Ontario Government Green Bonds fund research infrastructure and ICT

It is exciting to see the number of university/college/hospital projects funded under Ontario's second Green Bond issue.  I am told the next bond issue will have many more university college research infrastructure projects with perhaps some having an ICT component involving campus upgrades etc.  The fact that ICT can represent up to 40% of a campus electrical consumption means there can be significant energy savings through the use of clouds, off campus hosting etc. R&E networks can play a critical role in providing solutions to help universities and colleges reduce their carbon/energy footprint.

List of Ontario Green Bond Fund projects:
https://www.ofina.on.ca/greenbonds/projects.htm

Guidelines on how to develop a Green Bond ICT strategy
http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/green-bond-fund-opportunities-for-nre-ns-and-universities-2016

Why doesn’t Trudeau use carbon taxes to raise revenue?

Virtually all governments in the western world are struggling with their projected finances and the threat of significant deficits. With aging populations and increased demands on health care systems and exploding social security expenses, governments at all levels are looking at some very bleak scenarios in terms of revenues versus costs.

NRENs, electric cars, Internet of Things, SDN-P and new funding

It has been a very exciting week with the announcements from Internet 2 on a research program of donating Electric Vehicles For “Internet of Things” Projects and the EU FABRIC program to demonstrate dynamic charging of eVehicles.

Using SDN, UCLP and Open NaaS to integrate micro grids with data networks on campus and NRENs

As reported recently in Bloomberg news micro grids are threatening the hegemony of the electric utilities.

Architectural Details and Routing Protocols for Energy Internet

The Energy Internet is based on the same principles as that of the classic Internet except that energy rather data packets are routed between sources and destinations.

Why R&E networks and universities should develop climate change preparedness plans in line with Obama’s executive order

Although Obama’s recent Executive Order on Climate Change Preparedness* only applies to US government departments and agencies I suspect the concept will quickly be adopted by many other governments around the world. 

Green Bond Funds and the role of R&E networks

Around the world universities, R&E networks and researchers in general are looking at an increasingly austere future of budget cutbacks and reduced funding for higher education.

Big Science and Sustainable Energy - Second annual workshop

I am pleased to see that CERN is hosting the second annual workshop on Big Science and Sustainable Energy at http://goo.gl/2X8d1U.   Big science is a voracious consumer of energy.  A large part of this consumption is from the high performance computing requirements to process all the data generated by Big Science. Given the predicted fragility of the electrical grid due to increased adverse weather brought on by global warming, it is heartening to see some scientists and engineers looking at renewable energy, and alternate architectures for processing the data.

Major New Funding Opportunities for Internet Researchers and R&E Networks- NAMAs

Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) is a new policy program that was developed at the Bali United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The Keystone XL Pipeline and the role of R&E networks

There has been a lot of discussion lately on the environmental impact of the proposed Keystone-XL pipeline that is intended to carry heavy oil from the tar sands in Alberta to refineries on the US Gulf Coast.

How Transport SDN could revolutionize R&E networks

[It is exciting to see the recent announcements from ESnet and Infinera of their first Transport SDN demo. 

Latest developments in dynamic charging for eVehicles

I have put together a slide deck and the following pointers on the latest development of dynamic charging of eVehicles. Clearly Korea and China are the world's leader with actual working deployments.

High Level Architecture for Building Zero Carbon Internet Networks , ICT products and services

 Architecture for Building Zero Carbon Internet Networks , ICT products and services

The myth of population density and the high cost of broadband

One of the enduring myths that is used by apologists for incumbent broadband operators as to the high cost of broadband in Canada and the US is our low population density.

Netherlands to deploy worlds first mobile charging system - energy Internet

[Here is a cool project in the in the province of Branbant in The Netherlands that embodies many of the ideas I have been talking about in terms of using eVehicles as a competitive alternative to the electrical grid.

Recharge Your Electric Car Through Its Tires for Mobile Charging

Given the shortcomings of vehicle batteries–their high cost, the time it takes to recharge them, and the fact that they store less energy as they age (they’re expected to lose about 20 percent over 8 years)–many researchers are looking for alternative ways to power electric cars.

Taking on established battery makers and making electric vehicles mainstream will require far more radical advances

Good article from MIT press. Taking on established battery makers and making electric vehicles mainstream will require far more radical advances. http://techre.vu/X8f4bt

Autonomous Vehicles as mobile energy storage systems

[Readers of this blog are probably well aware that I have long argued that any scheme to mitigate or adapt to  climate change must provide tangible benefits to consumers.

Building networks and cyber-infrastructure to survive climate change - lessons from Sandy

[Hurricane Sandy has been a badly needed wake up call for the Internet community as to the threat of climate change.

The next big challenge in computing and networking: increasing on demand electrical consumption

[There is an excellent article in this week’s Economist on the difficulties Germany electrical grid and power plant operators are facing as the amount of renewable power on the grid approaches 20%.

How Quebec can be a world leader in next generation zero carbon transportation systems

[It is exciting to see Quebec make a significant commitment to spend $2.7 billion on climate change efforts.

Hewlett Packard and other companies deploying zero carbon data centers

[I am pleased to see that several companies are starting to recognize that building zero carbon data centers is a more sustainable direction rather than focusing on energy efficiency (i.e. PUE).

Globe and Mail: Only radical thinking will solve environmental problems

The Globe and Mail has a good article on why we need to get away from our traditional thinking in terms of addressing climate change:

Guardian - Until we get a 100% decarbonised grid, the marginal impact of efficiency is always to add more coal to a power station

[There is a great article in today’s Guardian about understanding the real challenges of decarbonizing our society with respect to the recent decision by Germany to shut down its nuclear plants- http://goo.gl/e6WCF.

When India and China are adding a coal plant a week, energy efficiency in the western world is meaningless

[I am constantly amazed how the western world continues to focus on energy efficiency, smart meters and other energy silliness to address the problem of climate change.

Rutgers to deploy follow the sun solar center using GreenHadoop and GreenNebula

[Here is a very cool project at Rutgers that demonstrates how we can build “adaptable” ICT green solutions that will be needed for a much warmer planet and yet at the same are also excellent solutions for mitigation.

Iceland to host supercomputer for universities and researchers in Scandanvian countries

[Here is a great example of how research supercomputing and clouds can be hosted in remote environments that use only renewable energy.

Must watch video: The Iron Law of Climate Change Policy and why we must move to adaptation

[Here is an excellent video of a lecture given by noted political economist Roger Pielke Jr that powerfully demonstrates the challenge we face in trying to prevent climate change:

A new Bit-Torrent proxy to enable green file transfers

[Integrating this BitTorrent proxy with a Greenstar network node powered by wind or sun would be a novel way to enable green file transfers.

Why we need to bypass electrical utilities if we want to build a low carbon society

[I have long argued that we need to bypass electrical utilities if we want to build a low carbon society.