Energy Internet and eVehicles Overview

Governments around the world are wrestling with the challenge of how to prepare society for inevitable climate change. To date most people have been focused on how to reduce Green House Gas emissions, but now there is growing recognition that regardless of what we do to mitigate against climate change the planet is going to be significantly warmer in the coming years with all the attendant problems of more frequent droughts, flooding, sever storms, etc. As such we need to invest in solutions that provide a more robust and resilient infrastructure to withstand this environmental onslaught especially for our electrical and telecommunications systems and at the same time reduce our carbon footprint.

Linking renewable energy with high speed Internet using fiber to the home combined with autonomous eVehicles and dynamic charging where vehicle's batteries are charged as it travels along the road, may provide for a whole new "energy Internet" infrastructure for linking small distributed renewable energy sources to users that is far more robust and resilient to survive climate change than today's centralized command and control infrastructure. These new energy architectures will also significantly reduce our carbon footprint. For more details please see:

Using autonomous eVehicles for Renewable Energy Transportation and Distribution: http://goo.gl/bXO6x and http://goo.gl/UDz37

Free High Speed Internet to the Home or School Integrated with solar roof top: http://goo.gl/wGjVG

High level architecture of Internet Networks to survive Climate Change: https://goo.gl/24SiUP

Architecture and routing protocols for Energy Internet: http://goo.gl/niWy1g

How to use Green Bond Funds to underwrite costs of new network and energy infrastructure: https://goo.gl/74Bptd

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Physicist Models Humanity as "Heat Engine" Argues Difficult to Decrease CO2

[While I agree with some of Garrett's conclusions I am remain optimistic that we can decouple energy consumption from CO2 emissions - hence this is I argue energy efficiency is attempting to solve the wrong problem. I agree with him that energy consumption seems to be constant associated with a growing economy and there is little that we can do to change that. But what we need to do is use energy that produces little or no CO2. Thanks to Jerry Sheehan for this pointer-- BSA]

Physicist Models Humanity as "Heat Engine" Argues Difficult to Decrease CO2


ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2009) — In a provocative new study, a University of Utah scientist argues that rising carbon dioxide emissions -- the major cause of global warming -- cannot be stabilized unless the world's economy collapses or society builds the equivalent of one new nuclear power plant each day.


"It looks unlikely that there will be any substantial near-term departure from recently observed acceleration in carbon dioxide emission rates," says the new paper by Tim Garrett, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences.

[..]

The study -- which is based on the concept that physics can be used to characterize the evolution of civilization -- indicates:

* Energy conservation or efficiency doesn't really save energy, but instead spurs economic growth and accelerated energy consumption.
* Throughout history, a simple physical "constant" -- an unchanging mathematical value -- links global energy use to the world's accumulated economic productivity, adjusted for inflation. So it isn't necessary to consider population growth and standard of living in predicting society's future energy consumption and resulting carbon dioxide emissions.
* "Stabilization of carbon dioxide emissions at current rates will require approximately 300 gigawatts of new non-carbon-dioxide-emitting power production capacity annually -- approximately one new nuclear power plant (or equivalent) per day," Garrett says. "Physically, there are no other options without killing the economy."

Getting Heat for Viewing Civilization as a "Heat Engine"

Garrett says colleagues generally support his theory, while some economists are critical. One economist, who reviewed the study, wrote: "I am afraid the author will need to study harder before he can contribute."

Garrett treats civilization like a "heat engine" that "consumes energy and does 'work' in the form of economic production, which then spurs it to consume more energy," he says.

[..]

Garrett says his study's key finding "is that accumulated economic production over the course of history has been tied to the rate of energy consumption at a global level through a constant factor."

That "constant" is 9.7 (plus or minus 0.3) milliwatts per inflation-adjusted 1990 dollar. So if you look at economic and energy production at any specific time in history, "each inflation-adjusted 1990 dollar would be supported by 9.7 milliwatts of primary energy consumption," Garrett says.

Garrett tested his theory and found this constant relationship between energy use and economic production at any given time by using United Nations statistics for global GDP (gross domestic product), U.S. Department of Energy data on global energy consumption during1970-2005, and previous studies that estimated global economic production as long as 2,000 years ago. Then he investigated the implications for carbon dioxide emissions.

"Economists think you need population and standard of living to estimate productivity," he says. "In my model, all you need to know is how fast energy consumption is rising. The reason why is because there is this link between the economy and rates of energy consumption, and it's just a constant factor."

Garrett adds: "By finding this constant factor, the problem of [forecasting] global economic growth is dramatically simpler. There is no need to consider population growth and changes in standard of living because they are marching to the tune of the availability of energy supplies."

To Garrett, that means the acceleration of carbon dioxide emissions is unlikely to change soon because our energy use today is tied to society's past economic productivity.

"Viewed from this perspective, civilization evolves in a spontaneous feedback loop maintained only by energy consumption and incorporation of environmental matter," Garrett says. It is like a child that "grows by consuming food, and when the child grows, it is able to consume more food, which enables it to grow more."


[..]
Perhaps the most provocative implication of Garrett's theory is that conserving energy doesn't reduce energy use, but spurs economic growth and more energy use.

"Making civilization more energy efficient simply allows it to grow faster and consume more energy," says Garrett.

He says the idea that resource conservation accelerates resource consumption -- known as Jevons paradox -- was proposed in the 1865 book "The Coal Question" by William Stanley Jevons, who noted that coal prices fell and coal consumption soared after improvements in steam engine efficiency.


Garrett says often-discussed strategies for slowing carbon dioxide emissions and global warming include mention increased energy efficiency, reduced population growth and a switch to power sources that don't emit carbon dioxide, including nuclear, wind and solar energy and underground storage of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning. Another strategy is rarely mentioned: a decreased standard of living, which would occur if energy supplies ran short and the economy collapsed, he adds.

"The problem is that, in order to stabilize emissions, not even reduce them, we have to switch to non-carbonized energy sources at a rate about 2.1 percent per year. That comes out to almost one new nuclear power plant per day."

"If society invests sufficient resources into alternative and new, non-carbon energy supplies, then perhaps it can continue growing without increasing global warming," Garrett says.


--

ICT and wireless can eliminate 6.9 Gt of CO2

[Another study pointing to the significant impact that ICT can have on reducing on CO2. But once again they dont mention the need for a proper carbon audit as per ISO 14064. As such any such claims of Co2 reduction are only hot air. Too many people still confuse energy efficiency with carbon reduction. The two are not related. We need to decouple energy issues from carbon emissions and focus on reducing the later -- BSA]

http://www.greentelecomlive.com/?p=1437

ICT can eliminate 5.8 Gt of CO2 by 2020 - IDC

A new IDC report, dubbed the G20 ICT Sustainability Index, has identified some 5.8 billion tons (Gigatons) of CO2 that can eliminated by 2020 with the “focused use of ICT-based solution.” The report was released last week in parallel with the United Nations COP15 meetings in Copenhagen,

As a comparison, the GSMA last month released its own projections that highlighted the potential CO2 reductions from the use of mobile technology at 1.15 Gt CO2e by 2020.

[...]

Friday, December 11, 2009

Huge jump in carbon footprint from telecom and Internet

Huge jump in carbon footprint from telecom and Internet http://bit.ly/4MVcET

About 37 percent of the carbon footprint of the entire information and communication technology sector (ICT) in 2007 was due to the energy consumption of telecom infrastructure and devices, according to the Climate Group (14 percent came from data centers, and 49 percent came from PCs and peripherals). Contrast that with telecom’s carbon footprint figure in 2002 which was 28 percent of ICT’s carbon footprint.

UK’s Carbon reduction commitment legislation – the shape of things to come globally for universities and business

UK’s Carbon reduction commitment legislation – the shape of things to come globally for universities and business http://bit.ly/73VM2a

[...]
the UK has passed legislation called the Carbon Reduction Committment (CRC).

The CRC is a groundbreaking piece of legislation designed to help the UK meet its carbon reduction targets by 2020. Basically, the CRC scheme will apply to organisations that had a half-hourly metered electricity consumption greater than 6,000 MWh per year in 2008. Organisations qualifying for CRC would have all their energy use covered by the scheme, this includes emissions from direct energy use as well as electricity purchased. Initially, it is estimated, around 5,000 organisations will qualify, including supermarkets, water companies, banks, local authorities and all central Government Departments. Qualifying organisations mostly fall below the threshold for the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, but account for around 10% of the UK carbon emissions.

The organisations involved will need to register or make an information disclosure by 30 September 2010. A financial penalty (£5,000 plus a per diem charge for each subsequent working day an organisation fails to submit a report) will be imposed on organisations who fail to meet the deadline.

The first year of the scheme (April 2010-2011) is called the footprint year. Companies are required to submit an audited report of their emissions during the footprint year by 29 July 2011. Again financial penalties will be imposed for failing to meet the deadline.

In the second year, (2011-2012) participants will have to purchase emissions allowances to cover their forecast emissions for 2011/12. And in 2013 auctioning of carbon allowances begins, with all the income from the auctions recycled back to participants by the means of an annual payment based on participants’ average annual emissions since the start of the scheme.

There will be a bonus or penalty according to the organisation’s position in a CRC league table. The league table will be made public thereby enhancing the transparency of companies carbon reporting and hopefully shaming any egregious emitters into reducing their carbon footprint.

I have gone in to a bit of detail about the CRC here because it is difficult enough to find out information about the scheme and most UK business appear to be wholly unprepared for its implementation. The UK Department of Climate Change (I think it is interesting that the UK has a government department of climate change in the first place – how many other governments do?) has an easy to follow guide to the CRC [PDF] available for download which will help.

The CRC is going to be closely watched by other countries and you can be sure it will be used as a model by many to reduce their carbon emissions.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Emerging standards for greenhouse gas emissions for ICT

[These 2 projects are very significant as now we are starting to see some quantifiable standards in order to measure the claims of CO2 abatement through ICT. As you know there are many studies claiming significant reduction of CO2 through ICT - but up to now there has been no independent process to validate these claims. Various energy efficiency schemes are probably the most egregious example of these types of hand waving arguments. While energy efficiency may reduce costs it is very ineffective tool for reducing CO2 emissions as compared to purchasing renewable energy credits or sourcing renewable energy directly. If you are interested in the following opportunities, please contact David Wright or Tony Vetter directly as listed below. Thanks to Bill Munson from ITAC for these pointers -- BSA



----- Forwarded by Bill Munson/ITAC/CA on 08/12/2009 17:33 -----


OPPORTUNITY TO TEST DRIVE EMERGING STANDARDS FOR GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
(a) Product Life Cycle GHG Costs
(b) Supply Chain GHG Costs


The World Resources Institute and the World Business Council on Sustainable
Development have developed standards on how to implement ISO 14064 for
companies and for projects, which have become widely used, particularly in
countries implementing the Kyoto Protocol.

They have now developed 2 new (draft) standards for Greenhouse Gas (GHG)
Accounting for (a) Product Life Cycle GHG Costs and (b) Supply Chain GHG
Costs. They are looking for companies to test-drive their draft standards
with a view to providing feedback on how the drafts can be updated to
provide a final standard. They are particularly interested in
sector-specific information and the ICT sector is a of great importance in
this area, because of its potential to impact GHG emissions both positively
and negatively.
http://www.ghgprotocol.org/standards/product-and-supply-chain-standard

Professor David Wright (dwright@uottawa.ca) at the University of Ottawa is
able to work with a company on this project. A rough division of
responsibilities would be that the company would assess its GHG emissions,
and Dr Wright would assess the impact on the draft standard.
http://www.telfer.uottawa.ca/component/listing,Wright,%20David/option,com_directory/page,viewListing/lid,111/Itemid,116/lang,En/




Shown below is a proposal from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, whois seeking support from ICT industry partners
for their CANARIE study. The key contact is their Project Manager, Global Connectivity, Tony Vetter, he can be reached at tvetter@iisd.ca or 613-288-2024.

ICT network operators and equipment vendors are looking to a variety of
solutions to reduce the GHG footprint of the world's ICT infrastructure.
Efficiency in how data centres consume energy may be part of the solution;
however using renewable energy is another “zero-carbon” option. CANARIE
Inc. invited proposals to their Green IT Pilot Program for projects that
will accelerate the development of, and participation in, national and
international "zero-carbon" cyber infrastructure and network platforms.

CANARIE has awarded funding to IISD for a project to assess the business
case for moving University IT assets to remote, zero-carbon data centre
facilities. Central to the business case will be an examination of whether
Universities could qualify for tradable “carbon offsets” (credits for GHG
reductions achieved which can be sold to industries who need them), a
revenue opportunity which could help underwrite the costs associated with
relocating their IT assets.

We think this project will be of interest to CIOs of all large
organizations because moving IT assets to zero-carbon facilities has not
previously been considered for generating carbon offsets. Further, there
may be other unexpected barriers to relocation of IT assets that could be
resolved through appropriate policy interventions, including jurisdictional
barriers arising from data security policies and capital financing rules,
and challenges associated with the availability of national
telecommunications infrastructure. These will also be explored through this
project.

Rational:
Due to the nature of how carbon credit awarding mechanisms are evolving,
IT organizations may in the end not be able to benefit from the carbon
reductions that their IT initiatives could help realize. This is due to
the concept of “additionality” – whether a project is deemed likely to
have occurred anyway without the support of revenues generated by
selling carbon offset credits.
This project’s assessment could open the door to broader acceptance of
IT asset relocation as a carbon reduction activity that should be
supported through carbon offset financial instruments.
Revenue opportunities from carbon credit trading could accelerate the
development of national and international "zero-carbon" cyber
infrastructure.

The tasks of this project will be to:
estimate depending on data availability, the aggregate carbon footprint
of IT assets and associated data centres at three Canadian Universities
assess the feasibility for Universities to generate carbon offsets if
their IT departments were to move location agnostic IT assets to remote
data centre facilities powered by renewable sources of energy
assess the feasibility of quantifying and selling these offsets in
registries and carbon exchanges;
assess the business case for University IT departments to move IT assets
to remote, zero-carbon data centre facilities, with attention to the
role of offset revenues if accessible to the relevant business unit;
assess the implications of study findings for scaling similar IT asset
relocation schemes for government agencies and institutions, as well as
the private sector


Anticipated insights:
characterization of the carbon incentives or disincentives to scaling
the relocation of IT assets to zero-carbon facility initiatives
long term implications of University IT asset growth projections and
associated carbon penalties
characterization of organizational boundaries encountered in carbon
accounting processes for facilities expenditures, energy consumption and
GHG emissions
characterization of jurisdictional barriers resulting from data security
policies and capital financing rules to the migration of University,
other public sector, and private sector IT infrastructure and services
characterization of the adequacy of National broadband infrastructure
for supporting cost effective access for remote relocation of IT
infrastructure and services



We believe that some ICT companies may be interested helping to determine
whether relocating IT assets to zero-carbon facilities might qualify for
tradable “carbon credits” in the emerging regimes, as well as in the
identification of other barriers and policy gaps that would impede the
feasibility of such initiatives.


--------------
Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
www.canarie.ca/~bstarn
skype: pocketpro
blog:http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Calit2 and CANARIE See Campuses as Living Labs for a Greener Future

**Universities Challenged to Develop Technology Solutions for a
Carbon-Constrained World**

http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1626

Calit2 and CANARIE See Campuses as Living Labs for a Greener Future

On-Site WInd Power Provides 100% of Power to Data Center

[Forward looking data center companies like Other World Computing
understand that data cneters are quickly becoming the new "heavy
industry" of the information age. If the Gartner forecast of 650%
growth become true we need to find alternative zero carbon solutions
for data centers and networks. CANARIE's recent annoucemnt
(http://www.canarie.ca/templates/news/releases/Green_IT_Nov17_2009_E.pdf)
to fund Greenstar (www.greenstarnetwork.com) is a good example of this
apporach. Greenstar network is a university-industry partnership
involing companies like CISCO and Ericsson to build worlds first zero
carbon Internet to enable the deployment of follow the wind/follow the
sun data networking. -- BSA]

On-Site WInd Power Provides 100% of Power to Data Center

http://ecogeek.org/wind-power/3009-on-site-wind-power-provides-100-of-power-to-data-c?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EcoGeek+%28EcoGeek%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

We've heard of data centers that are running on green power, though
these are often mostly done through buying energy credits for distant
generating facilities. But Woodstock, IL-based Other World Computing
is the first to have 100% on-site wind power to run its operations.
The 39 meter (128 foot) diameter, 500 kW turbine is expected to
generate an estimated 1,250,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. This is
more than twice as much electricity as is used by all of OWC's
operations. The facility is grid-tied, and will sell the excess power
back to the local utility, as well as being able to utilize grid power
as backup during slack wind periods.

Top data center challenges include social networks, rising energy
costs

Data growth will hit 650% over next half-decade, Gartner says

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120109-data-center-challenges.html

Enterprise data needs will grow a staggering 650% over the next five
years, and that's just one of numerous challenges IT leaders have to
start preparing for today, analysts said as the annual Gartner Data
Center Conference kicked off in Las Vegas Tuesday morning.

Rising use of social networks, rising energy costs and a need to
understand new technologies such as virtualization and cloud computing
are among the top issues IT leaders face in the evolving data center,
Gartner analyst David Cappuccio said in an opening keynote address.

The energy cost of two racks of servers, at full density, can exceed
$105,000 a year, he said. And servers are only growing denser, with
new blades that incorporate servers, storage, switches, memory and I/O
capabilities. At today's prices, the money spent on supplying energy
to an x86 server will exceed the cost of that server within three
years, he said

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