the Internet in terms of topology, routing protocols, and reliability.

We need new research into such concepts as least cost Co2 path routing where the best route may not necessarily be the shortest route in terms of latency etc. New distributed caching architectures to minimize CO2 emissions such that large databases and computers can be located at distant renewable energy sites will also be required but yet do not impact latency. New network routing topologies with off-center routing and switching will be required as today most routers and switches are located at the intersection of multiple routing paths. Finally new ideas and architectures will be required as we look to integrate low CO2 optical networks with energy hungry routers.
--BSA]

US Department of Energy funding program for Green IT

2009-03-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

[The DoE should be applauded for this initiative on Green IT. My only concern is that the program is focused on energy efficiency rather than reducing Co2. As many readers of my blog know, energy efficiency can paradoxically increase energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Energy efficiency in the absence of other policies such as a carbon tax will backfire, as we witnessed from the results of the CAFÉ laws passed by the UC Congress during the last energy crisis in 1972. Specifically targeting CO2 reductions often requires different tools and solutions than those required to improve energy efficiency. Thanks to Rod Wilson for this pointer – BSA]

Hello,

The Department of Energy's Industrial Technologies Program has announced it's intention to issue an Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) solicitation or request for proposal. You are receiving this notification because of your expertise and experience in the ITC area.
The solicitation, termed a "Funding Opportunity Announcement" (FOA), is expected to be released during the mid-March time frame and is expected to be open for a shorter time (possibly as short as one month) than the three or so months customary for ITP.

The Research and Development segment of this solicitation is expected to require a team capable of and experienced in 1) research and development, 2) manufacturing the technology proposed, 3) bringing the technology to the end user through sales and marketing, and 4) serving as an end user to demonstrate the efficacy of the technology proposed.
Some organizations may possess more than one of these capabilities.
This notification will enable those intending to submit a proposal to start to form complete teams before the solicitation is released. The solicitation will require cost sharing as defined by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The pre-announcement of the Funding Opportunity Announcement may be
viewed at
https://e-center.doe.gov/doebiz.nsf/d76fbc294818822885256d98006c63b6/0b3
7b72285cd2c7185257569006d57e6?OpenDocument

[see below]

When released, the FOA will be available for viewing at Grants.gov
(http://www.grants.gov) and at the DOE's Industry Interactive Procurement Systems (IIPS) or "e-center" (https://e-center.doe.gov).
Applicants are strongly encouraged to register at these sites to receive notification of announcements posted by the DOE Golden Field Office.
When the FOA is released, applications will only be received through Grants.gov.

This solicitation results from the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009", popularly known as the stimulus act, which directs the DOE to support research to increase the efficiency of information and communication technology and improve standards.

Multiple mailing lists have been used to disseminate this information.
Please accept our apologies if you have received more than one copy of this notification.

Gideon Varga
Technology Manager
Industrial Technologies Program
U. S. Department of Energy

Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) No.: DE-PS36-09GO99023

Description:

Notice of Intent to Issue

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) No.: DE-PS36-09GO99023

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Golden Field Office (GO) intends to issue, on behalf of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Information and Communication Facility Energy Efficiency”

Title IV of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 directs DOE to support research to increase the efficiency of information and communication technology and improve standards.

The goal and scope of the proposed FOA are broadly described in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), Title IV - Energy Savings in Buildings and Industry, Subtitle D – Industrial Energy Efficiency, Section 452 “ENERGY-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES PROGRAM”, Section 453 “ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR DATA CENTER BUILDINGS” and in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Title IX – RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, Subtitle B – Distributed Energy and Electric Energy Systems, Section 922 - “ HIGH POWER DENSITY INDUSTRY PROGRAM”.

There are two broad areas of interest. Each proposal must address only one of these areas of interest. The areas of interest are:

A. Information and Communications Technologies Research & Development For Energy Efficiency
The energy used by our nation’s vital telecommunications and data centers is growing at an alarming rate. As information technology and communications services continue to slowly converge, the data center and telecommunications industries face increasingly similar challenges to control the power usage of their microprocessors or servers and supporting power and cooling systems. The electricity consumed in data centers and telecom systems is already three percent of the U.S. total and growing rapidly. In the face of growing global energy demand, uncertain energy supplies, and volatile energy prices, innovative solutions are needed to radically advance the energy efficiency of these systems, which represent the engine of the American economy today. Enhanced energy efficiency in the central offices and data centers supporting our information, communications technology (ICT) systems will enhance U.S. energy and economic security.
Proposals for research and development in the following areas are sought:
1. Equipment Hardware and Software
Computing hardware and software are the functioning components of server-based data and telecommunications centers and largely determine power and cooling requirements. Achieving high levels of energy performance will require novel approaches to the design and management of these hardware and software systems. The key theme and approach in this area is to minimize heat generation. Thus, energy will be saved by developing novel systems that generate less heat (i.e., new electronic circuitry which will use less energy by increasing chip output per unit of power used) or are impervious to heat, or by the use optics only. These include, but are not limited to:
• Develop all-optical systems to increase energy efficiency.
• Advance ultra-low power circuits like multi-phase clock asynchronous circuits to increase energy efficiency
• Utilize ultra-efficient nano-electronic circuitry, including nano-based information storage devices, wires and graphene-based systems. The latter is expected to make possible the replacement of silicon in future electronic devices, and may make possible the incorporation of spintronic devices in future server-based ICT systems.
• Create hardened electronic equipment which can withstand temperature, humidity and particulate conditions outside the boundary of current generation electronics. Thus server-based systems can operate without air conditioning in environments worldwide, even high temperature environments.

2. Cooling
Cooling is believed to account for a third of all power consumed by information technology, telecommunications, and data centers. The cooling of server-based telephone central offices and data centers can be made more energy efficient by the following, but are not limited to:
• Create advanced component level cooling technologies
• Develop mitigation techniques to reduce the probability of failures associated with “free” cooling.
• Identify and create effective uses of low-quality waste heat generated.

3. Power Supply Efficiency
Data and telecommunications centers require large quantities of electricity to be conditioned, converted, and delivered to the diverse components, including servers, switches, routers, and hard drives. The power supply chain can include electricity purchased from the grid, backup power, onsite-power generation, switchgear, UPS’s, power distribution systems, rack-level and unit-level power supplies, and power management technology. Traditionally, data centers have used AC power distribution systems and telecommunications centers have used DC power. The R&D proposals for power supply energy efficiency may address the following, but are not limited to:

• Research and develop high-efficiency power conversion circuits which optimize server-based data center and telecom equipment.
• Develop special purpose chips, multiphase clocking, ternery/other processing modes, lower-power chips (noted in part under hardware and software).
• Research the use of optical switching to eliminate many conversion steps & losses (Also noted under hardware and software).
• Conduct RD&D of superconducting components.
• Research the use of piezoelectrics to incorporate into micro-mechanical air conditioning for point of load cooling
• Efficiency optimized control systems for power conversion.

Each proposal MUST include organizational participants capable of and experienced in 1) research, 2) manufacturing the technology proposed, 3) bringing the technology to the end user through sales and marketing, and 4) serving as an end user of the technology proposed.

Each R&D project will be funded for maximum of three (2) years, with one or more budget periods.

B. Demonstration and Field Testing of Highly Energy Efficient and Pre-commercial Technologies in Data Center or Telecommunication Facilities

DOE is interested in field testing and independently validating the energy performance of pre-commercial technologies that show the potential to improve energy efficiency while not compromising data center or telecommunication reliability. The demonstration sites will be early adopters of the technologies and must be willing to share information about the cost-benefit results of the field-tested technology projects so as to encourage more rapid market acceptance of the technologies. Accordingly, DOE will work with the demonstration teams to develop case studies of the technology projects using measured and verified results so as to reduce market and technology risk.

The applicants must show a plan for the technologies to be demonstrated and the adoption of other best energy management practices to improve a data/ telecommunication center’s energy intensity performance (energy consumed for a given level of useful computational work) by more than 25 percent and have a Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE = IT energy / total facility energy usage) of 0.80 or greater.

New and innovative technologies that are not currently widely commercial and that improve the following parts of a data center or telecommunication facility will be considered for DOE’s cost sharing:

• Information Technology (IT) Optimization. This could include, but not be limited to: server virtualization, data storage and networking optimization schemes, methods in connecting multiple data centers (e.g., “cloud computing”) or any technology and IT optimization system that will result in less heat generation for a given amount computational work load.
• Energy efficient electrical power distribution and supply. This could include, but not be limited to, more energy efficient electrical power supply to the IT or telecommunication equipment through new power transformation and back up technologies by reducing overall power distribution supply and IT system energy losses.
• Energy efficient cooling schemes. This could include, but not be limited to, more energy efficient cooling of IT/telecommunication equipment by more optimally delivering and/or controlling cooling to IT equipment with, for example, wireless sensors or IT systems that require less cooling while not compromising equipment lifetime.
• Distributed generation or alternative power technologies. New innovative combined heat and power or renewable energy technologies that are optimized for data center/telecommunication facilities and reduce overall source energy consumption and carbon emissions are desired to be demonstrated.

Technology demonstrations must be able to be widely replicated in other data centers throughout the United States and not be niche applications.

The demonstration teams must be willing to cooperate with DOE to perform an independent performance validation and to create case studies. Demonstration teams must also be willing to conduct public tours of the demonstration site(s) for up to 2 years after the technology demonstration case study is prepared.

Partnerships between the technology development teams and Federal facilities building new or retrofitting existing data center/telecommunication facilities, as well as other host sites, should be formed.

C. General Information

DOE envisions awarding multiple financial assistance/grant awards on a competitive basis. These awards will require cost shares in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Details about cost share requirements will be included in the FOA along with the details of technical areas of interest, proposal preparation instructions and application merit review and evaluation criteria.

DOE plans to release the FOA in March, 2009. The FOA will be available for viewing at Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov) and at the DOE’s Industry Interactive Procurement Systems (IIPS) or “e-center” (https://e-center.doe.gov). Applicants are strongly encouraged to register at these sites to receive notification of announcements posted by DOE Golden Field Office. When the FOA is released, applications will only be received through Grants.gov.

In anticipation of the FOA being released shortly, there are several one-time actions prospective applicants must complete in order to submit an application through Grants.gov (e.g., obtain a Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, register with the Central Contract Registry (CCR), register with FedConnect, register with the credential provider, and register with Grants.gov). Due to the likelihood of a short response period, interested applicants are strongly encouraged to ensure these requirements have been met. Detailed information on the DUNS and CCR process is presented at http://www.grants.gov/GetStarted. Applicants may use the Grants.gov Organization Registration Checklist at http://www.grants.gov/assets/OrganizationRegCheck.pdf to guide them through the process. Designating an E-Business Point of Contact (EBiz POC) and obtaining a special password called an MPIN are important steps in the CCR registration process. Applicants not yet registered with CCR and Grants.gov, should allow at least 21 days to complete these requirements. It is strongly recommended that the process be started as soon as possible.

If your organization does not have a DUNS number, go to the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) online registration located at http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform/displayHomePage.do to receive a number free of charge or call 1-866-705-5711.

The Central Contractor Registration (CCR) collects, validates, stores, and disseminates business information about the Federal Government's trading partners in support of the contract award, grants, and the electronic payment processes.

To see if your organization is already registered with CCR, check the CCR website located at http://www.bpn.gov/ccrinq/scripts/search.asp. You will be able to search CCR by using either your organization’s DUNS Number or legal business name. If your organization is already registered, take note of who is listed as the organization’s E-Business Point of Contact (E-Business POC). This person will be responsible for registering in FedConnect.

To register in FedConnect, go to https://www.FedConnect.net/FedConnect/ or contact the FedConnect Helpdesk at support@fedconnect.net Please note that the system functionality of FedConnect requires organizations to be registered with the CCR before registering with FedConnect. (FedConnect ‘Quick Start Guide’:
https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/FedConnect_Ready_Set_Go.pdf )

If your organization is not registered in CCR, go to the CCR Website at www.ccr.gov and select the "Start New Registration" option to begin the registration process. Please allow up to 7 days for processing of your registration which includes the IRS validating your Employer Identification Number (Taxpayer Identification Number or Social Security Number). The organization’s E-Business POC will be designated during the CCR registrations process. A special Marketing Partner ID Number (MPIN) is established as a password to verify the E-Business POC.

The DOE will not entertain questions

Obama's $645 billion Cap and Trade -significant revenue for ICT and cyber-infrastrucure

2009-02-28T07:17:00.001-08:00

[Almost daily there is more alarming new evidence of the significant growth in CO2 emissions and increased warming raising the probability of global climatic disruption. The latest in depth study from MIT paints a very grim picture where they are project a “median” temperature increase of 5.1C. As many of Obama’s science team point out we are long overdue for some major climatic disruptions that will make the current financial crisis seem like a walk in the park.

So it is indeed welcome news to see real leadership from Washington as details of Obama’s proposed cap and trade start to emerge. The program anticipates $645 billion of permits being issued based at $13 mT CO2e through the period from 2012-2019. Some of this revenue will be used to reduce taxes for low-middle income families and support research into alternate energy initiatives. But the bulk of the revenue will in the trading of permits and purchasing offsets. As yet no details of the workings of the cap and trade system have emerged.

But as has been pointed out many times, the biggest reduction in CO2 emissions can be made not through developing alternate clean energy sources, but in reducing energy consumption (and concomitant CO2 emissions) in variety of industry sectors through the use of ICT and cyber-infrastructure by building smart buildings, smart communities, smart grids, zero carbon computing etc. This has thoroughly documented in the SMART 2020 report – www.smart2020.org.
For that reason alone the bulk of the $625 billion for permits to reduce CO2 should theoretically end up in the pockets of ICT companies rather than alternative energy suppliers. Yet surprisingly few companies in the ICT sector are pursuing such a strategy.

The biggest challenge in capitalizing on the use of ICT to reduce CO2 emissions is the lack of a rigourous documented process for the ICT industry to validate and prove these claims on energy reduction and CO2 abatement. There are many hand waving arguments of energy efficiency and so forth, but most of these claims will not survive rigourous analysis because of lack of understanding all the input and output factors that affect overall contribution of CO2 abatement from ICT such as Jevons paradox etc.

To that end CANARIE, in partnership with the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is hosting workshop to help develop the necessary carbon inventory and auditing process so that the Canadian ICT industry and research community can understand the processes and procedures to validate claims of reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions and potentially earn offset dollars for themselves or their clients from cap and trade systems like Obama’s initiative.

Tom Baumann, Chair of the IEEE Climate Change Technology Subcommittee and Lead Author of ISO 14064-2 GHG Project Standard will be giving the opening talk on how ICT Industry and research community can utilize GHG Programs, Accounting Protocols and Rules for Generating GHG Revenues. Tom Bauman is also president of the GHG Institute that provides eLearning courses to ICT professionals and others on GHG standards and offset (www.ghginstitute.orh). His presentation is also available at

http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/climate-check-canarie-workshop-march4

--BSA]

New MIT study on most recent climate forecast data
Probabilistic Forecast for 21st Century Climate Based on Uncertainties in Emissions (without Policy) and Climate Parameters
http://globalchange.mit.edu/pubs/abstract.php?publication_id=990

See also Hadley Center: “Catastrophic” 5-7°C warming by 2100 on current emissions path

http://climateprogress.org/2008/12/21/hadley-study-warns-of-catastrophic-5%C2%B0c-warming-by-2100-on-current-emissions-path/

Details of Obama’s cap and trade are starting to emerge
http://climateprogress.org/2009/02/26/obama-first-sustainable-budget-us-history-clean-energy-cap-and-trade-repeal-fossil-subsidies/

Towards a common carbon currency: Exploring the prospects for integrated global carbon markets
http://www.google.com/urlsa=U&start=1&q=http://www.bnymellon.com/news/commentaries/issuerservices/carbonmarkets.pdf&ei=LQeoSYuVOJaitgfchIXjDw&usg=AFQjCNFKqoZLEL-N6rUbShxYS3WtJm9Xmg

The Bank of New York Mellon’s Office of Innovation has partnered with Point Carbon, a leading worldwide consulting and research firm, to look at and assess today’s rapidly growing carbon markets. Together we explore the future evolution of carbon trading as a means of achieving global environmental goals.

Investing in carbon offsets: Guidelines for universities

2009-02-28T07:15:00.000-08:00

For more information on this item please visit my blog at
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/ or http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com
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[The ACUPCC has put together an excellent set of guidelines on the issues surrounidng carbon offsest. For those universities and ICT departments lookimg to buy/sell offsets I recommend that they get their IT staff trained in the basics at the non-for-profit GHG Institute which offers eleaning courses on GHG management and certification . Thanks to Tom Baumann for this pointer—BSA]

The GHG institute
www.ghginstitute.org

ACUPCC Guidelines
http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/documents/CarbonOffsetsGuidelines_v1.0.pdf