Sometimes a seemingly complex problem like drought can be solved through simple thinking that looks at the issue holistically. Like B P Agarwal did with his Aakash Ganga design for harvesting rainwater in drought-prone areas. And for that the founder of Sustainable Innovations, has won the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability.
Aakash Ganga is a large-scale rainwater harvesting system that collects rainwater from individual rooftops, and pipes it into manmade underground reservoirs that can be accessed as the need arises during drought season. The business plan revolves around villagers renting out their rooftops for water collection, using a portion of the collected water for their own household, and sending excess water to a common village tank. Seventy percent of the water is used by the individual households or sold. The rest goes toward supporting local agriculture.The technology has been successful for 10,000 villagers in various drought regions throughout India.
Local customs and some small gestures went a long way in inculcating a sense of ownership, so vital for any community venture.
Sustainable Innovations is a nonprofit organization that helps tech entrepreneurs build self-sustainable projects that can aid developing nations. The organization becomes a partner, finds capital, and assists in project development and management, as well as marketing.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Making good use of gravel
Electricity cannot be stored easily, and that has been the hurdle of intermittent renewable energy. But a new technique that uses gravel and argon gas may hold the answer.
So far the only economically viable way of storing large amounts of energy is through pumped hydro – where excess electricity is used to pump water up a hill. The water is held back by a dam until the energy is needed, when it is released down the hill, turning turbines and generating electricity on the way. The problem is that this needs a water source nearby as also the expenses.
The company Isentopic claims its gravel-based battery would be able to store equivalent amounts of energy but use less space and be cheaper to set up. Its system consists of two silos filled with a pulverized rock such as gravel. Electricity would be used to heat and pressurize argon gas that is then fed into one of the silos. By the time the gas leaves the chamber, it has cooled to ambient temperature but the gravel itself is heated to 500C.
After leaving the silo, the argon is then fed into the second silo, where it expands back to normal atmospheric pressure. This process acts like a giant refrigerator, causing the gas (and rock) temperature inside the second chamber to drop to minus160C. The electrical energy generated originally by the wind turbines originally is stored as a temperature difference between the two rock-filled silos. To release the energy, the cycle is reversed, and as the energy passes from hot to cold it powers a generator that makes electricity.
Isentropic claims a round-trip energy efficiency of up to 80% and, because gravel is cheap, the cost of a system per kilowatt-hour of storage would be between $10 and $55. The energy in the hot silo (which is insulated) can easily be stored for extended periods of time – as long as three years.
Sounds perfect? Goes to show how all it needs is some elementary thinking and some waste material to achieve big things.
So far the only economically viable way of storing large amounts of energy is through pumped hydro – where excess electricity is used to pump water up a hill. The water is held back by a dam until the energy is needed, when it is released down the hill, turning turbines and generating electricity on the way. The problem is that this needs a water source nearby as also the expenses.
The company Isentopic claims its gravel-based battery would be able to store equivalent amounts of energy but use less space and be cheaper to set up. Its system consists of two silos filled with a pulverized rock such as gravel. Electricity would be used to heat and pressurize argon gas that is then fed into one of the silos. By the time the gas leaves the chamber, it has cooled to ambient temperature but the gravel itself is heated to 500C.
After leaving the silo, the argon is then fed into the second silo, where it expands back to normal atmospheric pressure. This process acts like a giant refrigerator, causing the gas (and rock) temperature inside the second chamber to drop to minus160C. The electrical energy generated originally by the wind turbines originally is stored as a temperature difference between the two rock-filled silos. To release the energy, the cycle is reversed, and as the energy passes from hot to cold it powers a generator that makes electricity.
Isentropic claims a round-trip energy efficiency of up to 80% and, because gravel is cheap, the cost of a system per kilowatt-hour of storage would be between $10 and $55. The energy in the hot silo (which is insulated) can easily be stored for extended periods of time – as long as three years.
Sounds perfect? Goes to show how all it needs is some elementary thinking and some waste material to achieve big things.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Just not enough space to bury carbon
It turns out carbon sequestration is more than just expensive. A new report has found that we're going to need some 5 to 20 times the amount of space underground once thought to store all the carbon we release from our plants.
The study in the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, "Sequestering carbon dioxide in a closed underground volume," notes how published reports on the potential for sequestration fail to address the necessity of storing CO2 in a closed system.
“Our calculations suggest that the volume of liquid or supercritical CO2 to be disposed cannot exceed more than about 1% of pore space. This will require from 5 to 20 times more underground reservoir volume than has been envisioned by many, and it renders geologic sequestration of CO2 a profoundly non-feasible option for the management of CO2 emissions.”
For a typical commercial coal-fired power plant, this is interpreted as a storage area the size of a small US state!
“Conversely, for more moderate size reservoirs, and with moderate permeability there would be a need for hundreds of wells. Neither of these bodes well for geological CO2 sequestration and the findings of this work clearly suggest that it is not a practical means to provide any substantive reduction in CO2 emissions, although it has been repeatedly presented as such by others.”
There goes another hope for the coal lobby.
The study in the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, "Sequestering carbon dioxide in a closed underground volume," notes how published reports on the potential for sequestration fail to address the necessity of storing CO2 in a closed system.
“Our calculations suggest that the volume of liquid or supercritical CO2 to be disposed cannot exceed more than about 1% of pore space. This will require from 5 to 20 times more underground reservoir volume than has been envisioned by many, and it renders geologic sequestration of CO2 a profoundly non-feasible option for the management of CO2 emissions.”
For a typical commercial coal-fired power plant, this is interpreted as a storage area the size of a small US state!
“Conversely, for more moderate size reservoirs, and with moderate permeability there would be a need for hundreds of wells. Neither of these bodes well for geological CO2 sequestration and the findings of this work clearly suggest that it is not a practical means to provide any substantive reduction in CO2 emissions, although it has been repeatedly presented as such by others.”
There goes another hope for the coal lobby.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Using the volcano's heat
Europe may be in a tizzy over Eyjafjallajokull but Indonesia has launched an ambitious plan to tap the vast power of its volcanoes and become a world leader in geothermal energy, while trimming greenhouse gas emissions. Talk about turning adversity into an advantage!
The sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands stretching from the Indian to the Pacific Oceans contains hundreds of volcanoes, estimated to hold around 40 percent of the world's geothermal energy potential.
So far only a tiny fraction of that potential has been unlocked, so the government is seeking help from private investors, the World Bank and partners like Japan and the United States to exploit the power hidden deep underground.
The government's aim is to add 4,000 megawatts of geothermal capacity from the existing 1,189 megawatts by 2014.
One of the biggest obstacles is the cost. Indonesia currently relies on dirty coal-fired power plants using locally produced coal. A geothermal plant costs about twice as much, and can take many more years in research and development to get online.
But once established, geothermal plants like the one built in Kamojang, Java, in 1982can convert the endless free supplies of volcanic heat into electricity with much lower overheads -- and less pollution -- than coal.
The sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands stretching from the Indian to the Pacific Oceans contains hundreds of volcanoes, estimated to hold around 40 percent of the world's geothermal energy potential.
So far only a tiny fraction of that potential has been unlocked, so the government is seeking help from private investors, the World Bank and partners like Japan and the United States to exploit the power hidden deep underground.
The government's aim is to add 4,000 megawatts of geothermal capacity from the existing 1,189 megawatts by 2014.
One of the biggest obstacles is the cost. Indonesia currently relies on dirty coal-fired power plants using locally produced coal. A geothermal plant costs about twice as much, and can take many more years in research and development to get online.
But once established, geothermal plants like the one built in Kamojang, Java, in 1982can convert the endless free supplies of volcanic heat into electricity with much lower overheads -- and less pollution -- than coal.
Sounding the methane alarm
A team of scientists confirms that sea-bottom and surface waters of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf are “super-saturated” with Methane (CH4) gas and “out-gassing” this potent GHG to the Atmosphere.
Large quantities of carbon (C) and methane (CH4)– typically in the form of methyl hydrate (or methyl clathrate)– are trapped in ocean sediments the world over. Through natural erosion of sediments, shifting of the ocean floor covering, and/or from pressure cracking, bubbles of the gas often escape and rise up through the water column.
In the deeper seas and oceans, this natural gas venting to the atmosphere (“out-gassing”) is largely constrained due to the fact that, as the rises through the water column, much of it combines with oxygen and forms other, less potent molecules. Also, in colder seas, sub-sea permafrost acts as a “lid” to contain much of the buried carbon.
The ESAS is the largest shallow sea in the world. Despite this, the ESAS generates a methane flux ten times that of the deeper ocean.Something amiss. Yet anoter pointer to how little we know about the planet, and hence, how wrong our predictions could be!
Many climatologist are concerned that Arctic warming–which is greater than predicted by several degrees C so far this century–will accelerate the thawing of sub-sea permafrost and thus also the release of CH4. Methane, though shorter-lived in the atmosphere than CO2, is a far more potent GHG than CO2, in terms of its heat-trapping capability.
Large quantities of carbon (C) and methane (CH4)– typically in the form of methyl hydrate (or methyl clathrate)– are trapped in ocean sediments the world over. Through natural erosion of sediments, shifting of the ocean floor covering, and/or from pressure cracking, bubbles of the gas often escape and rise up through the water column.
In the deeper seas and oceans, this natural gas venting to the atmosphere (“out-gassing”) is largely constrained due to the fact that, as the rises through the water column, much of it combines with oxygen and forms other, less potent molecules. Also, in colder seas, sub-sea permafrost acts as a “lid” to contain much of the buried carbon.
The ESAS is the largest shallow sea in the world. Despite this, the ESAS generates a methane flux ten times that of the deeper ocean.Something amiss. Yet anoter pointer to how little we know about the planet, and hence, how wrong our predictions could be!
Many climatologist are concerned that Arctic warming–which is greater than predicted by several degrees C so far this century–will accelerate the thawing of sub-sea permafrost and thus also the release of CH4. Methane, though shorter-lived in the atmosphere than CO2, is a far more potent GHG than CO2, in terms of its heat-trapping capability.
Storage boost
Energy storage devices called ultracapacitors can be recharged many more times than batteries, but the total amount of energy they can store is limited. Now researchers at Drexel University in Philadelphia have successfully made thin-film carbon ultracapacitors that store three times as much energy by volume as conventional ultracapacitor materials. Still not the same as batteries, the thin-film ultracapacitors could operate without ever being replaced. Unlike batteries they have almost unlimited lifetimes.
While batteries store and release energy in the form of chemical reactions, which cause them to degrade over time, ultracapacitors work by transferring surface charges. This means they can charge and discharge rapidly. The difficulty so far has been in fabrication methods.
The team used chemical vapor deposition to create thin films of metal carbides such as titanium carbide on the surface of a silicon wafer. The films are then chlorinated to remove the titanium, leaving behind a porous film of carbon. In each place where a titanium atom was, a small pore is left behind.This matching means that when used as the charge-storage material in an ultracapacitor, the carbon films can accumulate a large amount of total surface charge.
The material was developed some years ago but the demonstration was only done now.In theory, there is no limit to the size of the films that could be made using these methods, the team claimed.
Ultracapacitors have been banked heavily by the renewable energy industry where storing power is very important, given its intermittent nature. This demo shows we are heading in the right direction to clean energy.
While batteries store and release energy in the form of chemical reactions, which cause them to degrade over time, ultracapacitors work by transferring surface charges. This means they can charge and discharge rapidly. The difficulty so far has been in fabrication methods.
The team used chemical vapor deposition to create thin films of metal carbides such as titanium carbide on the surface of a silicon wafer. The films are then chlorinated to remove the titanium, leaving behind a porous film of carbon. In each place where a titanium atom was, a small pore is left behind.This matching means that when used as the charge-storage material in an ultracapacitor, the carbon films can accumulate a large amount of total surface charge.
The material was developed some years ago but the demonstration was only done now.In theory, there is no limit to the size of the films that could be made using these methods, the team claimed.
Ultracapacitors have been banked heavily by the renewable energy industry where storing power is very important, given its intermittent nature. This demo shows we are heading in the right direction to clean energy.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Growth unlimited
India’s cities are expanding on a larger scale and at a faster pace than ever before. Worsening urban decay, gridlock and poor quality of life for citizens are foreseen by a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)—India’s urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth.
The report finds that a lack of effective policies to manage urbanization could jeopardize India’s GDP growth rate. If the country makes and executes the right policy choices, it could boost annual GDP by 1 to 1.5 percentage points, taking the economy close to the double-digit growth it needs to create sufficient jobs for the 270 million people expected to enter the working-age population over the next 20 years.
The report projects that the country’s urban population will soar to 590 million in 2030, from 340 million in 2008. India’s cities could generate 70 percent of the net new jobs created by 2030, produce more than 70 percent of the country’s GDP, and stimulate a near-fourfold increase in per capita income.
In infrastructure, MGI projects that the economy will need 700 million to 900 million square meters of new residential and commercial space a year—equivalent to adding more than two Mumbais or one Chicago. In transportation, India will require 350 to 400 kilometers of new subway lines annually (more than 20 times the subway capacity built over the last decade) and between 19,000 and 25,000 kilometers of roads (nearly equivalent to the amount India has built over the last ten years). Yet India has traditionally underinvested in its cities compared with the countries of other urban centers around the world (exhibit).
A wake-up call? All the above will call for massive energy. Can India do it without new sources? More important will be how we take environmental considerations into account - like water management, air quality, green cover.
The report finds that a lack of effective policies to manage urbanization could jeopardize India’s GDP growth rate. If the country makes and executes the right policy choices, it could boost annual GDP by 1 to 1.5 percentage points, taking the economy close to the double-digit growth it needs to create sufficient jobs for the 270 million people expected to enter the working-age population over the next 20 years.
The report projects that the country’s urban population will soar to 590 million in 2030, from 340 million in 2008. India’s cities could generate 70 percent of the net new jobs created by 2030, produce more than 70 percent of the country’s GDP, and stimulate a near-fourfold increase in per capita income.
In infrastructure, MGI projects that the economy will need 700 million to 900 million square meters of new residential and commercial space a year—equivalent to adding more than two Mumbais or one Chicago. In transportation, India will require 350 to 400 kilometers of new subway lines annually (more than 20 times the subway capacity built over the last decade) and between 19,000 and 25,000 kilometers of roads (nearly equivalent to the amount India has built over the last ten years). Yet India has traditionally underinvested in its cities compared with the countries of other urban centers around the world (exhibit).
A wake-up call? All the above will call for massive energy. Can India do it without new sources? More important will be how we take environmental considerations into account - like water management, air quality, green cover.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Volcanic message
The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano last week and the crippling of air traffic across Europe serve as a reminder of how vulnerable our civilizations remain to forces of nature. It is not just peak oil considerations but natural calamity which could force us to rethink our fuel policies.
The last time Eyjafjallajokull erupted was in 1821-1823 and the eruptions continued for over a year. Even more alarming is that 60 years later a sister Icelandic volcano called Laki erupted for 8 months. It sent 3.4 cubic miles of lava, 8 million tons of hydrogen fluoride and 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the air. This eruption created environmental havoc around the earth for many years. In Britain, some 30,000 were killed by the toxic gases and in many countries still more perished from the extremes of heat and cold. There were famines in Europe, Africa and the Far East. North America underwent one of the longest and coldest winters on record.
In a telling example of how everything is interrelated, scientists tell us that the melting of Iceland's glaciers reduces pressure on the rock and allows the "hotspot" of magna below the island to break through more frequently. Thus the long-term trend is for increasing volcanic activity over the Icelandic "hot spot."
While Eyjafjallajokull is still erupting vigorously, the ash is no longer being blown as high into the air and much of the magna is being ejected in the form of molten lava. However, should the volcano resume spewing ash high into the atmosphere for an extended period, there will obviously be serious economic disruptions - first in Europe and eventually all over the world.
Patterns of energy demand will be affected and slowing economic activity could temporarily reduce the demand for oil products. In the last week some 100,000 flights were cancelled and the demand for jet fuel fell by two thirds. Losses in the first five days of restricted air travel are currently estimated to be on the order of $1.2 billion and are likely to grow as the travel situation will take many weeks to return to normal.
On the other hand, the crisis shows the ridiculous, unsustainable waste in transporting completely ‘unnecessary crap’ around the world in airplanes. In Boston, they are running out of certain kinds of fish. BMW is having problems putting cars together in South Carolina; they fly the transmissions in from Germany. In Kenya, the greenhouses by the shores of Lake Naivasha, flowers are being fed to the animals since they can't be shipped to Europe.
Purple orchids. Fish for Boston (which is beside an ocean). Car Transmissions! Now while all that may comprise business for some people, when we know the carbon footprint of flying, should we be flying orchids and fish around the globe? Time to give up on some comforts would you agree? Think global, act local?
Quit smoking on Earth Day
Celebrating Earth Day today, what does it mean to you? What should it mean? Does the earth need our help to keep it going? No, irrespective of what we do, the planet will keep dancing around the sun for millions of years to come. Earth Day is about acknowledging our debt to the planet and preserving the planet for our own good! Preserving the flora and fauna and its abundant resources that we have come to take for granted, till now.
The air with its right combination of gases to keep us alive, water – that ingredient which goes to make most of our constitution, nutrient rich soil that allows us to grow food, trees that give us our supply of oxygen besides holding onto precious water and minerals, all this and more make our lives possible. To ensure that next generations have their lot, we need to stop in our tracks and take stock of how we are treating the planet and its resources. Earth Day gives us a chance to do that, and make the changes required.
In places like San Francisco, they have launched a project to map urban trees! In a city like Bangalore, every day trees are uprooted to make way for wider roads. Even the ones left intact are stuck in concrete in a way that does not make them healthy. One rain, one gust of wind and they come crashing!
Malls are thick with people on an unending buying spree. Where is the need for so many things? How long more can we keep making things out of a limited basket? More important, what of the things rendered useless? Where does the waste end up?
Earth day is the right occasion to rededicate ourselves to a sustainable way of life. Use less water and less disposables, recycle wherever possible – for instance, schools and parents must encourage children to use old notebooks for rough work, undertake projects to make things out of old stuff, plant and care for trees, etc.
Earth Day this year coincides with World People's Conference on Climate Change and International Year of Biodiversity.
Youth can think innovatively to help. Maybe by quitting smoking! The remnants of cigarette smoking represent the most prevalent form of litter collected across the world. According to data from the Ocean Conservancy, in 2009 more than 3 million cigarettes or butts were picked up internationally from beaches and inland waterways as part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup.
Cigarette production and consumption do contribute to global warming. For example, deforestation in order to grow tobacco and provide wood for curing it, means fewer trees available to absorb carbon dioxide.
As we have been saying here in this blog, all our problems in the end boil down to how we use and produce energy - the one thing we can actually control.
The carbon was in the air first till the trees and animals that died put them into the soil and we humans have frenetically been burning the fossil fuels and returning the carbon into the atmosphere, with a vengeance! This must be stopped.
In the process, we have helped accelerate the speed at which species are going extinct. Whether it be plants or animals, the rich biodiversity is a linchpin that holds intact the ecosystem that works so well for us. We need the biodiversity to stay just as we need to preserve the soil and glaciers.
Clearly, there is lot of undoing to be done. Earth Day could be the starting point.
The air with its right combination of gases to keep us alive, water – that ingredient which goes to make most of our constitution, nutrient rich soil that allows us to grow food, trees that give us our supply of oxygen besides holding onto precious water and minerals, all this and more make our lives possible. To ensure that next generations have their lot, we need to stop in our tracks and take stock of how we are treating the planet and its resources. Earth Day gives us a chance to do that, and make the changes required.
In places like San Francisco, they have launched a project to map urban trees! In a city like Bangalore, every day trees are uprooted to make way for wider roads. Even the ones left intact are stuck in concrete in a way that does not make them healthy. One rain, one gust of wind and they come crashing!
Malls are thick with people on an unending buying spree. Where is the need for so many things? How long more can we keep making things out of a limited basket? More important, what of the things rendered useless? Where does the waste end up?
Earth day is the right occasion to rededicate ourselves to a sustainable way of life. Use less water and less disposables, recycle wherever possible – for instance, schools and parents must encourage children to use old notebooks for rough work, undertake projects to make things out of old stuff, plant and care for trees, etc.
Earth Day this year coincides with World People's Conference on Climate Change and International Year of Biodiversity.
Youth can think innovatively to help. Maybe by quitting smoking! The remnants of cigarette smoking represent the most prevalent form of litter collected across the world. According to data from the Ocean Conservancy, in 2009 more than 3 million cigarettes or butts were picked up internationally from beaches and inland waterways as part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup.
Cigarette production and consumption do contribute to global warming. For example, deforestation in order to grow tobacco and provide wood for curing it, means fewer trees available to absorb carbon dioxide.
As we have been saying here in this blog, all our problems in the end boil down to how we use and produce energy - the one thing we can actually control.
The carbon was in the air first till the trees and animals that died put them into the soil and we humans have frenetically been burning the fossil fuels and returning the carbon into the atmosphere, with a vengeance! This must be stopped.
In the process, we have helped accelerate the speed at which species are going extinct. Whether it be plants or animals, the rich biodiversity is a linchpin that holds intact the ecosystem that works so well for us. We need the biodiversity to stay just as we need to preserve the soil and glaciers.
Clearly, there is lot of undoing to be done. Earth Day could be the starting point.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Self-reliant!
Animal poo has been used to generate electricity. But now in a pilot program this summer, 130 families in the UK will be getting biogas generated from human waste piped directly into their homes instead of natural gas. The UK creates 1.73 million tons of human waste--all of which could potentially be used to produce biogas.
The UK has committed to getting 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
There are already plants operating in the UK that harness human waste for electricity, but this is the first project that will allow households to get gas for heating and such needs from human waste. National Grid projects that the UK could meet half its gas needs by implementing the practice.
The whole process should take about 23 days from flush to finish and since the infrastructure is already in place. The excess solid waste product will be given to farmers to use as fertilizer.
A good step in recycling waste, right?
Natural gas not so benign?
In the US, a bill that seeks to replace diesel with natural gas in heavy vehicles is being discussed in the Congress. Besides cutting oil imports, and at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is argued that natural gas is substantially cleaner than diesel, and results in the emission of about 25 percent less greenhouse gas.
But experts are warning that natural gas might not be as clean as it seems.
Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University thinks the move will aggravate global warming.
Howarth is basing his conclusion on a preliminary analysis that includes not only the amount of carbon dioxide that comes out of a tailpipe when you burn diesel and natural gas, but also the impact of natural gas leaks. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is much more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, so even small amounts of it contribute significantly to global warming. When you factor this in, natural gas could be significantly worse than diesel, he says. Using natural gas would emit the equivalent of 33 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule. Using petroleum fuels would emit the equivalent of just 20 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule.
Howarth goes further, suggesting that natural gas could even rival greenhouse gas emissions from mining and burning coal.
His numbers are significantly different than those researchers at MIT came up with a year ago. (On a CO2 equivalent grams per megajoule basis, they scored diesel at 10.7 and gasoline at 14.4, with natural gas splitting the difference at 12.5). The two studies make different assumptions about the strength of methane as a greenhouse gas, and the amount of methane leakage, for example.
The MIT study concludes that there is a benefit from switching to natural gas, all told, but it might not be worth the cost or the hassle. Making more efficient gasoline and diesel vehicles might work better, and be a faster way to reduce greenhouse emissions, it suggests.
The moral of the story: the times we live in call for detailed studies before making any leap into a new energy source or technology. Better to be sure rather than repent?
But experts are warning that natural gas might not be as clean as it seems.
Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University thinks the move will aggravate global warming.
Howarth is basing his conclusion on a preliminary analysis that includes not only the amount of carbon dioxide that comes out of a tailpipe when you burn diesel and natural gas, but also the impact of natural gas leaks. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is much more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, so even small amounts of it contribute significantly to global warming. When you factor this in, natural gas could be significantly worse than diesel, he says. Using natural gas would emit the equivalent of 33 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule. Using petroleum fuels would emit the equivalent of just 20 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule.
Howarth goes further, suggesting that natural gas could even rival greenhouse gas emissions from mining and burning coal.
His numbers are significantly different than those researchers at MIT came up with a year ago. (On a CO2 equivalent grams per megajoule basis, they scored diesel at 10.7 and gasoline at 14.4, with natural gas splitting the difference at 12.5). The two studies make different assumptions about the strength of methane as a greenhouse gas, and the amount of methane leakage, for example.
The MIT study concludes that there is a benefit from switching to natural gas, all told, but it might not be worth the cost or the hassle. Making more efficient gasoline and diesel vehicles might work better, and be a faster way to reduce greenhouse emissions, it suggests.
The moral of the story: the times we live in call for detailed studies before making any leap into a new energy source or technology. Better to be sure rather than repent?
Friday, April 16, 2010
Raising the heights of tension
Increasingly, the war between energy and environment is getting acute. This is especially so in the hydro sector as also in the thermal sector. Coal beds in India, and those situated in forests, are finding opposition from the environment ministry. Hydel projects are being seen as an opportunity unexploited by governments but largely opposed by environmentalists. When celebrities join the bandwagon, it spells trouble!
Recently, it has been James Cameron of Avataar fame who has joined the fray in Brazil’s war against the 11,000 MW producing Belo Monte dam. Brazil has a fragile energy grid that was hit last year by a blackout that darkened much of the nation. Belo Monte would supply six per cent of the country's electricity needs by 2014. A court ruling has stayed the construction pf the dam for now.
The director of "Avatar" and "Titanic" spent two days this week visiting Indian villages near the proposed dam site on the Xingu River, which feeds the Amazon, and talking with about 50 leaders of various groups.
Environmentalists and indigenous groups say Belo Monte would devastate wildlife and the livelihoods of 40,000 people who live in the area to be flooded. They also argue that the energy generated by the dam will largely go to big mining operations, instead of benefiting most Brazilians.
Avatar depicts the Na'vi race fighting to protect its homeland from big corporate plans to extract its resources. The movie has struck a chord with environmentalists the worldover and more so in places where millions have been displaced by major infrastructure projects.
It all comes back to the same impasse: without energy, how do we bring development? All talk about renewable energy is fine for the long run but for immediate needs, we can only rely on tried and tested technology.
Even India’s Narmada dam tussle shows no sign of being resolved. With accusations of money being eaten and compensation hardly compensating, the struggle is on in Madhya Pradesh where attempts are on to raise dam height.
Well, to win some you need to lose some. But who decides what we choose to win and loose? Who really benefit – the locals or some moneyed people far away?
Are small dams the solution? What is generally called as run of the river projects that do not dam or divert the natural flow of the water, but merely siphon a part which is sent back to the source?
Recently, it has been James Cameron of Avataar fame who has joined the fray in Brazil’s war against the 11,000 MW producing Belo Monte dam. Brazil has a fragile energy grid that was hit last year by a blackout that darkened much of the nation. Belo Monte would supply six per cent of the country's electricity needs by 2014. A court ruling has stayed the construction pf the dam for now.
The director of "Avatar" and "Titanic" spent two days this week visiting Indian villages near the proposed dam site on the Xingu River, which feeds the Amazon, and talking with about 50 leaders of various groups.
Environmentalists and indigenous groups say Belo Monte would devastate wildlife and the livelihoods of 40,000 people who live in the area to be flooded. They also argue that the energy generated by the dam will largely go to big mining operations, instead of benefiting most Brazilians.
Avatar depicts the Na'vi race fighting to protect its homeland from big corporate plans to extract its resources. The movie has struck a chord with environmentalists the worldover and more so in places where millions have been displaced by major infrastructure projects.
It all comes back to the same impasse: without energy, how do we bring development? All talk about renewable energy is fine for the long run but for immediate needs, we can only rely on tried and tested technology.
Even India’s Narmada dam tussle shows no sign of being resolved. With accusations of money being eaten and compensation hardly compensating, the struggle is on in Madhya Pradesh where attempts are on to raise dam height.
Well, to win some you need to lose some. But who decides what we choose to win and loose? Who really benefit – the locals or some moneyed people far away?
Are small dams the solution? What is generally called as run of the river projects that do not dam or divert the natural flow of the water, but merely siphon a part which is sent back to the source?
27,000 trees down the toilet every day
Worldwide, the equivalent of almost 270,000 trees is either flushed or dumped in landfills every day and roughly 10 percent of that total is attributable to toilet paper. Meanwhile, growing populations, adoption of Western lifestyles, and sanitation improvements in developing countries are driving the increased use of toilet paper. According to the latest issue of World Watch magazine, the result is that forests in both the global North and South are under assault by paper companies competing to fill consumer demand.
With the increasing pressure to reduce and discontinue the use of old growth forests, the move is on to tree plantations. But is this cure worse than the disease? These monocultures often displace indigenous plant and animal life, require tremendous amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and soak up large quantities of water.
Again, there are those who use virgin paper or recycled paper. Advocates of recycled toilet paper point out that converting virgin pulp to toilet paper requires more water than recycled paper and makes use of the tons of already used paper that fills landfills. Various estimates place the quantity of waste paper tossed into U.S. dumps and landfills at 35-40 percent of total landfilled mass.
Finally, the alternative to toilet paper, water, is also getting scarce, isn’t it? Perhaps recycled water is the answer. As also recycled paper.
Education of consumers is very important to curb waste and use a precious resource optimally.
With the increasing pressure to reduce and discontinue the use of old growth forests, the move is on to tree plantations. But is this cure worse than the disease? These monocultures often displace indigenous plant and animal life, require tremendous amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and soak up large quantities of water.
Again, there are those who use virgin paper or recycled paper. Advocates of recycled toilet paper point out that converting virgin pulp to toilet paper requires more water than recycled paper and makes use of the tons of already used paper that fills landfills. Various estimates place the quantity of waste paper tossed into U.S. dumps and landfills at 35-40 percent of total landfilled mass.
Finally, the alternative to toilet paper, water, is also getting scarce, isn’t it? Perhaps recycled water is the answer. As also recycled paper.
Education of consumers is very important to curb waste and use a precious resource optimally.
Blowing hot
A new MIT analysis used a climate model to analyze the effects of millions of wind turbines that would need to be installed across vast stretches of land and ocean to generate wind power on a global scale. Such a massive deployment could cause temperature to rise by one degree Celsius on land (though offshore ones could cause a drop in ocean temperatures).
In a paper published online Feb. 22 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, the scientists suggest that using wind turbines to meet 10 percent of global energy demand in 2100 could cause the temperatures to rise.
Previous studies have predicted that annual world energy demand will increase from 14terawatts (trillion watts) in 2002 to 44 terawatts by 2100. In the recent analysis, the focus was on the impact of using wind turbines to generate five terawatts of electric power.
For the land analysis, they simulated the effects of wind farms by using data about how objects similar to turbines, such as undulating hills and clumps of trees, affect surface “roughness,” or friction that can disturb wind flow. This temperature increase occurs because the wind turbines affect two crucial processes: vertical turbulent motion and horizontal heat transport. Turbulent motion refers to the process by which heat and moisture are transferred from the land or ocean surface to the lower atmosphere. Horizontal heat transport is the process by which steady large-scale winds transport excessive heat away from warm regions, generally in a horizontal direction, and redistribute it to cooler regions. This process is critical for large-scale heat redistribution, whereas the effects of turbulent motion are generally more localized.
The wind turbines on land reduced wind speed, particularly on the downwind side of the wind farms, which reduced the strength of the turbulent motion and horizontal heat transport processes that move heat away from the Earth’s surface. This resulted in less heat being transported to the upper parts of the atmosphere, as well as to other regions farther away from the wind farms.
Obviously the solution is not to overdo it! A bit of wind, a dash of biofuel and a generous sprinkle of solar might be the right recipe. What do you think?
In a paper published online Feb. 22 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, the scientists suggest that using wind turbines to meet 10 percent of global energy demand in 2100 could cause the temperatures to rise.
Previous studies have predicted that annual world energy demand will increase from 14terawatts (trillion watts) in 2002 to 44 terawatts by 2100. In the recent analysis, the focus was on the impact of using wind turbines to generate five terawatts of electric power.
For the land analysis, they simulated the effects of wind farms by using data about how objects similar to turbines, such as undulating hills and clumps of trees, affect surface “roughness,” or friction that can disturb wind flow. This temperature increase occurs because the wind turbines affect two crucial processes: vertical turbulent motion and horizontal heat transport. Turbulent motion refers to the process by which heat and moisture are transferred from the land or ocean surface to the lower atmosphere. Horizontal heat transport is the process by which steady large-scale winds transport excessive heat away from warm regions, generally in a horizontal direction, and redistribute it to cooler regions. This process is critical for large-scale heat redistribution, whereas the effects of turbulent motion are generally more localized.
The wind turbines on land reduced wind speed, particularly on the downwind side of the wind farms, which reduced the strength of the turbulent motion and horizontal heat transport processes that move heat away from the Earth’s surface. This resulted in less heat being transported to the upper parts of the atmosphere, as well as to other regions farther away from the wind farms.
Obviously the solution is not to overdo it! A bit of wind, a dash of biofuel and a generous sprinkle of solar might be the right recipe. What do you think?
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Plastic solar panels
More on technology. A new technique developed by Princeton University engineers for producing electricity-conducting plastics could dramatically lower the cost of manufacturing solar panels. Plastics could represent a low-cost alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), an expensive conducting material currently used in solar panels.
Conductive polymers [plastics] have been around for a long time, but processing them to make something useful degraded their ability to conduct electricity. Now the researchers are able to shape the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity. They developed a way to relax the structure of the plastics by treating them with an acid after they were processed into the desired form.
Using the method, they were able to make a plastic transistor, a fundamental component of electronics that is used to amplify and switch electronic signals. They produced the electrodes of the transistor by printing the plastic onto a surface, a fast and cheap method similar to the way an ink-jet printer produces a pattern on a piece of paper.
By allowing plastic solar cells to be manufactured using low-cost printing techniques and by replacing ITO as the primary conducting material, the new plastic holds potential for lowering the cost of solar panels. The researchers anticipate that the plastics also could replace expensive metals used in other electronic devices, such as flexible displays, etc.
Do we hear someone asking ‘where do plastics come from’??? That's another story.
Conductive polymers [plastics] have been around for a long time, but processing them to make something useful degraded their ability to conduct electricity. Now the researchers are able to shape the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity. They developed a way to relax the structure of the plastics by treating them with an acid after they were processed into the desired form.
Using the method, they were able to make a plastic transistor, a fundamental component of electronics that is used to amplify and switch electronic signals. They produced the electrodes of the transistor by printing the plastic onto a surface, a fast and cheap method similar to the way an ink-jet printer produces a pattern on a piece of paper.
By allowing plastic solar cells to be manufactured using low-cost printing techniques and by replacing ITO as the primary conducting material, the new plastic holds potential for lowering the cost of solar panels. The researchers anticipate that the plastics also could replace expensive metals used in other electronic devices, such as flexible displays, etc.
Do we hear someone asking ‘where do plastics come from’??? That's another story.
How the plants do it
A team of MIT researchers has found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use the power of sunlight to split water. In this case, the team used a modified virus to assemble the nanoscale components needed to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Splitting water is one way to solve the basic problem of solar energy: It's only available when the sun shines. By using sunlight to make hydrogen from water, the hydrogen can then be stored and used at any time to generate electricity using a fuel cell, or to make liquid fuels.
The new biologically based system skips the intermediate steps and uses sunlight to power the reaction directly.
The advance is described in a paper published on April 11 in Nature Nanotechnology.
The team engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 so that it would attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules.
Other researchers have tried to use the photosynthetic parts of plants directly for harnessing sunlight, but these materials can have structural stability issues.
The new biologically based system skips the intermediate steps and uses sunlight to power the reaction directly.
The advance is described in a paper published on April 11 in Nature Nanotechnology.
The team engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 so that it would attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules.
Other researchers have tried to use the photosynthetic parts of plants directly for harnessing sunlight, but these materials can have structural stability issues.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Gusty efforts
In what is a natural progression, offshore oil companies are shifting to offshore wind power. Eying the vast potential for establishing wind farms at sea, companies along Norway's west coast, like Statoil and Statkraft, are making the leap. The two Norwegian companies, together with the energy companies Scottish and Southern Energy and RWE npower, will develop Dogger Bank, by far the largest British wind power project to date.
Troll Power, another Bergen company, currently supplies power to the petroleum industry. Its new company Troll WindPower, together with wind power supplier NorWind, is now gearing up to supply power systems for offshore wind farms. Troll Power has developed a tool to detect risks in the power grid when various energy producers and users are connected to the grid. This new tool will be very valuable to grid operators and energy companies as more and more wind farms go online.
Many others from the oil sector are intrigued by the prospect of applying their offshore expertise to the dynamic field of renewable energy.
The engineers at Sway are confident in their windmill design, which unconventionally places the rotor behind the nacelle. As the floating tower leans some 6-8 degrees away from the wind, this downwind design allows the unit to tilt forward -- keeping the blades aligned with the wind's force to capture its maximal energy.
While offshore wind power resources are abundant, wind turbines are currently unable to provide steady power due to natural fluctuations in wind direction and strength.
But every problem has a solution. Offshore wind power output can be made more consistent by choosing project development locations that take advantage of regional weather patterns and by connecting wind power generators with a shared power line, according to a paper by researchers from the University of Delaware and Stony Brook University published in the April 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers analyzed five years of wind observations from 11 monitoring stations along the U.S. East Coast from Florida to Maine. Based on wind speeds at each location, they estimated electrical power output from a hypothetical five-megawatt offshore turbine. After analyzing the patterns of wind energy among the stations along the coast, the team explored the seasonal effects on power output. Analysis shows that when transmission systems will carry power from renewable sources, such as wind, they should be designed to consider large-scale meteorology, including the prevailing movement of high- and low-pressure systems
The researchers found each hypothetical power generation site exhibited the expected ups and downs, but when they simulated a power line connecting them, the overall power output was smoothed so that maximum or minimum output was rare. In the particular five-year period studied, the power output of the simulated grid never completely stopped.
Reducing the severity of wind power fluctuations would allow sufficient time for power suppliers to ramp up or down power production from other energy sources as needed. Solutions that reduce power fluctuations also are important if wind is to displace significant amounts of carbon-emitting energy sources, the researchers said.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Is energy efficiency a fad?
Early this week, at a workshop on energy management, speakers noted some of the lacunae in how the country is approaching energy conservation and efficiency. While good intentions from government and its various bodies abound, what is missing is vigilance and follow up.
People would like to reduce energy consumption (if it saves money!) but simply do not know how and also, worse, do not have the time. Awareness is not enough. It is simply not enough to buy a 5-star rated fridge. It will save nothing unless the thermostat settings are right, say experts. Often, products like power savers do not give enough details on what they offer. Besides cashing in on the general climate for energy saving devices, these do nothing.
The bodies involved do not come up with demo projects which are the best proof of the pudding! Or if they do, there is not enough publicity. Awareness of laws and compliance with the same is missing. There is need for an army of service providers who go to the people and educate them and help implement energy saving measures.
Remember India’s ‘national mission on enhanced energy mission’ launched last year. It has opened a cap and trade market worth 15$ bn. Some of the country’s most energy intensive industrial units will be able to cap and trade in energy savings certificates accrued from energy efficiency improvements.
According to an official release, the Mission will enable about Rs 75,000 crore worth of transactions in energy efficiency. In doing so, it will, by 2015, help save about five per cent of the annual energy consumption, and nearly 100 million tonne of carbon dioxide every year.
True, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), through its sustained campaign, has prodded households to go for star-studded certified energy-saving appliances and ensured industries adopt new technologies, helping save electricity worth 1,500 mw in 2008-09, according to a survey by the National Productivity Council. But is it enough given the power crisis facing parts of the nation?
More awareness, tighter codes and stronger financial incentives will have to follow.
People would like to reduce energy consumption (if it saves money!) but simply do not know how and also, worse, do not have the time. Awareness is not enough. It is simply not enough to buy a 5-star rated fridge. It will save nothing unless the thermostat settings are right, say experts. Often, products like power savers do not give enough details on what they offer. Besides cashing in on the general climate for energy saving devices, these do nothing.
The bodies involved do not come up with demo projects which are the best proof of the pudding! Or if they do, there is not enough publicity. Awareness of laws and compliance with the same is missing. There is need for an army of service providers who go to the people and educate them and help implement energy saving measures.
Remember India’s ‘national mission on enhanced energy mission’ launched last year. It has opened a cap and trade market worth 15$ bn. Some of the country’s most energy intensive industrial units will be able to cap and trade in energy savings certificates accrued from energy efficiency improvements.
According to an official release, the Mission will enable about Rs 75,000 crore worth of transactions in energy efficiency. In doing so, it will, by 2015, help save about five per cent of the annual energy consumption, and nearly 100 million tonne of carbon dioxide every year.
True, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), through its sustained campaign, has prodded households to go for star-studded certified energy-saving appliances and ensured industries adopt new technologies, helping save electricity worth 1,500 mw in 2008-09, according to a survey by the National Productivity Council. But is it enough given the power crisis facing parts of the nation?
More awareness, tighter codes and stronger financial incentives will have to follow.
Tubes with holes
The world was brought up short in 2008 by soaring food prices on international markets. Food riots brought a spectre of a hungry world. That was with 6 billion. As world population is expected to reach 9 or 10 billion later this century, what will the picture be like? Fred Pearce is sure that population need not be a problem but a blessing. ‘Rising populations may bring more mouths to feed, but they also bring more hands to work and brains to think. We are not done yet.’
We are damaging water and soils. We use more than half of the world’s river flows each year, mostly to irrigate crops. We are recklessly mining irreplaceable underground water reserves. And now comes the threat of climate change.
But is it that we cannot grow enough, or that we are not growing crops right? The next agricultural revolution needs to get local, Pearce believes. It needs to help these poor farming communities find ways to manage their own soils better by using livestock to fertilize soils, conserving rainwater in case of drought, breeding and exchanging local crop varieties, and finding natural predators for troublesome pests. ‘Conservation farming has vast potential to protect soils. And simple drip irrigation systems could halve global water use by farmers. It’s not rocket science. It’s just tubes with holes in.’
In Africa, one ton of grain is what a hectare yields, Asians grow three tons and Europeans and North Americans upwards of five tons. Futurologist Jesse Ausubel of Rockefeller University in New York says that “if during the next 50 years or so, the world’s farmers reached the average yield of today’s U.S. corn grower, ten billion could be fed with only half of today’s cropland, while they eat today’s U.S. calories.” A bit exaggerated perhaps, but with some truth.
In West Africa, Dutch geographer Chris Reij has charted a revival since the famines of the 1970s. He says it is labor-intensive management of the land that often holds the key. “The idea that population pressure inevitably leads to increased land degradation is a much repeated myth,” he says. “It does not. Innovation is common in regions where there is high population pressure. This is not surprising. Farmers have to adapt to survive.”
Innovate to survive. Innovate the way we grow food. Innovate the way we produce and use energy. Innovate the way we use water. Even if it simply means tubes with holes!
We are damaging water and soils. We use more than half of the world’s river flows each year, mostly to irrigate crops. We are recklessly mining irreplaceable underground water reserves. And now comes the threat of climate change.
But is it that we cannot grow enough, or that we are not growing crops right? The next agricultural revolution needs to get local, Pearce believes. It needs to help these poor farming communities find ways to manage their own soils better by using livestock to fertilize soils, conserving rainwater in case of drought, breeding and exchanging local crop varieties, and finding natural predators for troublesome pests. ‘Conservation farming has vast potential to protect soils. And simple drip irrigation systems could halve global water use by farmers. It’s not rocket science. It’s just tubes with holes in.’
In Africa, one ton of grain is what a hectare yields, Asians grow three tons and Europeans and North Americans upwards of five tons. Futurologist Jesse Ausubel of Rockefeller University in New York says that “if during the next 50 years or so, the world’s farmers reached the average yield of today’s U.S. corn grower, ten billion could be fed with only half of today’s cropland, while they eat today’s U.S. calories.” A bit exaggerated perhaps, but with some truth.
In West Africa, Dutch geographer Chris Reij has charted a revival since the famines of the 1970s. He says it is labor-intensive management of the land that often holds the key. “The idea that population pressure inevitably leads to increased land degradation is a much repeated myth,” he says. “It does not. Innovation is common in regions where there is high population pressure. This is not surprising. Farmers have to adapt to survive.”
Innovate to survive. Innovate the way we grow food. Innovate the way we produce and use energy. Innovate the way we use water. Even if it simply means tubes with holes!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Virtual truths
Is your computer a blessing or a curse? Views will differ, for sure. And differ vastly. But let’s get some facts right.
According to a report from the Cleantech Group, called The Environmental Impact of Amazon’s Kindle, one e-Book device on average can displace the buying of about 22.5 physical books per year, and thus deliver an estimated savings of 168 kg of CO2 per year.
The report takes a look at the effect of the book and magazine publishing industries on both trees and carbon emissions: the U.S. book and magazine sectors accounted for the harvesting of 125 million trees in 2008, and an average book has a carbon footprint of 7.46 kilograms of CO2 over its lifetime.
If a Kindle-user uses the device for the full storage capacity, it can “prevent the emission of nearly 11,185 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent,” and for the Kindle DX, that can jump to a savings of 26,098 kg of carbon emissions. Considering all of the projected e-Book devices sold between 2009 and 2012 in the U.S. the report says that e-Books could save 9.9 billion kg of CO2 from being emitted.
But wait! Shifting our entire lives online is not really easy on power and emissions, right?
The US Environmental Protection Agency released a new report on energy efficiency in data centers—and the results show that energy usage at data centers has doubled between 2000 and 2006, and it's poised to double again by 2011.
While servers certainly require plenty of power, the data center infrastructure uses the same amount of electricity as the servers. Cooling and power conversion systems soak up half the total power of a data center and are therefore one of the best places to start when making the data center more efficient.
Almost 80 percent efficiency is possible with some changes: improving transformers and uninterruptible power supplies, installing higher-efficiency chillers, fans, and pumps, and installing direct liquid cooling systems. On the server side, the report recommends enabling power management on all servers, aggressively consolidating servers and storage, and eliminating unused servers.
Of course, online has its uses. Shopping at Amazon, for instance, saves gas and reduces gridlock. So does online banking and shopping.
Talking of efficiency, as says the Moore’s Law, computer processors roughly double in efficiency every two years due to advances in technology along with affordability. But how much smaller, faster and cheaper can computers go depends on getting the right materials. Like graphene.
How to manipulate “raw” graphene on an atomic level has been the issue. Now researchers at the University of South Florida have accomplished a breakthrough of sorts by developing a way to form precise graphene “nanowires” that are just a few atoms across. Carbon nanotubes are also taking research to exciting frontiers.
Life seems headed for the virtual fast lane!
According to a report from the Cleantech Group, called The Environmental Impact of Amazon’s Kindle, one e-Book device on average can displace the buying of about 22.5 physical books per year, and thus deliver an estimated savings of 168 kg of CO2 per year.
The report takes a look at the effect of the book and magazine publishing industries on both trees and carbon emissions: the U.S. book and magazine sectors accounted for the harvesting of 125 million trees in 2008, and an average book has a carbon footprint of 7.46 kilograms of CO2 over its lifetime.
If a Kindle-user uses the device for the full storage capacity, it can “prevent the emission of nearly 11,185 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent,” and for the Kindle DX, that can jump to a savings of 26,098 kg of carbon emissions. Considering all of the projected e-Book devices sold between 2009 and 2012 in the U.S. the report says that e-Books could save 9.9 billion kg of CO2 from being emitted.
But wait! Shifting our entire lives online is not really easy on power and emissions, right?
The US Environmental Protection Agency released a new report on energy efficiency in data centers—and the results show that energy usage at data centers has doubled between 2000 and 2006, and it's poised to double again by 2011.
While servers certainly require plenty of power, the data center infrastructure uses the same amount of electricity as the servers. Cooling and power conversion systems soak up half the total power of a data center and are therefore one of the best places to start when making the data center more efficient.
Almost 80 percent efficiency is possible with some changes: improving transformers and uninterruptible power supplies, installing higher-efficiency chillers, fans, and pumps, and installing direct liquid cooling systems. On the server side, the report recommends enabling power management on all servers, aggressively consolidating servers and storage, and eliminating unused servers.
Of course, online has its uses. Shopping at Amazon, for instance, saves gas and reduces gridlock. So does online banking and shopping.
Talking of efficiency, as says the Moore’s Law, computer processors roughly double in efficiency every two years due to advances in technology along with affordability. But how much smaller, faster and cheaper can computers go depends on getting the right materials. Like graphene.
How to manipulate “raw” graphene on an atomic level has been the issue. Now researchers at the University of South Florida have accomplished a breakthrough of sorts by developing a way to form precise graphene “nanowires” that are just a few atoms across. Carbon nanotubes are also taking research to exciting frontiers.
Life seems headed for the virtual fast lane!
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