tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81582038023810628632023-11-16T03:00:32.205-08:00Preparing for Climate Change through Energy Internet and eVehiclesThis blog is about using ICTs to develop climate change preparedness solutions built around Energy Internet and autonomous eVehiclesBstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comBlogger293125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-5859488945212489702016-11-24T13:29:00.001-08:002016-11-24T13:29:19.389-08:00Ontario Government Green Bonds fund research infrastructure and ICT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17ZY8M8ymkV9ZXQuT2HWr6mADzYFgfjwFPFJzSpdqaiNkY5kdJ-J2KsYwU2waT8F-sVUHLd0qbG1ZuuyjjxKGOBdOW27wbInvcK1e0gQB2Pq5R0jBQ_zw02Kco5RMoTNfe9U89ypKu00/s1600/Greenbond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17ZY8M8ymkV9ZXQuT2HWr6mADzYFgfjwFPFJzSpdqaiNkY5kdJ-J2KsYwU2waT8F-sVUHLd0qbG1ZuuyjjxKGOBdOW27wbInvcK1e0gQB2Pq5R0jBQ_zw02Kco5RMoTNfe9U89ypKu00/s1600/Greenbond.jpg" /></a></div>
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.<br />
<br />
List of Ontario Green Bond Fund projects:<br />
https://www.ofina.on.ca/greenbonds/projects.htm<br />
<br />
Guidelines on how to develop a Green Bond ICT strategy<br />
http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/green-bond-fund-opportunities-for-nre-ns-and-universities-2016Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-73880265462895675352016-04-07T05:10:00.002-07:002016-04-07T05:10:20.476-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why doesn’t Trudeau use carbon taxes to raise revenue?</span><img height="120" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/1588q5FBGtejN_K8FwnAdkDBS1kxTJPik-20Vyc6XGJfddUBSzMwbTqMrwYShoY-SVrqXwc0N2mXrn4WGzS2Xqzc_dXf4bqEZY6r6cNWo7sfmYqHKvuljURuxSds50FELxJyKD3U" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="180" /></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-fc6f3311-f0a1-0633-1254-e087528d30ab" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Increasing income or consumption taxes, except perhaps on the mythical 1%, is seen as non-starter. And at some point increased taxes start to have a drag on the economy or spur creative ways to avoid paying them.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carbon taxes, on the other hand, have the potential of raising a significant amount of revenue. Way back in 2009 when Obama presented his first budget to Congress he included a cap and trade scheme that projected to increase government revenues by $650 billion dollars. As expected the Republicans quickly chopped that budget item off the budget. Although it was not strictly a carbon tax, and aimed largely at big industry it pointed to the significant revenue potential of carbon taxation.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BC’s carbon tax raises about a billion dollars per year, all of which is returned to BC residents as lower taxes. Alberta’s new carbon tax is projected to bring in revenues $3 billion per year by 2018. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If a national carbon tax was put in place, extrapolating from BC and Alberta data, the federal government could expect an increase in annual of anywhere revenue between $10-$30 billion dollars!. This would be more than enough to cover Trudeau’s promised infrastructure expenses and then some.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some argue that carbon taxes should be revenue neutral as for example in the case of British Columbia. In reality, the BC carbon tax is a progressive tax like many others where most of the tax revenues raised at the pump go to lower income families. Virtually all taxes are “revenue neutral” in the sense that only a small percentage of our tax revenue is spent on government operations and defence. Most of the money that governments raise in taxes is returned to the taxpayer in terms of health services, old age security, education and so forth.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An important feature of carbon taxes is that increasingly the public sees them as a “virtuous” tax, or conversely as a “sin” tax depending on your perspective much like cigarette or liquor taxes. Alcohol and tobacco are always seen as fair targets by tax authorities, as such taxes are rationalized as a health saving measure in providing a disincentive in partaking of such vices.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theory, those who believe in global warming and want to do their bit in reducing our impact on the planet, could adjust their lifestyle to reduce the impact of carbon taxes. This is the one big advantage of a carbon tax versus cap and trade. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cap and trade is in effect is a hidden tax. In addition to its convoluted administration it does not provide ordinary citizens an opportunity to directly do their bit in reducing their own carbon footprint.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the main arguments against carbon taxes is that they can unfairly penalize domestic manufacturers who must compete against companies in jurisdictions with no carbon taxes.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One solution is to apply a carbon “duty” on imports equivalent in value to the carbon of the imported product. But imputing the value of carbon within an imported product is extremely difficult. There are so many factors that affect the carbon value of a product as for example the source of electricity used in the plant to manufacture the product. Within the USA the carbon value of a given product can vary significantly depending on whether it is manufactured in a state where most of the electricity is generated by coal versus nuclear power. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A much simpler solution of calculating the imputed cost of carbon is to apply a carbon tax to the exporting nation’s products into Canada based on the average carbon intensity in terms of tonnes of carbon per dollar GNP. This simple calculation removes all sorts of complexity and also hopefully spurs the exporting nation to reduce its carbon intensity to remain competitive.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With governments facing huge deficits and citizenship very much against new income taxes, carbon taxes promise a whole new opportunity for governments to raise essential revenue that will also have the potential to reduce our collective carbon footprint.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bill St. Arnaud is a Green Internet consultant who works with universities and businesses in devising strategies to reduce their carbon footprint bill.st.arnaud@gmail.com</span></div>
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-84811599542647227912014-04-09T08:26:00.001-07:002014-04-09T08:31:36.535-07:00NRENs, electric cars, Internet of Things, SDN-P and new fundingIt 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.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
As anyone who follows my blog will know, I have long argued that electric vehicles can play a critical role in the future Internet of Things (IoT) and also the design of the next generation of Internet.<br />
<br />
One of the big challenges for the IoT is to power all the various sensors and devices that will make up this future network fabric. Most will be too small, too remote or too mobile to be connected to the electrical grid. Some will be powered by small solar panels, others through PPoE, PoDL or USB connections. Indeed some very small sensors may power themselves by scavenging radio and TV signals. Powering these devices, where there is no electrical grid, will be major challenge in the deployment of IoT.<br />
<br />
The issue of power not only applies to the Internet of Things, but also to future Internet devices, especially WiFi and cellphone nano cells. Again there is no reason why these devices need to be powered off the electrical grid. Local solar panels or PoE (or PoDL) may be more than sufficient to power most of these devices. And recent studies have shown that by the addition of a small number of overlapping cells they will provide enough redundancy to provide 24 hr coverage for systems that are totally dependent on renewable energy.<br />
<br />
It is now even conceivable to power bigger devices such as routers and switches with renewable power, especially from solar panels and micro grids with techniques such as distributed forwarding tables and SDN as demonstrated recently by Inocbye.<br />
<br />
With recent dramatic drop in price of solar panels, in many jurisdictions, power from solar panels is cheaper than power from the electrical grid. This is why you hear of many homes and institutions talking about “cutting the cord” from the electrical grid, which is terrifying the large electrical utilities. It is estimated that within a few years up to 40% of our power will come from what are called Variable Renewable Electricity (VRE) such as local solar panels. ICT equipment and networks is ideally suited for this type of power. Most low power ICT equipment has on-board batteries and have copper connections to other devices, other than through the electrical grid via Ethernet Cat 5/6 cables and as such they can tolerate variable power conditions.<br />
<br />
But where does the electrical vehicle play in all of this? Not only is the eVehicle an important mobile IoT platform (i.e. Smart Car) its also a powerful mobile energy source. Inevitably with the Internet of Things there will be times when certain devices or nodes will run out of power, and so an electric vehicle can be mobilized quickly to a site to provide emergency backup power to these facilities. Dynamic charging of eVehicles means that the vehicle’s batteries are charged as it moves along rather than when it reaches its destination. Integrating the design of eVehicles into the future IoT or future Internet allows network operators to take advantage of VRE power sources and build a more reliable network.<br />
<br />
But probably the most important aspect of this combination of NRENs and electric car is the potential cost savings that it represents. Already “cutting the cord” is saving NRENs and institutions millions of dollars per year. UCSD for example claims to save $850,000 per month by deploying their own microgrids made up of various renewable energy sources.<br />
<br />
As well these new architectures may be eligible for funding from new a host of new sources as opposed to the traditional funding councils. Green bond funds and Green energy programs are on example of huge new funding programs that are now accessible by deploying these architectures.<br />
<br />
I will be providing further details on these opportunities at our Terena Networking BOF in Dublin May 19 https://tnc2014.terena.org/<br />
<br />
For further information:<br />
<br />
Internet 2 electric car Internet of Things program<br />
https://www.internet2.edu/news/detail/5973/<br />
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EU FABRIC program<br />
http://www.fabric-project.eu/<br />
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The disruptive potential of solar power for networks<br />
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/energy_resources_materials/the_disruptive_potential_of_solar_power<br />
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Researchers show that follow the wind/sun wireless networks viable with addition of only a small number of cells<br />
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/525646/how-advanced-mobile-networks-could-power-themselves/<br />
<br />
<br />
Economist: Green bond funds are booming. Great opportunity to fund innovative zero carbon IT and networks<br />
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21599400-bonds-tied-green-investments-are-booming-spring-air<br />
<br />
500,000 euro funding for new innovative Energy Internet projects & micro grids for networks<br />
http://www.greenchallenge.info/index.php/news/137-challenge-starts-now<br />
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New York City and NYU deploy dynamic wireless charging for electric cars using manhole covers<br />
http://goo.gl/TYO69q<br />
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<br />
Microgrids for ICT could be generating 1 GW by 2020. Network nodes will be major application. See also PoDL & SDN-P<br />
http://bit.ly/LULaHQ<br />
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ICT ideal for adapting to variable renewable power (VRE) on or of the grid. New IEA reports VRE could reach 40%<br />
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/variable-renewable-power-can-reach-40-percent-capacity-very-cheaply/<br />
<br />
The Economist. Cutting the cord from the utilities can allow Californians to reduce power costs by half<br />
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21598668-big-batteries-threaten-big-power-stationsand-utilities-profits-devolving-power<br />
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New IEEE standard PoDL power over data lines. Exciting new field for SDN-P networking for integrating power and data<br />
https://standards.ieee.org/news/2013/ieee_podl_sg.html<br />
<br />
Inocybe Technologies Launches Sustainable SDN Controller Powered by OpenDaylight<br />
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11551609.htm<br />
<br />
Using SDN, UCLP and OpenNaaS to integrate micro grids with data networks on campus and NRENs<br />
http://goo.gl/SFaW6p<br />
<br />
<br />
------<br />
R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant.<br />
<br />
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<br />
twitter: BillStArnaud<br />
blog: http://green-broadband.blogspot.ca/<br />
<br />
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-74461398258431907622014-02-20T17:23:00.004-08:002014-02-20T17:23:59.300-08:00Using SDN, UCLP and Open NaaS to integrate micro grids with data networks on campus and NRENsAs reported recently in Bloomberg news micro grids are threatening the hegemony of the electric utilities. <br />
<a name='more'></a> UCSD, for example, claims they save $850,000 a month because they have deployed their own micro grid on the university campus. Micro grids not only save energy costs, but they can significantly reduce GHG emissions and provide more reliable electrical service. Reliability will be of increasing concern as various studies have shown that the electrical grid is suffering increasing outages because of severe weather due to climate change.<br />
<br />
Up to now network engineers have taken little consideration into using micro grids for powering their networks and computers. But network devices are ideally suited for being powered by micro grids that use renewable energy. Most network devices have various power modes, battery backup and can re-route traffic based on availability of power. They have a lot more intelligence than most devices connected to the power grid to enable smart power management.<br />
<br />
Managing the power distribution and flow of power between network devices is very similar in concept to managing data flows. With micro grids there are multiple sources of power such as local solar panels, eVehicles, etc. There are also multiple ways of distributing power to network devices such as PoE, pulsed Cat 5, USB, multiplex 400/60/50 hz, etc. Various flavors of Software Defined Network technology such as UCLP, OpenNaaS, Open Daylight etc are ideal for managing the routing of these power flows, much in the same way as they can manage different types of data flows. Concepts of virtual power networks are possible.<br />
<br />
Inocbye for example has developed a "sustainable" SDN controller that is aware of its power sources and allow network managers to configure SDN networks that use renewable energy for example.<br />
<br />
For more information:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">UCSD saves $850k/month in electricity and less GHG emissions with microgrids </span><span style="color: #292f33; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-17/ebay-to-ellison-embrace-microgrids-in-threat-to-utilities.html</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #292f33; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inocybe Technologies Launches Sustainable SDN Controller Powered by OpenDaylight </span><span style="color: #0084b4; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="tco-ellipsis" style="background-color: #f5f8fa; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><a class="twitter-timeline-link" data-expanded-url="http://bit.ly/LJwFqH" dir="ltr" href="http://t.co/sTZkm4YWwi" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #0084b4; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/LJwFqH"><span class="invisible" style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #0084b4; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0px; line-height: 0; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://</span><span class="js-display-url" style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #0084b4; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">bit.ly/LJwFqH</span><span style="color: #0084b4; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="invisible" style="background-color: #f5f8fa; font-size: 0px; line-height: 0; line-height: 0; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="tco-ellipsis" style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #0084b4; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="invisible" style="font-size: 0px; line-height: 0;"> </span></span></a><br />
<br />
Developing Climate Change Preparedness Plans using integration of micro grids and data networks<br />
http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/nren-climate-change-preparedness<br />
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<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-10232218555909538902014-01-29T12:57:00.002-08:002014-01-29T12:57:22.388-08:00Architectural Details and Routing Protocols for Energy Internet<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<a name='more'></a> It sometimes also referred to as mico-grids or
nano-grids, but generally these terms are a misnomer as they really refer to a
smaller version of the traditional electrical grid.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Traditional power systems are passive, hierarchical and for
the most part have no intelligence or management. Although there is a lot of talk of Smart
Grids, it is largely a retrofit technology to add some semblance of intelligence
and control to traditional power systems and usually goes no further than the
meter base at your home or business.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Energy Internet is not intended to displace the
traditional electrical grid but help manage the electrical distribution of
power from the plethora of small solar panels that are popping up on roofs of campuses and homes. The traditional electrical grid has difficult
challenges handling the very spiky and intermittent loads offered by local
rooftop solar panels and windmills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Energy Internet can significantly save on power costs,
especially from always on, low power electronic network devices and computers.
These devices now consume up to 40% of the electricity in a typical home and
even larger percentages in business and universities. The Energy Internet is an ideal match for delivering
power from local solar panels to these devices.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Energy Internet is also useful infrastructure for powering critical network functions and other services during major power outages of the traditional electrical grid. It is expected that the number of outages on the traditional grid will increase significantly due to severe weather as a result of climate change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The basic construct of the Energy Internet assumes there are
multiple loosely coupled energy sources such as solar panel arrays, plugged in
electric vehicles, battery storage, wind mills etc. The main electrical grid with
appropriate routing interface, may also be one of the loosely interconnected devices,
but it is not the hierarchical main connection that we see in today’s
electrical systems. These energy sources, as well as their sinks are
interconnected by a variety of generally low power links such as Power over
Ethernet (PoE), USB, 400/60 HZ multiplex power, and pulse power over Cat5/6
cable. As well these sources and sinks may be interconnected with more
traditional powers buses such as 110/220 and 48v DC interconnects, again
assuming they have the appropriate power routing interface.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many companies are already making routing and switching
products for the Energy Internet such as Solatron and GridOn, but as yet there
has been no standardization of Energy Internet routing and signaling protocols.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With Energy Internet it is assumed that many energy
consuming devices power also have their own local power storage or generation
independent of the electrical grid. Some examples include:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">–<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->WiFi
node with its own solar panel</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">–<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Backup
battery power on computer</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">–<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Electric
vehicle with its own battery bank</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">–<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Street
lamps with their own solar panels</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">–<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Smart
phone/tablet solar powered charging station</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">–<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->UPS power packs etc</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each energy consuming or producing device has an energy
router (typically chip based) to signal availability of excess power or
conversely to signal the need for additional power to continue operating. An Energy Internet assumes a peer to peer architecture
between routing nodes. The enterprise LAN
or Internet network is used for out of band signaling and routing between the various
nodes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Neighboring devices pass on routing information and power is
routed from a device with surplus power, on a hop by hop basis, to a destination
using a number of power channels as mentioned previously such as PoE or pulse
power over Cat 5/6 wiring.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In general the power loads for an Energy Internet tend to be
small, typically less than 1 KW. It is
therefore ideal for providing redundant distributed power to existing
intelligent networked devices such as computers, routers, servers, WiFi nodes, eVehicle charging stations etc. Most
of these devices usually have their own on board battery storage which allows
for techniques such as round robin charging or store and forward power
distribution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suggested signaling and routing
protocols for the Energy Internet Open Shortest Power Function (OSPF) for
routing of power within a single management domain and Border Gateway Power
Routing (BGPB) between management
domains. BGPB for example would be used
by household neighbors to share power between themselves independent of the electrical
grid using old copper or coax cables for interconnection. With pulse power these cables can carry up to
5Kw of power.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OSPF and BGPB are loosely based
on the Internet routing protocols OSPF and BGP, but carry extra parameters necessary
for the routing of power as opposed to packets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
See also High Level Architecture for Zero Carbon Internet</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://green-broadband.blogspot.ca/2013/02/high-level-architecture-for-building.html">http://green-broadband.blogspot.ca/2013/02/high-level-architecture-for-building.html</a></div>
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Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-26853561924820212002014-01-13T18:15:00.002-08:002014-01-14T12:23:26.712-08:00Why R&E networks and universities should develop climate change preparedness plans in line with Obama’s executive order<div class="MsoNormal">
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. </div>
<a name='more'></a>Not only government departments
but also most public funded organizations such as schools, universities,
hospitals etc. will be required to develop Climate Change Preparedness Plans.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
President Obama’s Climate Change Preparedness order is a
welcome recognition of the fact that we are pretty well past the point of no
return in terms of slowing down or stopping climate change. Most universities and other organizations who
are attempting to wrestle with climate change today for the most part are only undertaking token mitigation initiatives such
as recycling paper, installing high efficiency light bulbs or deploying energy
efficient heating and cooling. I liken these efforts to throwing pillows off
the Titanic. Sure, they may slow down
the rate of sinking by a miniscule amount, but it is not going to change the
ultimate outcome. The real focus of our efforts should be manning the
lifeboats.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most people fail to understand that it is the cumulative CO2
emissions that cause climate change, and not our current emission rate. If magically we were to stop all emissions
today, the system has already a baked in global average temperature increase of
almost 2C due to the cumulative emissions produced by humans since the start of
the industrial age. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To put that in perspective in the late 1700s, prior to the
industrial age, when the average global temperature was .8C cooler than now,
New York City Harbor would routinely freeze over*. In many years people could
walk across the ice from Staten Island to Manhattan. If New York harbor routinely froze over when
the world was .8C cooler than it is now, imagine what the world is going to be
like when we are 2C or even 4C warmer than today!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even if we could develop a global consensus on the
seriousness of climate change, the global effort to eliminate virtually all
sources of CO2 would be staggering. To
stabilize global temperatures at 2C we would have to build the clean energy equivalent
of a new nuclear power plant very day for the next 50 years*!!<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Its time to face reality and realize that building this amount of clean energy power simply is
not going to happen. We really need to
think seriously about manning the lifeboats and preparing for eventual dramatic
changes that will happen with a rapidly warming climate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to a recent Department of Energy study “US Energy
sector vulnerabilities to climate change and extreme weather*” the electrical grid is probably the most
fragile infrastructure that is susceptible to climate change. While utilities are making effort to
strengthen transmission lines and build redundant capacity it is still expected
that the number of Megawatt hours that will be lost due to severe weather due
to climate change will increase significantly over the next decade. It is predicted that coal and nuclear power
generating capacity will decrease by between 4 and 16 percent in the United
States and a 6 to 19 percent decline in Europe due to simple lack of cooling
water*. Tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts
and severe flooding will cause further disruption to the power grid and
generating stations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In light of these developments and Obama’s Executive Order
it is time for R&E networks and universities to start to develop Climate
Change Preparedness plans themselves.
They need to evaluate the risks to their own institution's facilities
from climate change and project the likely impacts for the most benign to the
extreme worst case scenarios.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How will institutions and networks cope with frequent and
long duration power outages? Will the
campus be subject to frequent flooding or droughts? What backup measures and systems will be
required? What labs and/or buildings will
need critical 24 hr power? What type of
on campus power solutions will be required to keep critical facilities operating?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
R&E networks will play a critical role in ensuring that education
and research service can still be accessed remotely throughout the worst of any
prolonged outages. But the networks
themselves must ensure that they can provide ongoing service, especially if
there are long term outages. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dependence on diesel generators for backup power for institutions
or networks may not be sufficient because of refinery and transportation
outages. Hurricane Sandy was a wakeup call in this regard. Also most governments have disaster
contingency plans that prioritize fuel shipments to hospitals or other critical
services ahead of most university and R&E network requirements.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other important role that R&E network staff can play
is in the design and deployment of the future Energy Internet. Increasingly engineers and scientists are
recognizing that the future energy infrastructure will look increasingly more
like the original data Internet. It will be distributed with multiple power
routes, packet based power delivery (pulse power or EV) and use a variety of distribution techniques
such PoE, AC, 400/60 Hz, etc and have multiple power sources such as local
solar panels, windmills, EV batteries
etc. Sophisticated routing protocols
will be required to route power to loads or shed them as required to match
available local energy sources such as EV batteries.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Companies like Solantro are developing the necessary semi-conductor
chips to enable this type of smart energy distribution management. R&E network scientists and engineers developed the original Internet and it is now their responsibility to develop the protocols, services and deployments for the Energy Internet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*References</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. Obama Executive Order on Climate Change Preparedness</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/01/executive-order-preparing-united-states-impacts-climate-change">http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/01/executive-order-preparing-united-states-impacts-climate-change</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. US Energy sector vulnerabilities to climate change and
extreme weather” US Department of Energy
July 2013</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/07/f2/20130716-Energy%20Sector%20Vulnerabilities%20Report.pdf">http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/07/f2/20130716-Energy%20Sector%20Vulnerabilities%20Report.pdf</a>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. Latest Developments in Data Center in Power and Energy
Issues</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/future-challenges-for-data-centers">http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/future-challenges-for-data-centers</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Solantro</div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-8423452359912320152013-11-24T09:48:00.002-08:002013-11-24T09:48:21.491-08:00Green Bond Funds and the role of R&E networksAround 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.<br />
<a name='more'></a> This environment is unlikely to change, even if the current global economic situation improves. Healthcare, long term debt and aging populations are continue to put enormous pressure on government budgets for the foreseeable future. In times of budget constraints education and research usually always gets the short shrift, even though it is argued that it is an investment in our future economic growth.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The only bright spot in terms of new funding are various public and private sector programs related to climate change. Even “denialist” governments as in Ottawa, Washington and now Canberra have launched several programs to fund new initiatives in energy, GHG abatement, green programs etc. The private financial sector has also started to launch several new instruments in this area with the development of Green Bonds and revolving funds. Many of these funds are also supported by generous tax breaks.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Green Bond, revolving funds and related initiatives are usually used to underwrite the capital costs of large renewable energy or energy efficiency projects. Examples include deploying large solar arrays, wind farms, etc. The funds earn their return on investment through the payback on energy savings or from feed in tariffs to the electrical grid. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Green bonds in the United States got a major boost from the America Jobs Creation Act of 2004. It was designed to provide funding - in the form of $2 billion worth of AAA-rated bonds issued by the United States Treasury - to finance environmentally friendly development. Many individual states are also issuing Green Bond funds. Some countries like the Netherlands Green Fund programs also fund innovation through the use of these funds.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There is a significant opportunity for universities and R&E networks to tap into this programs. But the challenge for most universities is their relative small size and lack of experience or knowledge in negotiating with Green Bond brokers. Most Green Bond and Revolving funds are several hundred million dollars in size. It is very hard for even a large university to come up with green projects of sufficient size to attract the attention of such investment vehicles. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is where R&E networks can play an important role, by partnering with Green Bond brokers to aggregate demand from many institutions to put together a sizable enough package to attract large institutional investors such as pension funds etc. In essence it is very similar to offering a Net+ service to the institutions. Many universities, particularly in the US, are also part of a $1 billion green revolving fund which can be leveraged in a similar manner.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To this point there seems no obvious role for the R&E network, other than aggregating demand. But this could be argued could be done just as easily by the university business offices or associations of university financial officers and/or presidents. The big advantage that R&E networks bring is significantly increasing the project’s return on investment of the green bond or revolving fund by leveraging Net+ services to reduce a university’s energy footprint. Computing and networking represent anywhere from 25-40% of an institution’s electrical budget. Every initiative that reduces or eliminates that electrical consumption footprint, can be applied directly to improving the ROI of the green bond investment, either to the benefit of the investors or better as an additional revenue stream to the institution and R&E network. And where Green Bonds also fund innovation, the use of ICT to reduce an institution’s environmental footprint can be significant.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I have blogged many times in the past about ICT technologies that can reduce electrical energy consumption on the campus such as the use of commercial clouds, NREN managed WiFi services, campus IT outsourcing, solar power recharging stations for tablets and smart phones, dynamic charging of campus utility vehicles, etc, etc. Bundling these technology solutions with their projected energy savings as part of a Green Bond package could make for a very attractive vehicle for investors of all kinds.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For more information please see</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Green Bonds: Victory Bonds for the Environment</div>
<div>
http://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/GreenBonds_Canada.pdf</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Dutch Green Bond Funds</div>
<div>
http://www.agentschapnl.nl/onderwerpen/duurzaam-ondernemen/energie-en-milieu-innovaties</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-17251958069711992172013-09-02T12:57:00.003-07:002013-09-02T12:57:56.928-07:00Big Science and Sustainable Energy - Second annual workshopI 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.Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-49110701058008537442013-05-15T16:44:00.000-07:002013-05-15T16:49:13.080-07:00Major New Funding Opportunities for Internet Researchers and R&E Networks- NAMAs<br />
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px;">Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA)</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"> is a new policy program that was developed at the Bali United Nations Climate Change Conference.</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"> As opposed to the much maligned programs like CDM and other initiatives NAMA refers to a set of policies and actions that </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px;">developed</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"> and developing countries undertake as part of a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Also unlike CDM, NAMA recipients are not restricted to developing countries.The program recognizes that different countries may take different nationally appropriate action based on different capabilities and requirements. Most importantly </span></span><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">any set of actions or policies undertaken by a nation under NAMA </span></span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px;">will be recorded in a registry along with relevant technology, finance and capacity building support and will be subject to international measurement, reporting and verification.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Already most industrialized countries have committed funding,or intend to commit funding to NAMA projects. It is expected that by 2020 over $100 billion will be committed to NAMA programs by various nation states.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">As I have blogged <i>ad nuseaum</i>, I believe Internet researcher and R&E networks can play a critical leadership role in developing zero carbon ICT and "Energy Internet" technologies and architectures. ICT is the fastest growing sector in terms of CO2 emissions and is rapidly become one of the largest GHG emission sectors on the planet. For example a recent Australian study pointed out that the demand for new wireless technologies alone will equal the CO2 emissions of 4 1/2 million cars!</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Once you get past the mental block of energy efficiency solves all problems, and realize that energy consumption is not the problem, but the type of energy we use, then a whole world of research and innovation opportunities opens up. More significantly, whether you believe in climate change or not, it is expected that within a couple of years the cost of power from distributed roof top solar panels is going to be less that that from the grid. This is going to fundamentally change the dynamics of the power industry much like the Internet disrupted the old telecom world. Those countries and businesses that take advantage of these new power realities are going to have a huge advantage in the global marketplace.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">I am pleased to see that Europe is at the forefront of these developments with Future Internet initiatives like FINSENY.EU that is actively working with NRENs and Internet researchers to develop the architectural principles of building an energy Internet built around distributed small scale renewable power. My only concern is that Europe may screw it up, like they did with the early Internet, when most of the research funding went to incumbent operators.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">The global Internet started in the academic research community and R&E networks. It would be great to see these same organizations play a leadership role in deploying the global "Energy Internet". Universities, in many cases have the energy profile of small cities, of which 25-40% of their electrical consumption is directly attributable to ICT. Most campuses also operate large fleets of utility vehicles that could easily be converted to dynamic charging to "packetize" power and provide it where needed and when needed on campus, especially when there is no power from the solar panels.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">I dream of the day when a university announces it is going zero carbon and off the grid.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">For more information:</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe7d1; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
<span style="color: black;">High level architecture of Building Zero Carbon ICT: <o:p></o:p></span><a href="http://goo.gl/juWdH" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;">http://goo.gl/juWdH</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe7d1; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe7d1; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
Building the Energy Internet and Packetized Power with dynamic charging of eVehicles: http://goo.gl/lpyn1</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe7d1; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe7d1; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
NAMA <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationally_Appropriate_Mitigation_Action">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationally_Appropriate_Mitigation_Action</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe7d1; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
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<div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-59811866355346584912013-04-09T09:34:00.002-07:002013-04-09T09:35:40.702-07:00The Keystone XL Pipeline and the role of R&E networks<br />
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.<br />
<a name='more'></a>I suspect at the end of the day the US government will approve the pipeline as GDP growth and potential job losses will always trump concerns over the environment.<br />
<br />
However, the US government has been putting on a lot pressure on Alberta to improve its environmental standards as a quid pro quo for approving the pipeline. In response Alberta is exploring expanding their current CO2 emissions program to a $40/tonne carbon levy. In the past, all of the funds raised by Alberta’s carbon emissions program was returned to industry to invest in dubious energy efficiency programs. But Alberta could really have a much more meaningful impact in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, that would more than compensate the emissions from the oil carried in the Keystone XL pipeline, if it invested some of this money into its local universities and R&E network – Cybera.<br />
<br />
Although on the production side the tar sands are one of the biggest sources of CO2 emissions, the ICT industry, globally is the fastest growing and soon will be the largest source of CO2 emissions on the consumption side of the equation. ICT emissions are produced indirectly from the coal generated electricity that is used to power all of our devices. Currently it is estimated that ICT consumes around<br />
10% all electrical power growing at about 6-10% per year. According to the OECD and other studies ICT equipment in our home now consumes more energy than traditional appliances.<br />
<br />
New studies suggest that the growth in wireless networks could be the single largest component of that growth in CO2 emissions from the ICT sector. In a recent report by the Centre for Energy-Efficient Communications, at the University of Melbourne-based research centre claimed that by 2015, the energy used to run data centres will be a "drop in the ocean", compared to the wireless networks used to access cloud services. The report predicts that by 2015 energy consumption associated with 'wireless cloud' will reach 43 terawatt-hours, compared to 9.2 terawatt-hours in 2012. This is an increase in carbon footprint from 6 megatonnes of CO2 in 2012, up to 30 megatonnes of CO2 in 2015, which is the equivalent of an additional 4.9 million cars on the road, the report states.<br />
<br />
More worrisome is another report from Sweden KTH that predicts will need to increase the density of wireless base stations by 1000 times to meet the insatiable demand for the “wireless cloud”. If this came to fruition, it would be incredibly huge jump in the demand of electricity by the ICT sector.<br />
<br />
The wireless industry in particular is an ideal sector to be powered by local renewable energy sources such as solar panels and windmills. Already many wireless towers in the developing world are powered by renewable energy (but unfortunately often with diesel backup). Because of it is inherently distributed, lower power architecture the wireless industry is ideally suited to be powered by local renewable energy.<br />
<br />
I have long advocated that universities and R&E networks are the ideal environment for deploying wireless networks that are powered solely by local renewable power sources. By integrating WIfI and 4G networks with multiple over lapping cells it would be possible to provide seamless service zero carbon wireless services.<br />
<br />
For more details please see:<br />
High Level Architecture for Building Zero Carbon Internet Networks , ICT products and services<br />
http://green-broadband.blogspot.ca/2013/02/high-level-architecture-for-building.html<br />
<br />
Alberta could be a world leader in deploying such zero carbon networks starting first at universities in partnership with Cybera. The global CO2 impact of developing such technology in terms of removing additional 4.9 million cars from the road would be much greater than expected emissions from the oil to be carried in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline<br />
<br />
Additional pointers:<br />
<br />
Cloud's real ecological timebomb: Wireless, not data centres<br />
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/458439/cloud_real_ecological_timebomb_wireless_data_centres/<br />
<br />
Thousand times greater density of base stations<br />
J. Zander, P. Mähönen, “Riding the Data Tsunami in the Cloud – Myths and Challenges in Future Wireless Access“, IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol 51, Issue: 3 (March 2013), pages 145-151<br />
http://theunwiredpeople.com/author/jenz/<br />
<br />
Solar powered WiFi allows control of bugs instead of using pesticides –<br />
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/business/top-stories/Pest+control+wireless/8140245/story.html<br />
<br />
ICT industry on track to be largest sector for CO 2 emissions<br />
http://www.rackforce.com/green_it.html?loc=mainmenu<br />
<br />
Solar Powered DIY Portable HotSpot<br />
http://www.voltsxamps.com/?p=532<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">More on revenue opportunities for R&E and open access networks - building next generation "5G" wireless network</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://bit.ly/dck1kR </span><br />
<br />
------<br />
R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant.<br />
<br />
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<br />
twitter: BillStArnaud<br />
blog: http://green-broadband.blogspot.ca/<br />
skype: Pocketpro<br />
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-53852030536774602742013-02-20T13:46:00.000-08:002013-02-20T13:46:04.421-08:00How Transport SDN could revolutionize R&E networks<br />
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[It is exciting to see the recent announcements from ESnet and
Infinera of their first Transport SDN demo. </div>
<a name='more'></a>
As many readers of this blog I have been a long advocate of Transport
SDN – which is the fundamental design concept of UCLP (User Controlled
Lightpaths). Transport SDN allows fiber infrastructure to partition their
network into separate management domains OR create a single domain optical
network that spans many separate independent optical management domains or
infrastructure facilities.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<br /></div>
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For example, a major forward thinking R&E network is shortly
going to make an announcement about how they are going to enter into a
partnership with a commercial fiber supplier
to partition the network into both a commercial
and R&E facility. The commercial provider owns the fiber and the Transport SDN
boxes, but will create two separate management domains – one for the R&E
network and one for the commercial operator.
The R&E network can populate the optical transport boxes with its
own optical transport cards and manage them independently of the commercial
cards with Transport SDN. Transport SDN also allows the R&E Network to
integrate wavelengths or fiber from multiple suppliers to build their own topology with
their own independent management and control planes at both the optical and IP
layers. Major Fortune 500 companies who operate their own networks have been
looking for this capability for years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The big advantage of Transport SDN in partnering with commercial
providers for R&E networks is that it can significantly reduce the cost of
deploying an optical R&E network. It also allows national or regional R&E
networks to share infrastructure with other R&E networks, but allowing each
network to manage its own set of wavelengths as part of its management domain. In
times of funding constraints partnering with commercials suppliers or regional networks
can be a major cost saving, especially in less populated regions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Transport SDN will
also allow the creation of a global R&E network infrastructure that does not depend on a traditional telco hierarchical
network infrastructure, to paraphrase Tolkien of “one network to rule them all, one network
to bind them all”. Instead different single optical management domains can be
created from wavelengths from participating R&E networks to create “discipline
or application specific” networks. For
example recently several international networks in partnership with Internet 2 have
agreed to back each other up in case of an outage. With Transport SDN each network can extend
its management and control plane across each other’s infrastructure in order to
provide automatic re-routing and backup between what would normally be totally independent
networks.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It goes without saying that Transport SDN is also the fundamental concept underlying the deployment of zero carbon optical networks.</div>
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<br /></div>
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For additional information on Transport SDN<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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ESnet and Infinera Announcement of Transport SDN pilot<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gYxGnU_IQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gYxGnU_IQ</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Some earlier papers on Transport SDN:<o:p></o:p></div>
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http://www.uclp.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=9<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.nren.nasa.gov/workshops/pdfs9/PanelE_UCLPv2-Figuurola.pdf">http://www.nren.nasa.gov/workshops/pdfs9/PanelE_UCLPv2-Figuurola.pdf</a></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--BSA]<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="" name="_MailAutoSig">------<o:p></o:p></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-no-proof: yes;">R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant. </span></i><i><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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email:
Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<o:p></o:p></div>
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twitter: BillStArnaud<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
blog:
http://green-broadband.blogspot.ca/<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
skype: Pocketpro<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-8096845585573449672013-02-18T09:53:00.001-08:002013-05-12T12:31:40.316-07:00Latest developments in dynamic charging for eVehiclesI 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.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Korea seems to be focusing on inductive charging systems while China is using charging umbrellas for bus systems in Shanghai etc<br />
<br />
Latest developments in dynamic charging<br />
http://goo.gl/lpyn1<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.38in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: -0.38in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">Some additional pointers:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">• A new look at an old idea: Powering autos and trucks from overhead wires </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-look-at-old-idea-powering-autos.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">• Green Investment Opportunity for small business - on the move electric car charging</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/04/green-investment-opportunity-for-small.html </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">• How California suburban sprawl could be the answer to global warming</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-california-suburban-sprawl-could-be.html </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">• Packet Based Energy Delivery Systems</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/09/packet-based-energy-delivery-systems.html </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">• The "Energy Internet" - how the Internet + renewable energy can transform the economy</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/10/energy-internet-how-internet-renewable.html#more </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">• Electric roads and Internet will allow coast to coast driving with no stopping and no emissions</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/05/electric-roads-and-internet-will-allow.html </span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.38in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: -0.38in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.38in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: -0.38in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.38in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: -0.38in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 32pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.38in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: -0.38in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;">
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Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-29963980225818260882013-02-01T11:08:00.003-08:002013-05-12T12:27:08.876-07:00High Level Architecture for Building Zero Carbon Internet Networks , ICT products and services<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8158203802381062863" name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8158203802381062863" name="OLE_LINK1"> </a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8158203802381062863" name="OLE_LINK4"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8158203802381062863" name="OLE_LINK3">Architecture
for Building Zero Carbon Internet Networks , ICT products and services</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8158203802381062863" name="OLE_LINK3">R</a>evised May 12,2013<br />
<br /></div>
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1.0 Introduction<br />
-----------------</div>
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<br /></div>
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One of the biggest challenges facing this planet is climate change. It is estimated that ICT consumes 5-10% of
global electricity and contributes to 2% of GHG emissions. Greentouch predicts that ICT energy
consumption is going to double in the next decade. As Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) stated in a
recent report the current global rate of de-carbonization is .8%. We need to achieve a rate of 5.1% for the next
39 years if we are to keep global average temperatures increasing less than
2C. That means that we have to increase
the rate of de-carbonization by 40 times, for all sectors of society including
ICT, starting right now. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Greentouch claims that already ICT equipment is achieving 10-20%
increase in energy efficiency per year. But
given the growth of ICT of approximately 10% per year, overall efficiency is
probably neutral. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Increased energy efficiency does not have a one to one
correspondence to reduction in GHG emissions.
The reduction in GHG emissions depends on the local energy mix. So for
example in the US you need 30% increased energy efficiency to achieve 10%
reduction in GHG emissions, as coal powered energy is 30-40% of the energy mix. Overall globally coal powered electricity is
typically 50% of the electrical energy supply which means that you need a 20%
increase in energy efficiency to achieve 10% reduction in GHG emissions.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To meet the PwC target therefore would require the ICT sector would
have to achieve overall energy efficiency of 8000- 10000% per year!! Clearly to achieve this greater rate of de-carbonization
we will need much more radical measures to reduce the contribution of ICT to
GHG emissions. Efficiency on this scale
essentially means we must build zero carbon ICT solutions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although ICGT
contribution to GHG emissions is relatively small at 2%, it is one of the
fastest growing sectors in terms of GHG emissions. For example, n<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">ew studies suggest that the growth in wireless networks could be the single largest component of that growth in CO2 emissions from the ICT sector. In a recent report by the Centre for Energy-Efficient Communications, at the University of Melbourne-based research centre claimed that by 2015, the energy used to run data centres will be a "drop in the ocean", compared to the wireless networks used to access cloud services. The report predicts that by 2015 energy consumption associated with 'wireless cloud' will reach 43 terawatt-hours, compared to 9.2 terawatt-hours in 2012. This is an increase in carbon footprint from 6 megatonnes of CO2 in 2012, up to 30 megatonnes of CO2 in 2015, which is the equivalent of an additional 4.9 million cars on the road, the report states.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">More worrisome is another report from Sweden KTH that predicts will need to increase the density of wireless base stations by 1000 times to meet the insatiable demand for the “wireless cloud”. If this came to fruition, it would be incredibly huge jump in the demand of electricity by the ICT sector.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">The wireless industry in particular is an ideal sector to be powered by local renewable energy sources such as solar panels and windmills. Already many wireless towers in the developing world are powered by renewable energy (but unfortunately often with diesel backup). Because of it is inherently distributed, lower power architecture the wireless industry is ideally suited to be powered by local renewable energy.</span></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
Achieving GHG reductions as suggested by PwC
forecasts is not uniformly attainable across
all sectors of society. Some sectors
such as airplane travel will have extreme difficulty achieving any meaningful
reduction. Fortunately the ICT sector, with the right architecture can possibly
achieve the required GHG reductions and more, thereby compensating for those
sectors. As well, the lifecycle of ICT
products and services is very short,
typically 5 years. By designing zero
carbon solutions today, it is conceivable that within 5 years we will be able
to achieve significantly better overall energy efficiency for the sector thereby helping other sectors
less amenable to GHG reductions.</div>
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2.0 Purpose of this paper<br />
-------------------------</div>
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<br /></div>
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The purpose of this paper is to lay out a possible zero
carbon architecture for networks and ICT equipment. It is predicated on the following
assumptions:<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(a) Solar power will become cheaper
than power from the grid within 2 years in Europe and 5 years in North America<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(b) Most of the growth and
availability in solar power will be from off grid, highly distributed and
relatively small sources such as roof top and mobile systems.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(c) Even with low cost solar, for
the foreseeable future utilities will continue to supply a major portion of
their power from fossil fuel resources, because of sunk capital cost and
reliability of such power. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(d) Renewable energy will constitute
only a small portion of the overall energy mix and large scale storage is still a pipe
dream.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(e) The use of Renewable Energy
Credits (RECs) from the utility will not reduce meaningful dependence on fossil
generated fuel because of need for dependable and reliable power.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(f) In jurisdictions that have
mandated the utilities to use renewable energy such as California at 30%, the
utilities will be motivated to find customers who can use the unpredictable
power feed represented by this renewable power.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The network architecture also assumes that small scale, low power
computing devices will almost be universal and in the same cost range as a
single solar chip e.g. Raspberry PI. In
fact it is conceivable that some solar arrays will be manufactured with integrated
computing, network processors and memory storage. As a result we may well end
up with a surplus of distributed computing and storage whose availability will
wax and wane depending on the time of day.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It is clear that any dependence on the electrical grid,
which will still incorporate fossil fuels for the foreseeable future will make
it impossible to achieve 8000-10000% energy efficiency never mind zero carbon solutions. Based on
these assumptions this paper proposes a zero carbon ICT architecture that will
primarily be based on a highly distributed, off grid, small scale solar power,
sometimes supplemented by off loaded grid power in those jurisdictions that
mandate the use of significant percentage of renewable power.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The architecture will involve different approaches for
different ICT devices broken down as follows:<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(a) Access Networks – Optical and
wireless - Reverse passive optical networks (RPON) and wireless mesh networks
with software defined radios<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(b) Computing – Infrastructure powered solely by renewable energy and highly
distributed computing as above<br />
<br /></div>
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(c) Consumer Devices – Multiplex AC
power systems and PoE solar powered charging stations<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(d) Backbone networks, Base
stations and routers– Solar panel arrays
supplemented with autonomous eVehicle mobile storage systems</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
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An overview of the architecture of each of the above
categories is provided in the following sections.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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3.0 Zero Carbon Access Networks<br />
-------------------------------------</div>
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<br /></div>
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With zero carbon access networks, whether wired or wireless,
the fundamental assumption is that all active network devices will have to move
to the edge of the network, where the power is located. The core of the network,
as much as possible, needs to be made up of passive devices. The best analogy is to apply the concept of
BitTorrent discovery and routing to the physical infrastructure.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Considerable progress has been made in this space with
wireless mesh networks. For optical networks RPON (Reverse Passive Optical
Networking) is the proposed solution where all active lasers and DWDM equipment
is located at the edge of the network on the customer’s premises integrated
with, or powered by their solar panels.
Not unlike wireless networks, multiple independent optical paths are
maintained with nearby neighbors and central core optical switches. In
fact, integration of both wireless and wired networks would make sense to
achieve greater density and throughput.</div>
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<br /></div>
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All forwarding and routing would be done at the edge in the CPE equipment with multiple
overlapping distributed forwarding tables using a Hadoop based routing table. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Solar powered, low powered GSM and Wifi is a well established
technology. Solar powered Raspberry PI
GSM,FTP and routing engines are also freely available.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ultimately higher aggregation and routing would make sense
at traditional routing nodes as described in section 6.0</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This architecture can also be used on backbone networks as
well, where the core backbone is only made up of optical amplifiers and wave
selection switches.</div>
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<br /></div>
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4.0 Computing
Infrastructure<br />
------------------------------</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A zero carbon computing infrastructure could be made up of two
components – large scale infrastructure powered solely by renewable energy such
as GreenQCloud and highly distributed computing and memory at the edge as
described in the previous section.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Considerable research has already gone into these highly
distributed computing architectures that need not be replicated here. The only significant difference is that in this
situation is that storage, memory and computing is not persistent. For example see Green Hadoop and Greenstar.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br />
5.0 Consumer Devices<br />
-------------------------<br />
<br /></div>
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Most consumer ICT devices, except perhaps for TVs and
printers have internal battery storage.
These devices could easily be charged with special charging systems that
only renewable energy from rooftop solar panels such as Power over Ethernet
(PoE) or multiplex power systems. TVs
and printers would require some external storage device. Multiplex power systems provide both 400 HZ
and 60 (or 50 Hz) power over the same copper wiring. They are currently used in aircraft and
military systems. The 400 Hz power is only visible to special plug in adaptors 9 (or perhaps USB connectors) and is for the most part invisible to regular AC devices because of reactive
filtering from transformers and motors.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For consumer devices the biggest challenge is not
technology, but getting standards bodies to agree that all consumer devices
should use charging adaptors that work only with PoE or Multiplex AC.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Universities and other public institutions could set up
charging stations with multiple outlets that are powered solely by roof top
solar panels and supplemented by autonomous eVehicle mobile storage, with
powered delivered from garage or parking lot over AC multiplex systems or PoE.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Surplus grid power from renewable sources, made available because
of mandatory requirements to carry renewable power could also be used. However, complex signaling and contract negotiation
between grid operator, utility and
customer to make this happen.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6.0 Backbone networks, base stations and core routers<br />
-------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These devices are generally the most energy intensive in the
ICT sector and because of their design require high reliability. Moving as much computing and routing to the
edge, as described previously will help alleviate some of their power
requirements but not all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thousands of solar and wind powered radio base stations and
network nodes are already deployed. But
diesel generators are the usual backup power supply in case no renewable power
is available. An alternate approach is
to use autonomous eVehicles for mobile storage.
The vehicles could be moved from site to site based on predicted power
load etc. For the most part autonomous vehicles
would be parked at base station or network node and charged from surplus power
generated locally by solar panels or windmills.
But in the event of predicted severe climate or long periods of cloudy,
windless days, autonomous eVehicles could be directed to drive to nearby
roadside solar arrays or energy routing exchanges to pick up additional
supplemental power.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
PWC study on de-carbonization</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="http://greenmonk.net/2013/01/25/pwc-low-carbon-index-report-is-a-call-to-arms-for-decarbonisation/">http://greenmonk.net/2013/01/25/pwc-low-carbon-index-report-is-a-call-to-arms-for-decarbonisation/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Greentouch ICT energy statistics</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="http://www.greentouch.org/index.php?page=how-the-ict-industries-can-help-the-world-combat-climate-change">http://www.greentouch.org/index.php?page=how-the-ict-industries-can-help-the-world-combat-climate-change</a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
UBS study that solar will be cheaper than grid power</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/23/unsubsidized-solar-revolution-starting-ubs-reports/">http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/23/unsubsidized-solar-revolution-starting-ubs-reports/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Reverse Passive Optical Networking (RPON)</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="ftp://cs.cinvestav.mx/jorge/bib/webservices/gridcontro4opticalnets.pdf">ftp://cs.cinvestav.mx/jorge/bib/webservices/gridcontro4opticalnets.pdf</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Green Hadoop</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/05/08/a-green-hadoop-could-manage-solar-powered-data-centers/">http://gigaom.com/2012/05/08/a-green-hadoop-could-manage-solar-powered-data-centers/</a></div>
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<br /></div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-11885428531838108602013-01-31T12:55:00.002-08:002013-01-31T13:09:25.193-08:00The myth of population density and the high cost of broadbandOne 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.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Since Canada and the US have low population density compared to The Netherlands or South Korea, they argue that therefore the cost of delivering broadband will be significantly higher because of the much greater distances that need to be covered.<br />
<br />
While this may be true for rural and remote broadband services, most Canadians and Americans (over 80%) live in urban areas. The cost of deploying broadband in urban areas is almost the same anywhere in the world. The bigger factors that affect the cost of broadband deployment in urban areas is whether the fiber is buried or put on poles. Most urban communities in North America are serviced by poles and therefore cost of deploying fiber should be a lot cheaper than, for example in The Netherlands where it is mostly buried.<br />
<br />
Canada and the US have almost the same urban density as The Netherlands (82%) and South Korea (83%). As such,in urban areas there is no reason why the cost of broadband should not be the same as The Netherlands or South Korea.<br />
<br />
Clearly other factors (hint: lack of competition) that are play in keeping broadband speeds and prices much higher in Canada and the US than many other advanced broadband countries.Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-78886428347195413692013-01-28T12:08:00.001-08:002013-01-28T12:08:22.173-08:00Netherlands to deploy worlds first mobile charging system - energy Internet<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[Here is a cool project in the <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">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.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Starting in mid -2013 the demonstration project will use inductive charging to charge vehicles as they drive a special lane in the highway. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The current vision for most eVehicles is stationary charging
at home or at the office. But with mobile charging, the eVehicle
can be charged as it is travelling along the highway using power from roadside
solar panels and/or windmills. The eVehicle can then be used to deliver this
energy as a backup or primary power source at the home or office. The
eVehicle then would become a competitor to the electrical grid for delivering
renewable energy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If the burghers of Branbant are smart, they should work with the network research organization SURFnet to explore how mobile charging and autonomous vehicles can be used to take power from campus eVehicles and network equipment on university campuses. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With eVehicles used to transport energy, we can start thing of "packetized energy" where familiar Internet concepts of packet forwarding and routing can be applied to the Internet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks to Ali <span style="font-size: 11pt;">Farshchian for this pointer.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For more details please see on the Netherlands project please see:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBTx87xiscs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBTx87xiscs</a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<a href="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/10/glowing-roads/">http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/10/glowing-roads/</a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
For more details on the energy Internet and mobile charging:</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222; font-size: 10pt;">How California
suburban sprawl could be the answer to global warming</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;"><a href="http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-california-suburban-sprawl-could-be.html">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-california-suburban-sprawl-could-be.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222; font-size: 10pt;">Green Investment Opportunity for small business
- on the move electric car charging</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;"><a href="http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/04/green-investment-opportunity-for-small.html">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/04/green-investment-opportunity-for-small.html</a></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Pathway Charging and Why Energy needs to be Free
to reduce CO2</span><br />
<span style="background: white;"><a href="http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-energy-needs-to-be-free-to-reduce.html">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-energy-needs-to-be-free-to-reduce.html</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Electric roads and Internet will allow coast to
coast driving with no stopping and no emissions</span><br />
<span style="background: white;"><a href="http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/05/electric-roads-and-internet-will-allow.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenIt%2FbroadbandAndCyber-infrastructure+%28Green+IT%2FBroadband+and+Cyber-Infrastructure%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/05/electric-roads-and-internet-will-allow.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenIt%2FbroadbandAndCyber-infrastructure+%28Green+IT%2FBroadband+and+Cyber-Infrastructure%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher</a></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-60220337732937041122013-01-28T09:23:00.001-08:002013-01-28T09:23:08.862-08:00Recharge Your Electric Car Through Its Tires for Mobile Charging<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">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.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<div>
<section class="body">Powering them from
overhead lines, the way many city buses get power now, doesn’t seem
practical. But some researchers are suggesting embedding wireless power
transmitters into roads that could top off a battery as a car drives
over them. This would make it practical to use smaller, cheaper
batteries that could be replaced every few years.<br />
<br />
Normally, such
systems would require bolting a power receiver to the bottom of a car.
Now researchers at Toyohashi University of Technology have demonstrated
that power can be transferred from electrodes buried in a road to the
steel belts inside tires. That power was used to propel a scale model of
an electric vehicle (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/12/toyoahshi-20121210.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+greencarcongress%2FTrBK+%28Green+Car+Congress%29&utm_content=Google+Reader" target="_blank">according to</a> Green Car Congress). The researchers <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6215814" target="_blank">say</a> the energy transfer is as efficient as charging and discharging a lithium ion battery.</section></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/508621/recharge-your-electric-car-through-its-tires/</div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-71400049328146371612013-01-28T08:38:00.000-08:002013-01-28T08:38:14.607-08:00Taking on established battery makers and making electric vehicles mainstream will require far more radical advancesGood article from MIT press. Taking on established battery makers and making electric vehicles mainstream will require far more radical advances. <a class="twitter-timeline-link" data-expanded-url="http://techre.vu/X8f4bt" dir="ltr" href="http://t.co/ndhJXVXC" target="_blank" title="http://techre.vu/X8f4bt"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="js-display-url">techre.vu/X8f4bt</span></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span class="js-display-url"><br /></span>
<span class="js-display-url">I have been making this argument for some time. Conventional thinking about batteries and energy efficiency will not get us anywhere close to meaningful carbon reduction.</span><br />
<br />
As I have blogged before eVehicles may be the ideal energy storage
and transport medium, as they enable the concept of "packetized energy"
to retrieve power from renewable sources along roadways and deliver it
to specific destinations. An eVehicle energy distribution system would
be a lot smarter than today's dumb electrical grid and its tight
integration with dirty power plants. Just as importantly they also
address the demand for individual transportation in the developing, as
well as the developed world.<br />
<br />
Large scale automobile ownership and road infrastructur<span style="font-family: inherit;">e is see</span>n
as the epitome of first world living standards. Most people,
regardless of where they live in the world aspire to the freedom
and flexibility of owning their own car. eVehicles powered by renewable
energy may be the answer.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> But r<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">ather
than charging the eVehicle from stationary charging systems at home or
business using dirty power from the utility grid as is done today, a
simpler architecture would be charge the vehicle as it moves, either
through induction coils, or ultra-capacitor discharge plates embedded in
the road bed every few kilometers or at stop lights and drive-through
fast food restaurants or banks.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">To
date the deployment and adoption of electric vehicles has been hindered
as they been simply seen as a one to one replacement for the
traditional gas vehicle. But if the eVehicle could also be used not only
for transportation, but as a low cost alternative to the utility grid,
then it might have a much greater take up rate, as well as eliminating
range anxiety. Imagine if your car could be used to deliver free, or
almost free green power, from remote stranded power sources such as
windmills and hydro facilities, not only to power the car, but also upon
arrival at your destination, to power your home or business as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">The
advent of autonomous vehicles means that when the eVehicle is not being
used to transport humans it could continue to be used, in off peak
times, as an energy transport system transferring renewable power from
remote locations to homes and businesses within cities. Less complex "on
the move"charging systems could also be deployed.</span></span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">For more details please see:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Green Investment Opportunity for small business - on the move electric car charging</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/04/green-investment-opportunity-for-small.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">How California suburban sprawl could be the answer to global warming</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-california-suburban-sprawl-could-be.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Pathway Charging and Why Energy needs to be Free to reduce CO2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-energy-needs-to-be-free-to-reduce.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Electric roads and Internet will allow coast to coast driving with no stopping and no emissions</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/05/electric-roads-and-internet-will-allow.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenIt%2FbroadbandAndCyber-infrastructure+%28Green+IT%2FBroadband+and+Cyber-Infrastructure%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-38619524726322724602013-01-23T16:48:00.003-08:002013-01-23T16:51:36.160-08:00Autonomous 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. <br />
<a name='more'></a> Citizens are only prepared to make minor sacrifices to their current lifestyle in order to save the planet and benefit future generations. Pursuit of GNP growth will always trump any costly and hair shirt strategies to reduce GHG emissions.<br />
<br />
This is even more acute in the developing world. To deny to the developing world the potential to enjoy the energy rich lifestyle that we enjoy in the first world because we have already poisoned the planet is simply unconscionable and politically unpalatable.<br />
<br />
As a result energy consumption is going to increase dramatically as the developing world pursues the same lifestyle that we take for granted in the developed world. And until they achieve approximate lifestyle parity reducing global GHG emissions will always be a secondary priority.<br />
<br />
That is why I have long argued against energy efficiency as a path to reducing global GHG emissions. Given the projected growth of energy consumption by the developing world, energy efficiency, at best, will only slow down the rate of GHG emissions. We need to more than slow GHG emissions, but virtually eliminate them all together. How do we do that when over half the population on this planet has yet to come close to adopting energy intensive developed world living standards?<br />
<br />
The problem facing this planet is not energy consumption, but the type of energy we are using. If we could convert all energy consumption to clean, renewable energy sources then we would not have a climate change problem, regardless of overall energy consumption. The problem with renewable energy sources such as the wind and the sun is their unreliability and unpredictability. Eliminating fossil fuels entirely will require the ability to store large amounts of energy. <br />
<br />
As I have blogged before eVehicles may be the ideal energy storage and transport medium, as they enable the concept of "packetized energy" to retrieve power from renewable sources along roadways and deliver it to specific destinations. An eVehicle energy distribution system would be a lot smarter than today's dumb electrical grid and its tight integration with dirty power plants. Just as importantly they also address the demand for individual transportation in the developing, as well as the developed world.<br />
<br />
Large scale automobile ownership and road infrastructur<span style="font-family: inherit;">e is see</span>n as the epitome of first world living standards. Most people, regardless of where they live in the world aspire to the freedom and flexibility of owning their own car. eVehicles powered by renewable energy may be the answer.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> But r<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">ather than charging the eVehicle from stationary charging systems at home or business using dirty power from the utility grid as is done today, a simpler architecture would be charge the vehicle as it moves, either through induction coils, or ultra-capacitor discharge plates embedded in the road bed every few kilometers or at stop lights and drive-through fast food restaurants or banks.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">To date the deployment and adoption of electric vehicles has been hindered as they been simply seen as a one to one replacement for the traditional gas vehicle. But if the eVehicle could also be used not only for transportation, but as a low cost alternative to the utility grid, then it might have a much greater take up rate, as well as eliminating range anxiety. Imagine if your car could be used to deliver free, or almost free green power, from remote stranded power sources such as windmills and hydro facilities, not only to power the car, but also upon arrival at your destination, to power your home or business as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">The advent of autonomous vehicles means that when the eVehicle is not being used to transport humans it could continue to be used, in off peak times, as an energy transport system transferring renewable power from remote locations to homes and businesses within cities. Less complex "on the move"charging systems could also be deployed.</span></span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">For more details please see:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Green Investment Opportunity for small business - on the move electric car charging</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/04/green-investment-opportunity-for-small.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">How California suburban sprawl could be the answer to global warming</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-california-suburban-sprawl-could-be.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Pathway Charging and Why Energy needs to be Free to reduce CO2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-energy-needs-to-be-free-to-reduce.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Electric roads and Internet will allow coast to coast driving with no stopping and no emissions</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/05/electric-roads-and-internet-will-allow.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenIt%2FbroadbandAndCyber-infrastructure+%28Green+IT%2FBroadband+and+Cyber-Infrastructure%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Bombardier’s Primove</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://www.bombardier.com/en/transportation/sustainability/technology/primove-catenary-free-operation</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Honda’s Roadside Electric Vehicle Charging</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://www.plugincars.com/honda-explores-electric-vehicle-solar-charging-106587.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">A new look at an old idea: Powering autos as they move</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-look-at-old-idea-powering-autos.html</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Mitsubishi wants to use electric vehicles as mobile battery banks</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">http://www.greentelecomlive.com/2011/08/21/mitsubishi-wants-to-use-electric-vehicles-as-mobile-battery-banks/comment-page-1/#comment-75614</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-55905192811974570392012-11-04T14:01:00.002-08:002012-11-04T14:01:27.221-08:00Building networks and cyber-infrastructure to survive climate change - lessons from Sandy<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
[Hurricane Sandy has been a badly needed wake up call for
the Internet community as to the threat of climate change.</div>
<a name='more'></a> Although most people
have forgotten, Sandy is the second hurricane to hit New York in as many years
with Irene last August and a third tropical depression headed to New York at the
time of this writing. Two, supposedly once
in a hundred year storms, within such a short time frame should even make the
most die-hard denialist that something’s afoot.<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although the networks and data centers in New York and New
Jersey survived relatively unscathed, with only a handful suffering significant
outages, most of the data centers and network facilities in and around New York
had to be powered by diesel backup
generators for several days. Fortunately
none of the nearby refineries were seriously affected by the storm so fuel
deliveries for the generators were not seriously delayed. It is expected that some data centers,
especially in lower Manhattan may have to be powered by their diesel generators
for sometime as it will take the electrical utility days if not weeks to
replace much of the flooded electrical infrastructure. But imagine the consequences if those
refineries were also seriously damaged and there was no fuel to power the
backup generators for the data centers and networks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flooding from storms like Sandy, and droughts, are forecast to
increase significantly in the coming decade. As Jim Hansen, the famous NASA climate
scientist has pointed out, simple statistics show that the probability severe
weather is going to increase exponentially with increasing global temperatures <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWInyaMWBY8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWInyaMWBY8</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately most research and development efforts with
respect to the Internet, or any other aspect of climate change, are still
focused on energy efficiency or measuring energy consumption. People still don’t
realize that we have already lost the battle to prevent the planet from getting
warmer. We now need to focus on how we will survive climate change. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hurricane Sandy has shown us the consequences of severe
weather as a result of climate change. Energy efficiency, or measuring energy
consumption is irrelevant if you are sitting in the dark without power. By now most of us seen the pictures of
citizens of New York scrambling to find
sites where they can re-charge their cell phones, or struggling to find a cell
phone signal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I have written many times in the past, the Internet and
cyber-infrastructure are going to be critical for society to survive future severe
weather patterns. Rather than focusing on energy efficiency, in the vain and forlorn
hope that making the Internet more energy efficient will somehow change the
direction we are headed, we need to focus on how to build an Internet and
cyber-infrastructure eco-system that can survive climate change. Solar powered Wifi sites, open access wifi,
ad hoc wireless networks, solar powered optical networks, building highly distributed
clouds with renewable power ( and low cost) computational devices like the Raspberry
Pi built on the Greenstar network architecture are examples of such approaches.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some pointers:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sandy
Prompts Louder Calls For Free Wi-Fi <a href="http://t.co/PJSTniEv"><b>http://t.co/PJSTniEv</b></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Greenstar
network – <a href="http://www.greenstarnetwork.com/">www.greenstarnetwork.com</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--BSA]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="" name="_MailAutoSig">------<o:p></o:p></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-no-proof: yes;">R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant. </span></i><i><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
email:
Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
twitter: BillStArnaud<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
blog:
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
skype: Pocketpro<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-35656846446065927092012-08-14T06:29:00.002-07:002012-08-14T06:29:36.552-07:00The next big challenge in computing and networking: increasing on demand electrical consumption <br />
[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%.<br />
<a name='more'></a> The
biggest challenge facing these companies is how to provide standby
power on cloudy days with no wind or alternatively, how to distribute
the surplus power that is dumped on the grid on sunny Sundays or in the
middle of the night. The economics of building gas stand-by power
plants to sit idle most of year, in anticipation of cloudy, windless
days does not make sense, and this does not address the problem of what
to do with surplus renewable power. The alternative solution is to
build massive pan-national electrical grids to distribute renewable
energy from the windy north coast of Denmark and Germany balanced with
similar large distribution grids from the sunny Mediterranean. These
electrical grids will be massive multi-billion dollar investments and
will likely run into strong opposition from those who don’t want this
ugly infrastructure running through their backyards. Energy storage is
also another potential solution for surplus power, but these
technologies are still in their infancy.<br />
<br />
Rather than building
hundred million gas plants to sit idle most of the year, or
multi-billion dollar electrical grids or storage systems, a more elegant
solution is to adjust the demand supply of power equation.
Demand-response systems in industry have been around for a long time for
reducing consumption on days of high power load, but as a far I know,
no one has looked at building “consumption-response” systems to consume
surplus power. In either case, neither technology has yet to be
deployed in any significant way in the ICT community. Considering the
fact that data centers consume around 2% of electricity , that ICT in
general represents 6-10% of all electrical consumption, and that in many
western homes aggregate ICT electrical consumption exceeds that of
traditional appliances, ICT could perhaps play a significant role in
both the demand and consumption of electrical power.<br />
<br />
I have long
argued that there is a potential of strong symbiotic relationship
between the growth of clean, renewable electrical energy sources and the
future of broadband, Internet, cyber-infrastructure (eInfrastructrue)
and ICT in general. Through the Internet, computing and network data
loads can be rapidly shifted to different places around the world and as
such rapidly change the power profile at different sites via fiber
networks rather than shifting power across ugly, expensive transmission
lines. The Greenstar project is an early example of this type of
architecture.<br />
<br />
It has long been recognized that ICT and Internet
could be used to reduce energy consumption through smart metering,
intelligent appliances, etc. But ICT and Internet can also be used to
increase power consumption when required, to do useful work when there
is surplus power on the grid from renewable energy sources. For
example, it may be cheaper for a power utility to operate a data center
in stand-by mode to use surplus power rather than trying to export or
dump the power onto the national grids. The availability of the data
center VMs could be quickly advertised or brokered to the global network
community at a low cost. Chargers for computers, tablets, etc could be
signaled to operate in fast re-charge mode and also do archiving or
backup of files. Sensor and wireless networks could be configured to
start transmitting stored data during periods of surplus power, and so
on.<br />
<br />
One company that is ideally positioned to take advantage of
this intersection of electrical consumption and Internet is Google.
Google operates large wind and solar power facilities and are a major
seller of renewable power into the US electrical grid. At the same time
they operate a large distributed cloud as well as deploying an
innovative fiber to the home project in Kansas City. I don’t know if
they have yet squared the circle on linking these initiatives together,
but for example, a major source of revenue for the Google Fiber project
may be the local power utility. Rather than buying expensive peak
power, or building standby gas power generators, installing on demand
consumption and response systems as part of the fiber project may pay
for the entire deployment itself. While fiber is not necessary for on
demand response-consumption systems (simple low bandwidth ZigBee is just
as effective) the cachet of Gigabit to the home may persuade customers
who are concerned about privacy, security and external agencies
controlling their appliances and computing equipment. Australia,
Singapore and New Zealand, given their national broadband initiatives
may also be well positioned to make this strong linkage between
electrical power and Internet – BSA]<br />
<br />Germany’s energy transformation --Energiewende<br />German plans to cut carbon emissions with renewable energy are ambitious, but they are also riskyhttp://www.economist.com/node/21559667<br />
<br />
<br />
Greenstar<br />www.grenstarnetworks.com<br />
<br />
<br />
------<br />R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant. <br />
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<br />twitter: BillStArnaud<br />blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/<br />skype: Pocketpro<br />
<br />
Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-84673707572495054302012-06-11T11:28:00.000-07:002012-06-11T11:29:14.726-07:00How Quebec can be a world leader in next generation zero carbon transportation systems<br />
[It is exciting to see Quebec make a significant commitment to spend
$2.7 billion on climate change efforts.<br />
<a name='more'></a> Given this is an election year
Quebec and given that the province as a host of other problems it is
unlikely much of this commitment will be converted into real programs.
But regardless of how many funds are committed to climate change Quebec
has a unique opportunity to be a world leader in next generation zero
carbon transportation systems. <br />
<br />
The transportation sector creates
nearly half of Quebec’s greenhouse-gas emissions and Quebec plans to
spend two-thirds of the promised $2.7 billion on transportation
measures. A large part of this money will be earmarked for the usual
anodyne solutions such as improving public transit, carpooling,
taxi-sharing and active transportation like walking and cycling. But
the Quebec government also has an opportunity to make Quebec a world
leader in next generation zero carbon (or low carbon) transportation
systems much in the same way it has made Quebec a world leader in Green
ICT through the $60 million Green ICT program being deployed PROMPT Inc –
a industry/academic ICT consortia.<br />
<br />
In term of zero or low carbon
transportation most of the world is focusing on electric cars and light
vehicles. But 25-55% of transportation emissions come from commercial
and heavy duty trucks. The wide range of GHG emission estimates from
transportation reflect various debates in whether light trucks should be
counted as commercial or passenger vehicles. It is also interesting to
note that although emissions for passenger vehicles have stabilized or
declined, overall emissions from the transportation sector continue to
grow.<br />
<br />
Finding solutions for commercial and heavy duty trucks is
going to be required if we are going to have any meaningful hope of
slowing down emissions from the transportation sector. Conventional
solutions for eVehicles with large battery banks will be impractical and
unaffordable for commercial and heavy duty trucks. But dynamic power
and charging of trucks is a possibility. Street cars and trolley buses
have used dynamic power with overhead wires for over a century. It is a
well proven technology. <br />
Integrating dynamic power with on
relatively small on-board battery banks would allow commercial and heavy
duty trucks to also be powered electrically. However, rather than
having miles of ugly overhead wires and costly electrical infrastructure
, “charging umbrellas” could be located at periodic intervals of
several hundred meters to several kilometers to recharge the truck’s
batteries as they travel along the roadway. Shanghai has had such a
system in place for several years for the city’s public transportation
system.<br />
The technology for building “charging umbrellas” is well
established. What is undeveloped and will require some R&E is the
ICT infrastructure to control, manage and bill users of the charging
umbrellas. Life was easy when overhead wires were only used to power
street cars. But with many vehicles accessing charging umbrellas, smart
ICT will be needed for the grid to manage the load and also integrate
power from roadside solar panels and windmills. ICT solutions will be
required so trucks can negotiate on the fly request for a charge and
appropriate billing as they approach a charging umbrella at 100 km/hr.<br />
<br />
Quebec
is home to one of the world’s largest transportation companies –
Bombardier. It would make sense for Quebec to once partner with PROMPT
Inc – who has the Green ICT expertise – to build the necessary ICT
solutions in partnership with the various transportation companies to
make Quebec a world leader and exporter of this technology. Bombardier
has already done considerable work for dynamic charging systems for
streetcars using inductive techniques. But I suspect charging
umbrellas will be more practical for trucks.<br />
<br />
Some additional pointers:<br />
• A new look at an old idea: Powering autos and trucks from overhead wires <br />
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-look-at-old-idea-powering-autos.html<br />
<br />
• Green Investment Opportunity for small business - on the move electric car charging<br />
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/04/green-investment-opportunity-for-small.html <br />
<br />
• How California suburban sprawl could be the answer to global warming<br />
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-california-suburban-sprawl-could-be.html <br />
<br />
• Packet Based Energy Delivery Systems<br />
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/09/packet-based-energy-delivery-systems.html <br />
<br />
• The "Energy Internet" - how the Internet + renewable energy can transform the economy<br />
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/10/energy-internet-how-internet-renewable.html#more <br />
<br />
• Electric roads and Internet will allow coast to coast driving with no stopping and no emissions<br />
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/2011/05/electric-roads-and-internet-will-allow.html <br />
<br />
<br />
Read
more:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Quebec+pledges+billion+tackle+climate+change/6723749/story.html#ixzz1xVVEpiZs<br />
------<br />
R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant. <br />
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<br />
twitter: BillStArnaud<br />
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/<br />
skype: Pocketpro<br />
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-61942773868045160292012-06-04T09:26:00.002-07:002012-06-04T09:26:40.352-07:00Hewlett Packard and other companies deploying zero carbon data centers<br />
[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).<br />
<a name='more'></a> As China, India
and the rest of the developing world starts to deploy data centers GHG
emissions will continue to increase in portion to the number of data
centers regardless of the PUE. But building zero carbon data centers
powered only by renewable energy means that as the world deploys many
more hundred of data centers GHG emissions will remain virtually
unaltered and close to zero.<br />
<br />
The other attraction of these types
of solutions is that they are much more adaptable and survivable in an
era of severe weather due to climate change, when the existing coal
powered electrical grid is likely to be seriously compromised. This is
the type of thinking we need in all sectors of society if we are going
to meaningfully address climate change. Hewlett Packard is also
involved in GreenCloud project in NY state – which is a distributed
follow the wind/follow the sun zero carbon data center project similar
to the Greenstar program. -- BSA<br />
<br />
Infinity Carbon Data Center<br />http://www.infinitysdc.net/inovation/<br />
<br />
Much
has been said about green energy for data centres over the last three
years, but to date nothing has become a reality in the UK. By
partnering with a local agricultural co-operative, Infinity have been
able to deliver true carbon neutral energy. This scheme uses on-site
generation in a scalable modular manner, which is both innovative,
economic and manageable in the long term.<br />
<br />The use of an anaerobic
digester plant at Infinity Martlesham will provide our clients with a
golden opportunity to truly address the challenge of reducing the carbon
footprint of their biggest carbon source; IT in the data centre. With
the introduction of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme bringing not only
‘carbon taxation’ but the public ‘naming and shaming’ of the most
significant energy users and carbon producers, Infinity’s green data
centre campus provides the means to meet that challenge.<br />Whilst most
other green energy developments require massive upfront investment with
long lead times to deploy, Infinity’s solution is simple and reliable
and comes in a proven scalable package used widely across Europe.<br />
<br />By
working directly with the local agricultural community farmers benefit
from additional income and access to natural fertiliser for crop
production at lower cost than ‘inorganic’ fertilisers and without the
pollution.<br />Further efficiencies can be gained by combining ground
source heat pumps into the mechanical system to allow even greater
energy and cost savings.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
http://t.co/dmnheKS2<br />http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/05/30/hp-developing-net-zero-data-center-concept/<br />
<br />Can
existing strategies be combined to create a “net zero” data center that
requires no net energy from utility power grids? HP Labs said this week
that it is developing such a concept, which is being tested at a 3,000
square foot facility at the company’s campus in Palo Alto, Calif.<br />
The
HP testbed brings together a photovoltaic power array, a cooling system
that can use either fresh air or mechanical cooling, and consolidation
strategies that boost server utilization to reduce power demand. The
secret sauce is management software that can orchestrate the energy
supply and demand to maximize the use of renewable power and minimize
dependence on the utility grid.<br />
<br />The proof-of-concept confront
challenges often seen in solar implementations, including the array’s
limited capacity of 134 kilowatts and a limited window of generation
hours – namely, when the sun shines. This was used to power a testbed
comprised of four ProLiant BL465c G7 servers, each with two 12-core 1.8
Ghz processors and 64 GB of memory and a total of 48 KVM virtual
machines.<br />
Matching Workloads to Daytime Power Availability<br />A
key component of HP’s strategy is using a mix of critical and
non-critical workloads that are managed by service level agreements. The
HP Labs software estimates the output available from the solar array
and the power required to run the applications, and then schedules
workloads to take advantage of the daytime power peaks from the array.<br />This
approach may not be suitable for many facilities requiring
round-the-clock availability and the ability to scale workloads up and
down. But HP said it could be attractive to users with mixed workloads,
particularly companies in international markets.<br />“Information
technology has the power to be an equalizer across societies globally,
but the cost of IT services, and by extension the cost of energy, is
prohibitive and inhibits widespread adoption,” said Cullen Bash,
distinguished technologist, HP, and interim director, Sustainable
Ecosystems Research Group, HP Labs. “The HP Net-Zero Energy Data Center
not only aims to minimize the environmental impact of computing, but
also has a goal of reducing energy costs associated with data-center
operations to extend the reach of IT accessibility globally.”<br />
HP
Labs researchers will present a new research paper, “Towards the Design
and Operation of Net-Zero Energy Data Centers,” tomorrow at IEEE’s 13th
annual Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena
in Electrical Systems. Here’s a video overview from HP Labs of the
net-zero concept. HP’spresentation<br />.<br />------<br />R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant. <br />email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<br />twitter: BillStArnaud<br />blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/<br />skype: Pocketpro<br />
<br /><br />
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-90186316591471460822012-05-31T05:18:00.002-07:002012-05-31T05:30:35.017-07:00Globe and Mail: Only radical thinking will solve environmental problems<br />
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:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
“The
World Bank estimates that a more conservative 200-million new cars will
be on the road in India by 2040, meaning that a new car enters the
system every five seconds. In contrast, Mr. Condon considered his recent
LEED Gold project, four years in the making, which saves an impressive
450 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Every eight minutes, that
accomplishment is cancelled out by the CO2 output of new cars in India.
“In the time I’ve been speaking to you, four years of efforts at
reducing greenhouse emissions from one project have gone,” he says.”<br />
<br />
Although
there are some worthy attempts at energy efficiency, most people don’t
understand unless we find solutions that enable the developing world –
particularly India and China- reduce their emissions, then pretty well
anything we do in the developed world is meaningless. But we also need
to understand that we need to “sequester” carbon. Building more energy
efficient cars or avoiding travel in the developed world does not or
slow down the rate of GHG emissions in the developing world.<br />
<br />
I was
recently at an ITU sponsored Green ICT where I heard the usual
platitudes from various well meaning people on how they were going to
reduce emissions. One speaker from a major telco mentioned how their
organization had saved millions liters of transport gasoline and
hundreds of millions of air travel through the use of tele-commuting
and video-conferencing. The telco falsely claims they have saved
thousands of tons of CO2. I asked where are those millions of litres of
gasoline and the empty planes sitting on tarmacs as a result of these
policies? If you can’t sequester the carbon then that means those
millions litres of gasoline and empty seats can be resold to someone
else ( perhaps at a cheaper price) and the CO2 impact remains the same.<br />
<br />
That
is why I argue that only meaningful measurement standard to genuinely
prove that you are helping the environment is ISO 14064. With ISO 14064
you must go through a rigorous process to prove carbon sequestration.
And that is why, to date, virtually no “energy efficiency” project, or
applications such as video conferencing, telecommuting etc has been
able to meet the ISO 14064 requirements.<br />
<br />
In the ICT world there
have been some incredible claims by SMART 2020 and IEA that ICT can save
15-20% of all CO2 emissions – but with no rigorous ISO 14064
methodology. I suspect, as with most other such energy efficiency
claims these will all turn out to be bogus. If we continue on our
current path ICT is not going to be a green champion but the ultimate
environmental bad boy. It is already the fastest growing sector in terms
of GHG emissions.<br />
<br />
It is also interesting to note that the Carbon
Disclosure Project estimates that collectively corporations and
governments spend $690 billion per year mostly on energy efficiency and
yet global GHG emissions continue not only to rise, but are now
accelerating.<br />
<br />
There is a message here. <br />
<br />
We have to stop
this mantra of green washing and tokenism of energy efficiency. We
need to focus on radical solutions that genuinely can be measured and
certified to reduce or eliminate GHG emissions. That means we have to
focus on the real problem – which is the type of energy we use and not
how much we consume. It is dirty energy that produces CO2. That is why
we need ICT solutions that will only use renewable energy. The
Greenstar project is one great example. Using eVehicles for energy
transport and building Energy Internet is another. For more examples please see.<br />
<br />
Globe and Mail: Only radical thinking will solve environmental problems<br />
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/growth/only-radical-thinking-will-solve-environmental-problems/article2447562/print/<br />
<br />
------<br />
R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant. <br />
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<br />
twitter: BillStArnaud<br />
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/<br />
skype: Pocketpro<br />
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-20813967060686792722012-05-28T07:17:00.004-07:002012-05-28T07:21:49.189-07:00Guardian - Until we get a 100% decarbonised grid, the marginal impact of efficiency is always to add more coal to a power station<br />
[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. <br />
<a name='more'></a>“to meaningfully measure the impact of any
action on a climate change, you need to recognise that the world is
interconnected and measure the effects as widely as possible….The core
point is this: until we get a 100% decarbonised grid, the marginal
impact of turning off any existing low-carbon electricity source – or
indeed adding to demand by switching a light on – is virtually always to
add more coal to a power station.”<br />
<br />
There are a lot of meaningful
and well intentioned people doing some very creative work in terms of
reducing energy consumption in all walks of life. But even though you
may reduce your own consumption that does not mean that dirty coal
plants will reduce their power output. If anything because you have
reduced demand, that dirty power will be delivered to some other
customer displacing some lower carbon alternative increasing overall GHG
emissions. Because coal plants operate most profitably at 100%
utilization there is a big incentive for operators to keep them
operating at full output. If demand slackens it is much easier to spin
down a gas turbine or reduce the import of power. The counter argument
to that is if enough organizations in a country reduce their energy
consumption then collectively we can reduce total consumption and
therefore begin to shut down coal plants. And that may very well work in
the West, particularly as we export manufacturing to China, India and
other developing countries, but global GHG emissions will continue to
rise.<br />
<br />
Airplane engines are a good example. Aircraft manufacturers
are going to great lengths to make airplane engines more energy
efficient. In the West, this may result in overall emissions from
aircraft declining, but more likely it will reduce cost of flying and
increase emissions. But both scenarios are irrelevant when compared to
China’s plans for its aircraft industry. In the next 20 years China
plans to invest over three quarter trillion dollars in the
aviation industry, build 100 airports about the size of Heathrow and
deploy over 5000 new planes in addition to their existing fleet in the
next 15 years. The emissions from all these new planes will dwarf any
energy savings we may realize in the West. And this is only China. India
and many other developing nations have similar ambitious plans.<br />
<br />
A
little known fact is that in the IPCC climate forecasts and discussion
about “wedges” to reduce GHG emissions, no allowance is made for the
billion people on earth who currently have no access to electricity or
the additional billion and half who have intermittent electricity
service. All of the IPCC and IEA models on energy efficiency assume
that at least two and half billion of the planet’s population will
remain in extreme poverty with little or no access to electricity. Do
we expect these people not to have to the same lifestyle as we do in the
developed world? What will happen to global emissions as they start to
move out from subsistence style of living to enjoying the fruits of a
modern western lifestyle?<br />
<br />
It for these reasons I continue to argue
that any effort focused on energy efficiency is doomed to failure and
is virtually meaningless in terms of reducing GHG emissions. We need to
focus on how to decarbonize our energy sources. But there is virtually
no incentive for the global electrical power plant operators to reduce
their dependency on coal. Even with a global carbon tax, the utilization
profiles of coal plants and the plentiful availability of coal will
insure that coal powered electricity will be our dominant form of global
energy production. That is why we need to develop solutions that work
independent of the electrical grid. This has the added benefit that if
we start to experience severe weather disruption to the grid because of
global warming, a distributed independent power system using only
renewable energy will likely much more survivable and reliable.<br />
<br />
The
ICT sector should be leading the world in decarbonizing our society,
not through meaningless energy efficiency, but build products and
services that only work with renewable energy sources disconnected from
the electrical grid. Please see my talk for the ITU symposium on
greening IT for more information
http://www.slideshare.net/bstarn/why-adaptation-is-more-important-than-mitigation<br />
--BSA]<br />
------<br />
R&E Network and Green Internet Consultant. <br />
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com<br />
twitter: BillStArnaud<br />
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/<br />
skype: Pocketpro<br />
<br />Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158203802381062863.post-86363765410010960202012-05-21T15:35:00.000-07:002012-05-21T15:36:27.467-07:00When India and China are adding a coal plant a week, energy efficiency in the western world is meaningless<br />
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[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.<br />
<a name='more'></a> While these technologies may save money and
assuage an individual’s conscience about
doing something good for the environment they are absolutely irrelevant and meaningless
when the developing world is adding approximately a coal plant per week. As long as we continue to increase the OVERALL
number of coal plants in the world GHG emissions will continue to rise,
regardless of what efficiency strategy we
adopt in the western world. As long as the developing world rightly and
deservedly desires a western lifestyle, their energy consumption will increase –
even if they are using the most energy efficient light bulbs, computers and HAL
like super smart meters. Given the
abundance of coal reserves their first choice will be coal powered electricity.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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A big, and the fastest growing , part of this electrical
consumption will be to power ICT equipment.
Currently somewhere between 6-10% of electrical consumption is for ICT.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So what are we to do?<o:p></o:p></div>
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First we have to understand the scale of the problem. Roger
Pielke Jr has done an admirable job in his book “The Climate Fix” in describing
the enormity of the challenge. According
to Dr Pielke’s analysis we need to build a nuclear plant (or the renewable
energy equivalent) EACH AND EVERY day
for the next 50 years just to stabilize global temperature increase to 2C starting
from a baseline of 9 years ago!! We are
already over 3000 nuclear plants (or the renewable energy equivalent), give or
take, behind schedule!! Every 10 days a new nuclear plant has to be built
solely for the ICT sector for the next 50 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second we have to look at what works. The biggest reduction in GHG emissions from
the electricity sector in North America was not smart meters or energy
efficiency, but the ongoing switch from coal power to gas fired electrical
plants. Changing the type of energy on the supply side of the equation has a
far greater impact on GHG emissions then anything you can do on the demand side.
But gas is only a half way measure.
Although its better than coal, gas still has a significant GHG footprint. The
obvious end game is to use 100% renewable energy. And of that renewable energy solar power is
likely to be the most common source.
Electricity from solar panels is on track to be cost competitive with
coal within the next 5-10 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But the biggest problem with renewable energy, particularly
solar and wind is its unreliability and predictability. Most places that have deployed considerable
renewable energy such as Denmark are still reliant on coal plants for 80% of
their electrical power. As long as you
are connected to the grid you can’t get
rid of the coal plants. Energy storage
is part of the solution on the supply side. But building solutions that can
live with this unreliable power on the demand side will probably be a lot more
effective. This is the real problem we need to solve – not energy efficiency. This
is where ICT can play an important role – firstly in moving ICT products and
services off the grid and secondly in helping other sectors of society move off
the grid. Building a distributed energy system that only uses renewable energy,
with no coal plant backup, is our only hope.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Why is it so important that we disconnect from the electrical
grid?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are realist and looking at the odds of building a new
nuclear power plant (or the renewable energy equivalent) each and every day for
the next 50 years, then like me you have to conclude that we are whistling past
the grave yard. We need to focus on adaptability – and learn how to live in a
much warmer climate. But a warmer
climate means a lot more severe weather patterns. The <b>probability of an extreme heat wave
has increased enormously… by about 40 times (4000%) in the last 50 years</b>. <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Revkin/a-defense-of-jim-hansens-climate-conclusions/download">http://www.slideshare.net/Revkin/a-defense-of-jim-hansens-climate-conclusions/download</a>
. And this is just the beginning.
Extreme heat wave and conversely flooding is going to be very disruptive to the
electrical grid – and eventually I think the public is going to start demanding
the shut down of coal plants around the world. If they are willing to shut down
nuclear power plants in Germany and Switzerland, then it is only a matter of time when the public will
starting demanding governments to start to shut coal plants. If this starts to happen you had better have
a strategy to get off the grid. If there
are widespread protests and shutdown of coal plants there are likely to be
rolling brown outs if not black outs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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If hope against hope, we do develop a global strategy to
combat climate change, solar power will likely by the primary source of energy.
Whether it is for adaptation or mitigation building ICT solutions that only use
unpredictable and unreliable renewable energy, with no back up from coal fired
grid, will produce far bigger economic opportunities than anything related to
energy efficiency, smart meters and other silliness. – BSA]<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>Bstarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10944250645575421057noreply@blogger.com