Green computing

More than 1/3 of IT organizations will have environmental criteria on shopping list

Initially, the motivation will come from the wish to contain costs. Enterprise data centres are struggling to keep pace with the increasing power requirements of their infrastructures. And there is substantial potential to improve the environmental footprint, throughout the life cycle, of all IT products and services without any significant trade-offs in price or performance. In future, IT organisations will shift their focus from the power efficiency of products to asking service providers about their measures to improve energy efficiency.

Gartner Highlights Key Predictions for IT Organisations and Users in 2008 and Beyond

Overheard: Your old computer may be in Guiya, China

And though U.S. states increasingly require that electronics be sent to collection and recycling centers, even from those centers, American firms can send the e-waste abroad legally because Congress hasn’t ratified the Basel Convention. The results are visible on the streets of Guiyu, where the e-waste industry employs an estimated 150,000 people. Shipping containers of computer parts, old video games, computer screens, cell phones and electronics of all kinds, from ancient to nearly new, are dumped onto the streets and sorted for dismantling and melting. Christopher Bodeen, China: E-Waste and Environmental Disaster

Michael Zhao provides a glimpse of Guiyu in this YouTube video. You can view his excellent 20-min documentary about life in Guiyu at his Web site.

Overheard: Is there a market for the heat created by a data center?

The designers of the new mall worked out a plan to connect their heat pump system to the data center of a near by Telco facility. During the winter, the data center heats the mall and during the summer, the mall uses the heat generated by the server room to preheat a local hotel’s water system. kstroh, Selling Heat

Mercursenteret is a shopping mall established in an old telegraph building in Trondheim, Norway. The shopping mall is cooled and heated by a heat pump system. In the winter during the heating period, the heat pump uses the cooling distribution system of the telecommunication centre in the next-door building (Teknisk Telehus) as the heat source. In the summertime, the heat pump operates mainly for cooling. Excess heat from the heat pump system is sold to pre-heat sanitary water in a hotel in the neighbourhood. The seasonal performance factor is 3.5 for heating and 2.5 for cooling.

Overheard: Bovine energy is serious alternative energy source

Bovine energy is a hot topic in biofuel research. Don’t laugh. There are 1.5 billion cows on planet earth and each of them manufactures an average of 100 pounds of manure a day. That’s a lot of methane gas.

Before I read about bovine energy, I pictured it pretty much the way the folks at the One Laptop Per Child initiative are using it. (see photo below) Not very efficient.

But as I read more, I began to understand how serious a source of energy cows could be. With a methane digester, even a small farm can recycle the gas cows produce in their manure to produce some serious electricity. The farm in the video (middle) brings in an extra $30k a month from selling their cow-generated electricity.

Instead of asking “got milk” maybe we should be asking “got fuel?”

Cows being used to power a generator for the OneLaptopPerChild initiative.Sumner Lemon

Using the cow’s digestive system to power energy cells. Hannah Velten

Overheard: What is a pre-green bill?

“Get a copy of your company’s electric bill. Determine how much you actually spend per month in energy for your data center. This is considered your “pre-green” bill.” Jimmy Ray Purser 5 Easy, Cheap Ways to Green Your Data Center

How do you actually do that?

Overheard: If you get the lead out, the tin man will have 5 o’clock shadow

“To prevent lead from being incinerated or accumulating in landfills after electronic devices have been disposed of, the health and safety zealots have not so much thrown — as hurled — the baby out with the bathwater.” Dr. Richard North, Whiskers!