July 18, 2008
Trash + Bacteria = Biohydrogen
No matter how well homes and businesses recycle, some stuff like food, feedstock and farm waste is inevitably going to end up in a landfill. Though they are thought to harmlessly decompose, this waste organic material still emits methane, which traps a lot more heat in the atmosphere than CO2.
Already some landfills trap methane, but scientists in the UK think they can use two forms of bacteria in a complementary way to produce "biohydrogen" or a biologically-derived form of the energy-dense element. Science Daily brings us an intriguing report from the Microbiology Today.
When there is no oxygen, fermentative bacteria use carbohydrates like sugar to produce hydrogen and acids. Others, like purple bacteria, use light to produce energy (photosynthesis) and make hydrogen to help them break down molecules such as acids. These two reactions fit together as the purple bacteria can use the acids produced by the fermentation bacteria. Professor Lynne Macaskie's Unit of Functional Bionanomaterials at the University of Birmingham has created two bioreactors that provide the ideal conditions for these two types of bacteria to produce hydrogen."By working together the two types of bacteria can produce much more hydrogen than either could alone," said Dr Mark Redwood. "A significant challenge for the development of this process to a productive scale is to design a kind of photobioreactor that is cheap to construct and able to harvest light from a large area. A second issue is connecting the process with a reliable supply of sugary feedstock."
Already, work is being done to commercialize the technology. A side benefit is that enzymes created by the process can be used to "scavenge precious metals from spent automotive catalysts." If they can produce hydrogen in quantity cost-effectively, then it looks like good news all around.
Posted by phernandez at 12:10 PM | Add Comment
July 17, 2008
Green Matters: Gore's Clean Energy Moon Shot
100 percent clean, renewable energy in 10 years? Maybe not the most realistic goal, but you can't deny that it would create a cleantech boom of massive proportions...
Gore Calls for 100% Green Power in 10 Years - Earth2Tech
Al Gore has just called for an aggressive, if not unattainable, solution to America’s economic, environmental and national security woes: Generate 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. The Nobel laureate laid out the challenge to America in a speech today at Washington’s Constitution Hall.
Time to green-light sustainable IT - Silicon.com
The current penchant for invoking green IT whenever data centre power consumption is mentioned may suit the goals of IT vendors with new power efficient kit to sell; but it does little to help address the bigger picture.In fact, it only serves to perpetuate the misguided notion that IT is to be treated at arm's length as an isolated part of the business.
Sun Exec: Your ‘Eco Data Center’ doesn’t have to cost millions. - GreenTech Pastures, ZDNet
For the long term, match your infrastructure to the application SLA or SLO needs, whatever your service level model or service level objectives are. Don’t implement big Tier 3, Tier 3 Plus or Tier 4 data centers for all application workloads. Target it appropriately. A number of customers are starting to take a look at a single data center that is broken up into multiple rooms. Some of the rooms being Tier 1 Plus, some being Tier 2 and finally the other rooms being Tier 3 Plus. And [they’re] putting only the mission-critical equipment in the Tier 3 Plus areas and all testing, development, quality assurance, SAN box systems, staging and lifecycle management systems into the Tier 2. And then the Tier 1 can be kind of the playground for systems administrators to learn things or people to try out new virtualization technologies, etc.
Power Rationing--Green Gets Serious - InformationWeek's Storage Blog
Instant power savings can be achieved quickly in a few areas. First is data archiving, getting old data off of your arrays. Disk archiving is ideal for data that still needs to be accessed occasionally, meaning that disk is still needed, but can be moved from these active disk areas to systems like Copan's File Archiver and NexSAN's ATABeast, that can turn off the drives attached to it. The remaining active data set should be managed as well with data compression. Companies like Storwize can deploy an in-line compression technology to compress all of your active file system data, even network-mounted databases with no performance impact. With old data off the arrays and active data being compressed, file systems can be consolidated to fewer storage systems, and those arrays can be turned off.
Solar Power Array Installed at Fresno Yosemite International Airport - Treehugger
The fuel powering the planes flying into the Fresno Yosemite International (FYI) airport may not yet come from renewable energy, but a good portion of the operations of the airport will soon be, thanks to a new 2 MW solar array dedicated yesterday.The array will provide electricity to power 40% of the everyday lighting, air conditioning, controls and tower communications of the airport. The array will by 9.5 acres in size and is expected to save the airport $13 million over the next 20 years.
Posted by phernandez at 5:39 PM | Add Comment
July 16, 2008
Remote Access Tool Saves Petrol and Power
With the combination of green computing awareness, and the price of gas having long-since passed "ridiculous" levels, it's no wonder that remote access tools--you know, those products that let you login to and access your office PC from the couch in your living room-- are all the rage. But while you're sitting in your jammies and patting yourself on the back for all the green you're saving, consider this: You may be blowing a substantial chunk of that cash in the cost it takes you to keep your office computer powered up all night (or weekend, or vacation, or whatever).
According to PR from 01 Communique Laboratory Inc., "Studies have shown that the cost of leaving a single computer on all the time can be upwards of $15.00 a month per PC," and, not surprisingly, they offer a potential remedy. Their newly announced I'm InTouch Premium version provides the ability to automatically wake up your computer when you need it from a remote location--allowing you to shut down unneeded computers when you leave the building without fear of not being able to access them from a beach in the Virgin Islands when the need arises. 01 Communique explains:
Instead of leaving all your computers on, a single PC can be used to "wake-up" any computer in your office when needed, dramatically reducing your electricity bill.
And exactly how much can you expect that electric bill to drop? If you believe the vendor's own data, you could save as much as 150 bucks a month if your shop has 20 PCs.
Of course, that assumes you're currently leaving all those PCs on every night, and that whatever remote access solution you're using doesn't absorb whatever costs you may be saving. But either way, your overall gasoline and electricity usage should be lowered--and our carbon-heavy environment will thank you for it.
Posted by dragle at 11:16 AM | Add Comment
July 11, 2008
Green Matters: Virtualize, But Not for the Green You Think
Sure, lowering your environmental impact is a warm and fuzzy reason for adopting virtualization. But CIO's have another kind of green in mind: money.
Virtually Speaking: All About Green - ServerWatch
It's always good to have data to back up a hunch: A recent IDC survey of 650 European companies taken between January and March of this year reported that 90 percent of companies that have adopted virtualization technologies did so to reduce data center costs.So saving money is the key driver, not saving the environment or saving on real-estate or any of the soft benefits vendors like to tout.
Climate Change = More Heat Waves = More Blackouts - Earth2Tech
Coming soon to a city near you — more power outages! As temperatures soar across the nation, a report published today in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology details research from scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which estimates that electricity demand could outstrip supply by as much as 17 percent on the hottest days in the coming decades.
Toshiba's New Unit Keeps Homes' Power in Check - EcoGeek
Toshiba’s focus on Green is extending beyond planting trees, building eco-friendly laptops, and getting more bang for the watt on its products. Now it’s moving into IT solutions to help home owners do their own power monitoring. The company is showcasing its new IT Power Measurement Unit at the Hokkaido Toyako Summit in Japan.
Ontario adds fee for electronics recycling - National Post
The levies, $10 for televisions and about $13 for computers, will be billed to Ontario producers and importers beginning on April 1, 2009. Mr. Gerretsen said it was up to the manufacturers to decide if the cost would be absorbed or passed on to consumers.The program's income, expected to be about $62-million in the first year, will go to Waste Diversion Ontario, a non-Crown corporation that operates waste-diversion programs for the government, in order to fund the collection and recycling of outdated and unwanted electronics.
Lotus goes for the green with Eco Elise - Wide Open Throttle Blog - Motor Trend
Where other manufacturers have turned to exotic composites and advanced batteries and electronics to boost fuel mileage and cut emissions, Lotus has gone back to its roots, so to speak, in "performance through light weight." Thanks to lighter wheels, body panels and sound system, Lotus has shaved 70.5 pounds off the already petite Elise S. While there are no reported changes to the engine itself, Lotus believes the lighter weight, coupled with solar cells on the removable roof that will take load off of the alternator, will lead to a noticeable increase in gas mileage and a subsequent reduction in emissions.
Posted by phernandez at 4:06 PM | Add Comment
July 10, 2008
iPhone 3G Battery Still Not User-Replaceable, Unless...
Its design was a dead giveaway that you wouldn't be swapping batteries willy-nilly. But now comes confirmation via iFixit that the iPhone 3G battery, while not exactly user-replaceable, isn't soldered on!
This means that if you're good with tiny tools, and there's a third party out there providing replacement batteries like they did for older generation iPods, then you might, just might, be able to change out the power pack when your iPhone 3G croaks after a few minutes of talk time.
Take a look at some more interesting discoveries from the first known iPhone 3G teardown here. Ghastly!
And if you need something else to obsess over then it might please you to know that the iTunes App Store is semi-officially open for business.
[via Engadget]
Update: MacRumors has a direct link to the iPhone 2.0 firmware (to make use of those lovely apps; iPhone ONLY). Upgrade at your own risk.
Posted by phernandez at 11:10 AM | Add Comment
July 9, 2008
Green Storage: Hitachi Ushers in "Tera Era", Samsung SSDs
Some exciting news in the storage realm this week.
First up is Hitachi. As you know, hard drive capacity is hurtling past the 1 terabyte mark, which is great if you need more storage space but not so great if you need to secure it, greenly. No worries, says Hitachi. The company's new 1TB drive offers built-in hardware encryption and is Energy Star compliant.
Responding to customer demand for big storage that's more energy efficient and secure, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies today announced its next generation of 1 terabyte hard drives, which offer data encryption in a more compact form factor.Hitachi GST's Deskstar 7K1000.B product line features a three-disk design that requires less power and cooling. In addition, it has an optional security feature, Bulk Data Encryption, based on the Advanced Encryption Standard certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In the SSD realm, it looks like Samsung isn't about to let OCZ hog the 128GB spotlight unchallenged.
The company today said it has started mass producing competitive drives using MLC NAND technology. No word on price yet. They describe the cost as "attractive" but we'll just have to wait and see...
Posted by phernandez at 11:21 PM | Add Comment
July 8, 2008
BLADE Network Technologies Joins The Green Grid
The roster just keeps getting bigger.
BLADE Network Technologies today announced that they have joined The Green Grid. Their pitch? "Rackonomics" for efficient data centers.
BLADE is a proponent of "Rackonomics," which recommends that an energy-efficient data center should be made up of replicated racks that have standard configurations of servers, storage and network. Rackonomics-based data centers can realize lower ongoing total cost of ownership through improved energy efficiency.
At least that's what the press release says. In CEO Vikram Mehta's blog, he explains the concept:
In modern data center architecture, Rackonomics refers to the concept of rack-level provisioning--designing, deploying and replicating server/computer systems, data networks and storage area networks (SANs) rack by rack to:
- decrease the total cost of ownership of data center infrastructures
- reduce IT complexity
- enable incremental scalability.
One of the primary tenets of Rackonomics is that putting switches into blade enclosures and server/storage racks is far more economical than using external core switches. Our customers have told us that a "put it in the rack" strategy can enable them to save tens of thousands of dollars in switch hardware, deployment and energy costs for every external switch that they can avoid deploying. And, the network switch has the ability to viritualize the network connections associated with the server/storage elements located in the rack, thus vastly simplifying the datacenter network.
He makes a pretty compelling argument with his rack-centric approach. You can see just how effective it is by perusing some whitepapers, which in a refreshing departure, don't require that you cough up your contact info.
Posted by phernandez at 9:00 PM | Add Comment
Production Volt to Debut in September
GM is planning to show off the production version of the Chevy Volt in September to coincide with the company's centennial, according to a report in Reuters.
To call the Volt's development storied is an understatement. Amidst the backdrop of a high fuel costs, environmental concerns, a battered American auto industry, and an aggressive time line with unproven tech, the plug-in gas-assisted electric concept managed to make everyone sit up and take notice. And let's not forget, Toyota's third generation Prius is just around the corner.
Now, some more juicy details have emerged.
The car, much like the new Camaro before it, will appear in the new Transformers movie. It has also been discovered that a near-production version of the Volt--looking nothing like the concept on the right--has already been the subject of an LA focus group.
We'll see what September has in store.
Posted by phernandez at 9:51 AM | Add Comment
July 7, 2008
Green Matters: More Green IT Strategies
The way the economy is going, it's hard to justify paying a premium for green technology. But a couple of changes now can yield some surprising near-immediate savings as well as longer term boosts to the bottom line.
Also, IBM and Dell tout their green cred; National Semiconductor makes moves into solar; and Japan may well become the model of a sustainable, economically-motivated society.
Color Your IT Strategy Green - Small Business Computing
There’s a common thread between technologies such as unified communications, Web conferencing, portal and collaboration software and mobile computing: all of these applications make it easier for people to work from anywhere. Thus, your company can potentially expand telecommuting and even cut back on business travel."A big selling point of collaborative technologies is going to be resource reduction - in terms of staff time, power, gas and travel dollars," said John Burke, an IT analyst with Nemertes Research. He gives the example of a 1,000-employee global beverage distributor that is saving $3,600 per day by using Web conferencing to reduce business travel. If you factor in the several hours of lost productivity that go along with most business trips, those time-and-money benefits can make a real difference to your small business.
Big Blue's Power Systems Painted Green at OCEAN Tech Conference - IT Jungle
Where should IT managers look for energy abuse? X64 servers took a lot of the heat that Howard was dishing out. Utilization rates for X64 servers are notoriously low, typically in the 10 percent to 20 percent range. Server consolidation means energy conservation and considerable savings can be realized in companies running dozens or--oh, mercy--hundreds of under utilized servers.
Dell strives to make it easier to be green with FlexAddress - ZDNet Blogs
Glenn Keels, director, global relationship marketing at Dell, describes FlexAddress as a simple way for managers to deploy and manage blades because it abstracts that Fibre Channel Worldwide Network Name and Ethernet/iSCSI Media Access Control address from the blade hardware and instead ties persistently to a slot in M1000e blade chassis.
National Semiconductor reinvents itself and goes solar - TG Daily
NSC apparently found some opportunities in solar paneling and is looking to expand its business into the green industry. In May, Halla hinted that a new technology would be introduced to make solar panels more efficient and since last week we know what the executive was talking about. NSC promises that its Solar Magic technology can recoup as much as 50% of lost output in solar systems due to issues such as debris and shade.
Japan's Green Gold Mine - Forbes
It's a feel-good campaign, but it's also an economic development plan. Fukuda is counting on Japanese manufacturers to export these technologies. Japan's marquee automakers have jumped into hybrids, electrics and hydrogen cars, following Toyota's success with the Prius and its other hybrid cars. Pledging environmental support is in vogue, especially when it makes money.
Posted by phernandez at 6:24 PM | Add Comment
Third-Gen Prius Gets Solar Paneled
You wonder why automakers haven't done it sooner. Toyota is adding solar panels to some trim levels of the next Prius.
Toyota Motor Corp plans to install solar panels on some Prius hybrids in its next remodeling, responding to growing demand for "green" cars amid record-high oil prices, a source briefed on the matter said on Monday.The panels, supplied by Kyocera Corp would be able to power part of the air-conditioning on high-end versions of the gasoline-electric Prius, the source said.
It's a shame that they can't be used to trickle charge the car's battery packs, but it's a start. Meanwhile, Toyota dealers are currently suffering a Prius shortage due to a huge demand and precious few batteries to satisfy it.
Posted by phernandez at 1:57 PM | Add Comment