CleanTechnica

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It is estimated that the data storage sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5% of total U.S. consumption, or roughly equivalent to the amount consumed by 5.8 million average U.S. households). These numbers are only expected to grow.

The energy used by the nation’s servers and data centers is growing at an unsustainable rate. Not only that, but web servers are notoriously inefficient. For example, computer servers are used at only 6 percent of their capacity on average, while data center facilities operate at roughly 65% to 75% efficiency, meaning that 25% to 35% of all the energy consumed by servers is wasted (converted to heat).

If we are to even consider reducing our energy consumption and carbon footprint, the growing demands generated by our web servers must be near the top of the list of possible improvements. And the Department of Energy agrees.

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Editor’s Note: Today we are happy to bring to you a guest post from Sean Casten, CEO and President of Recycled Energy Development.

Americans have a habit of framing our scientific history as a series of Great Inventors, from Eli Whitney to Thomas Edison to Afrika Bambaataa. The history books say each was prodded by Adam Smith’s invisible hand to come up with the great technological advances that have made our country a home of innovation.

There’s a problem with this mythology: sometimes there’s no invisible hand. Sometimes short-sighted government regulations give preference to bad technologies over good ones — stifling innovation and blinding us to our own ability to make progress.

Nowhere is this mythology more evident than in our energy system, the most heavily regulated and subsidized industry in the country. A host of bad regulations have made this system grossly inefficient, contributing both to global warming and to high power costs. Read the rest of this entry »

Having staffed a booth two years running at the Chicago Green Festival, I know what a challenge it is for meeting planners to stage a truly green convention. The Green Festival posts volunteers at the garbage cans, to help the public choose the right bin: compost, recycle, or trash. Exhibitors have to attend a conference call and sign a “leave no trace” agreement.

Now, it’s the DNC’s turn to wrestle with the inherent problems associated with inviting thousands of people to converge on a city for a giant party, while keeping their carbon footprints as low as possible. The Wall Street Journal’s front page story on “The Greenest Show on Earth” provides some insights into the problem:

• After trying to source an organic, union made fanny pack to be given to volunteers, Bob DeMasse, the convention’s organizer reported that such a thing doesn’t exist.
• The same goes for baseball caps: there are union caps and organic caps, but no cap with both requirements. (Come on, unions, step up!)
• Andrea Robinson, the convention’s Director of Greening, is testing balloons to make sure they are really biodegradable — by burying them in steaming compost piles.
• She has also hired an Official Carbon Advisor to measure the show’s carbon footprint so that it can be offset by investments in renewable energy.
• “Lean and green” catering guidelines are calling for no fried food and 70% organic or local ingredients.
• And, yes, the DNC will also have a team of garbage monitors.

Some inevitable compromises have resulted, but the Dems can at least be given credit for forcing everyone to think about the environmental impact of their meeting — and perhaps building a template for future meetings as well. It’s all part of an encouraging trend in the meeting planning business, which the Green Meeting Industry Council is helping to lead, and it’s creating ripples throughout the hospitality industry, evidenced by such organizations as the Green Hotels Association.

Image Credit: Kevin P. Casey, USA Today

We are all familiar with touch-less faucets, which not only decrease infection rates but keep lazy people from letting the water run as they brush their teeth. Great idea, but an idea that requires electrical energy or a battery to run the infrared sensing device. Now Toto, the Japanese company that makes simple, elegant, and water-saving bathroom fixtures, has developed a touch-less faucet that also saves energy.

The EcoPower faucet contains a small turbine inside. The turbine, powered by the water running through the faucet, creates an electrical current that is stored in rechargable cells. The faucets supply the very energy they consume by using the flow of water to spin a high-efficiency turbine to both create and store power. Eco Power replenishes its charge with as few as 5 uses per day, and with as few as 10 uses a day, the backup battery itself is seldom used and can last up to 19 years. Elegant!

Related Posts on Saving Water and Energy:

• Wash Clothes without Water
• Seven Ways to Save Energy by Saving Water
• Teatro del Agua: the Seawater Greenhouse that “Can Change the World”

Though many states and localities are waking up to their water shortages and taking steps to plan for “peak water”, people generally continue to waste water and to ignore the energy-water link. In 2004 the Natural Resources Defense Council did a study in conjunction with the Pacific Institute called “Energy Down the Drain” on how saving water saves energy. We need to do more to spread the word. Here are seven ways to save energy by saving water:

1. Use local water.

Transporting water uses energy, so rainwater harvesting is a serious water-and-energy saver. According to the NRDC/Pacific Institute study “California’s State Water Project (SWP), which transports water from Northern California to Southern California is the state’s largest single energy user, consuming 2 to 3 percent of all electricity. It takes tremendous amounts of energy to pump the water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains — the highest water lift of any water system in the world

2. Use less heated water in homes and businesses.

Heating water uses a great deal of energy. Small things magnified a million times over — like washing clothes with cold water or taking shorter showers — saves large amounts of energy.

3. Use energy-saving appliances.

Energy Star appliances will decrease water and energy use.

4. Learn from Australia.

Why reinvent the wheel? Since 2006, when the BBC reported Australia’s biggest drought in 1,000 years, the situation has not improved. In an island nation, this has a tendency to focus the mind, and water-and energy-saving inventions have been pouring forth from that country, while the government introduces policies that save energy and water almost daily.

5. Rethink your bathroom.

Toto, an innovative company from Japan (another island nation concerned about water use) offers an EcoPower hands-free faucet that recharges itself each time it is used.

6. Rip out that lawn and replace it with a rain garden.

Watering grass, fertilizing it with petroleum-based fertilizers, and mowing it with a gas or electric mower…..need I say more?

7. Eat more vegetables and grains; cut down on the beef.

Animal farming takes more energy and water. “Beef production requires large volumes of water–as much as 100 times that required to produce equivalent amounts of protein energy from grains.” (Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002 And the cows are fed from corn that is farmed using energy-hogging fertilizers, insecticides, and fossil fuels.

If you think about it, it’s impossible to separate our energy use from our water use. If we can start thinking holistically about the systems we use in our daily lives — and get our governments to create policies that promote wise use of energy and water, we’ll be more ready for the limits to resources that are only going to increase.

Posts Related to Saving Energy and Water:

All You Need to Know About Water Saving Technology Around the House
Could Wind help Save Water?
Low-Energy Water Desalination From Seawater Greenhouse
Water Crisis: Clean Tech to the Rescue?

The San Francisco board of supervisors has approved the country’s largest municipal solar program. The program is designed to reduce the cost of solar for city residents and leverage private dollars to get more solar on San Franciscans’ roofs (earth2tech).

GM is backing a hydrogen refueling station near Los Angeles. The station will be located at Clean Energy’s compressed natural gas (CNG) facility and should be operational by the fall (gas 2.0).

U.S. Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) will introduce a national renewable energy feed-in tariff. Under the bill, utilities would be required to pay a set price to anyone supplying less than 20MW of renewable electricity to the grid. Inslee plans to introduce the bill in the next week or two. But requiring utilities to pay a mandated amount for renewable energy is “a new idea to D.C., and like a fine wine it’ll need time” (ecopolitology).

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As one of Green Options resident geeks (I claim to be the highest ranked) I naturally tend to drift towards the more technological stories. This one had me perplexed for a moment however, but only for a moment. One of the leading virtual private network companies, Columbitech, have managed to create the industry’s first environmentally friendly VPN program.

Many of you will be familiar with VPN as the way that you log on to your office network when you’re not at your office. A VPN provides secure access to all those documents and emails that you desperately need when you’re out visiting a client or, more likely, having lunch.

But how can something like this, which is essentially just a glorified application, be environmentally friendly?

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Seawater Greenhouse inventor Charles Paton teams with the Eden Project and Grimshaw Architects to create the Teatro del Agua.

I last posted on the Seawater Greenhouse in February. After writing that post I felt hopeful that this type of desalination plant would catch on, yet pessimistic that, based on the pictures I saw, it would neither reach the necessary scale to create enough clean water nor attract the type of investors needed to take this plant to the next level.

I’m very happy to find out that I was wrong.

I researched the Seawater Greenhouse again to look for breaking news because I decided back in February that I needed to post on this on a regular basis to spread the word on the technology. By the looks of the Seawater Greenhouse Inventor Charles Paton’s latest project, my effort will not be needed.

Just as the Prius will replace the Hummer on our nation’s roads, the Teatro del Agua shall replace the energy intensive desalination plants of old, worldwide. All the while supplying said world with an endless supply of water and creating an outdoor venue for theatrical performances. Afterall, you can’t spell WATER without A-R-T. (below average pun–my apologies)
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I can’t claim to be a car type person at all. I’m nearly 24, and in a country where the license to drive is provided at 18, let us just say that my friends have fun with my lack of desire to drive. However, I would like to think that, if I were a driver and had enough funds, I would spend my money wisely on Toyota’s new fuel cell hybrid.

Toyota Motor Corporation has announced that the Toyota FCHV-adv will be powered by a new fuel-cell hybrid system, which is powered by hydrogen and electricity. This improves the models cruising range to a maximum of 516 miles, or 830 kilometers for the rest of the world who decided to go metric. This compares favorably to the previous fuel cell model, which only provided for a 205 mile (330 km) range.

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Picture a kelp bed on the ocean floor swaying in the current.
Done?
Now picture an underwater field of bioWave turbines (pictured to your left) doing the same. But, unlike the kelp, supplying one half megawatt of electricity. (In kelp’s defense, it does provide oxygen, food, and a place for the elusive leafy sea dragon to hide.) Using habitat inspired and environmentally friendly design (biomimicry) the team at BioPower Systems have designed, and are now testing, the bioWAVE and bioSTREAM devices. Devices that sway in tune with the oceans currents while producing clean, renewable energy. The Australian company has also focused in minimizing the environmental impact of each device as not to upset the ocean’s many delicate ecosystems. Or, as their website puts it:

These systems will reside beneath the ocean surface, out of view, and in harmony with the living creatures that inspired their design.

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