Thursday Dec 21, 2006
Today President Bush signed an important bill for the tech industry - HR5646 - today.
Big pat on the back to Sun as I know we certainly helped inspire/propose this bill to legislators, working
with others in the tech industry to make sure it was a single voice. Now the EPA has been directed to
study and promote energy efficiency in servers.
HR 5646 was one of about 20 bills the President signed yesterday.
Under the bill the EPA study and recommendations are due 180 days from
enactment, so mid/late June.
There is also a WSJ Story that is subscription only here
Today, large companies spend 15% to 20%
of their data center's operating budget on power and cooling, and by
2009 businesses in the U.S. will spend twice as much for power and
cooling as they did to buy the data centers' server hardware in the
first place. This trend makes it more apparent now than ever that
energy efficient and environmentally responsible computing will no
longer be just an option, but rather an imperative needed for companies
to remain competitive.
This measure offers an opportunity for the Environmental Protection
Agency to examine the environmental impact of data centers, explore
ways to reduce energy demand, and encourage the adoption of more energy
efficient server technology. The mandate will serve as an important
step toward promoting not only more environmentally responsible
computing for government and industry, but also better fiscal health as
a result of the tremendous savings possible through more energy
efficient technologies. It is important that we take action now to
promote these goals to help keep both our energy use and costs under
better control. This, in turn, will help drive U.S. competitiveness and
economic growth.
Sun is a leader in energy efficient computing technologies and is
committed to reducing global climate change through innovation. Our
Eco-Responsibility initiative is focused on reducing environmental
impact by designing products that require less power, manufacturing
products with less harmful materials, and encouraging reuse and
recycling in our industry. We look forward to working with leaders in
the 110th Congress to develop other legislative initiatives that will
encourage government and industry to adopt more energy efficient and
environmentally responsible policies and best practices for information
technology.
Sunday Dec 10, 2006
Source: New Scientist.
According to New Scientist, grass may be the best source of biofuel. According to the researchers, it is actually "carbon negative" even after you use fossil fuels to transport it to the refinery.
"The use of fossil fuels to power the process releases 0.3 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year - but the growing grasses store 4.4 tonnes of CO2
in the roots and soil, meaning the net result is 4.1 tonnes removed
from the atmosphere. The stems, leaves and flowers of the grasses also
absorb CO2 but this is then released again when the grassland biofuel is burned later on – meaning no net gain or loss of CO2."
<snip>
Humble grasses may be the best source of biofuel, say researchers, who
estimate grasses could provide 19% of global electricity needs at the
same time as soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. <unsnip>
Corn as the crop for biofuel has been criticized because of the amount of energy it takes to grow it, harvest it, etc.
It's definitely going to take a mix of innovations to reduce our impact on the environment or to return earth to how it once was. With every innovation that is seen by some as positive there are immediately those who see negatives. Are there innovations out there with no negatives? My definition of innovation is that which improves on something that already exists. But by improving something the most obvious naysayers are those whose previous innovation now has little value.
Should innovation with no negative impact be a goal, given the limited amount of resources on our great planet? After reading Cradle to Cradle, it makes me think that humans should make this our goal.
Tuesday Dec 05, 2006
It's never been easier to cool down your data center.
Did you know that starting today that Sun's Try and Buy program at Sun just got cooler? Now Sun is including a Power Meter with your order of a Sun Fire T1000 or Sun Fire T2000 eco-responsible computers (yes, the ones with breakthrough energy-savings and that are eligible for the PG&E Rebate if you are in their region. This allows you to quickly test your installed servers with your new order to see just how energy efficient it is. And from that you can easily figure out how much money you're going to be saving your company. This is the first time IMHO that any vendor is doing something like this. And from that you could win a server, just buy submittting your results.
Simply put, how cool is that? I attached some pictures. All the details can be found here.
OK, a Few Detail (and more photos) below:
As
part of Sun's Power Meter program, each Sun Fire T1000 and T2000
system shipped as part of the Try and Buy program will be supplied
with a free P4400 Kill A Watt
power meter from P3 International, supplied by Teledynamics LLP. (We don't endorse one power meter over another, but believe the more inexpensive ones do a good job of giving you an idea). This lets
customers measure and compare power consumption in their actual
datacenter environment. This one is regularly priced at thirty bucks. Also - some fine print - since power meters are region-specific this is best for North America use only.
Sun
will also supply Try and Buy customers a guide to demonstrate how to
use low cost power meters with the Sun Fire CoolThreads servers. The quick-start guide to get you started to measure your power measurements is here, though once you get serious you'll want to go here.
Sun
also provides a formula to calculate the Performance per Watt
metric.
Divide
the performance the server delivers (i.e. simultaneous users,
transactions per minute, etc.) and divide by the power consumption
reported over the duration of the benchmark test.
Additionally,
by plugging results into Sun's SWaP calculator you can reveal the
true level of performance, power and space efficiency of the
servers.
Equipment:
P4400
Power Meter
1:3
outlet converter
Friday Nov 17, 2006
Ed Begley Jr. has a new eco reality TV show coming soon to HGTV called Living with Ed.
Thanks Hugg.
This is not the first time a celebrity has committed to do an eco show. In fact I've blogged on this exactly a month ago.
I will not reserve my opinion: because the world idolizes moviestars we are likely to see even more green awareness in 2007 in the coming year. I speak about this lightly because it is Friday. Speaking of which, my wife, who owns a vintage store and sells some new and old things (think reuse), and I have been talking about opportunities within her store and with her 'supply chain' to get more eco-responsible. She has decided to write a letter to all of her vendors about her New Years Resolution to become much more eco-conscious in 2007 -- and stress the importance of packing things in a much more eco-friendly way -- no more Styrofoam peanuts, please.
OK, enough.
Have a green weekend, Universe.
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