[Mike Manos findings are consistent with a report that Larry Smarr and I wrote for Educause
(http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0960.pdf) where we estimated a university that uses 100% coal fired electricity could pay up to an additional $7m per year (at $24/ton CO2) due to the energy consumption of its data center. Real world data from British Columbia where universities have been mandated to be carbon neutral as of January this year indicate that they will have to pay $2.7m this year in carbon fees and increasing substantially over the next several years and this is in a jurisdiction that is 80-90% hydro --BSA]
See also http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/
http://www.greenm3.com/2010/05/mike-manos-presents-data-centers-are-co2-yahoo-and-koomey-supporting-the-issue.html
Mike Manos presents Data Centers are CO2, Yahoo and Koomey supporting the issue
Mike Manos of Nokia speaks Tuesday at the Uptime Institute Symposium 2010 in New York.
In calling the data center industry to prepare for carbon regulation, Mike Manos invoked the Y2K crisis of the late 1990s, warning that CO2K threatens to be similarly disruptive.
It's great to see Mike Manos use his speaking spot to discuss carbon impact.
Jonathan Koomey supports the same issues.
The impact of a carbon tax was also highlighted by data center energy expert Jonathan Koomey, who said the issue is not on the radar screen of corporations.
A Price for Carbon
There will be a price for carbon, Koomey said in his Monday keynote at Uptime. We have to start thinking about how that price affects the economics of data centers. Carbon taxes will have an impact on where you locate your data centers.
Koomey used the framework of the UKs recently enacted Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) to illustrate the potential impact. At the CRC rate of $19 per ton of carbon emissions, a 130,000 square foot data center with coal-sourced utility power might pay an additional $5 million a year.
Thats real money, said Koomey. If you have a data center in a place thats all coal, thats the business risk youre taking on.
And Yahoo's Christina Paige chime in too.
Manos assessment of the role of data centers was echoed by other speakers at the Uptime event. Yahoo initially bought offsets to address its carbon output, according to Christina Page, the companys director of Climate and Energy Strategy. But the company soon shifted its focus to improving the energy efficiency of its data centers.
75 Percent of Carbon Footprint
We quickly realized that 75 percent of our carbon footprint was from data centers, said Page. The best opportunities for leadership were in that area as well.
Facebook is currently catching flack for its coal powered data center in Prineville, OR. Currently the count is up to 442,000 members on English, Spanish, and French facebook pages asking for 100% renewable energy for Facebook.
Start measuring your carbon impact and think about how you can lower your carbon impact.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
This blog is about using ICTs to develop climate change preparedness solutions built around Energy Internet and autonomous eVehicles
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.
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