Bell Labs and the University of Melbourne open an eco-oriented research centre as part of the GreenTouch initiative

Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs, the University of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government are partnering to establish a research centre in Melbourne, Australia devoted to innovation in energy efficient networks and technologies.

Called the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET), it will conduct research on a broad range of telecommunications network infrastructure elements and will focus on how those elements can be made more energy efficient.  The AU$10m centre will build to a team of 22 in the next three years and Bell Labs and the University of Melbourne will share governance of the facility, which will be based at the University.

This seems to be the result of the fact that both the University of Melbourne and Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent’s research arm, are members of the GreenTouch initiative, which we reported on back in January.  Bell Labs is the lead organiser of the global, industry-wide consortium dedicated to substantially reducing ICT’s carbon footprint by a factor of 1,000.  The Centre’s research will be used to further the GreenTouch initiative and its objectives.

 

Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent CEO was quoted as saying:
“CEET is an example of an initiative that has the potential to play a decisive role in meeting this challenge because it has the key ingredients for success: partners with deep research experience and complementary goals”.  Clearly a good thing and could help achieve the telecomms carbon footprint reduction that GreenTouch is aiming for. 

It also gives GreenTouch more weight, although it would be better if some more heavyweight telcos were involved in the initiative, which was my reservation when I first reported on it.  I’ve just checked the web site again and still no BT, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, etc.

Lucid announces building energy information available via Twitter and Facebook!

Lucid Design Group, which supplies energy monitoring and display systems for buildings, has announced the Building Dashboard Network, which it describes as the first social network for buildings!

The software allows people to go online and view and compare real-time information on electricity, water and natural gas use, as well as the performance of renewable energy systems.  It’s all displayed on graphs and animated gauges, including kilowatt-hours, cost and carbon dioxide emissions.  As well as online, the idea is to also show the data on touch screen displays in buildings.

 

Lucid has lots of experience in monitoring systems which it has apparently installed in hundreds of buildings across the US.  The company says that the feedback it produces has helped institutions reduce consumption by 5%-20% on a long-term basis.  The new product is based on the company’s existing Building Dashboard but with lots of new widgets and apps, including third-party applications like Google Maps and integration with Facebook and Twitter.

 

I like this idea.  Real-time energy consumption information (e.g. through smart meters) can help reduce power use and emissions, but adding a potential competitive aspect should magnify the impact.  As Michael Murray, Lucid’s CEO said: “Now buildings, companies and schools will feature their own profile pages with real-time energy and water use data. You can easily search for buildings, compare performance and set up energy reduction competitions across the Building Dashboard Network.”

In fact Lucid is also working with smart meter providers and utilities to make the technology available to residential customers, so you can have competitions with neighbours in similar houses, etc.  Very useful.

On the other hand, I’m not sure about the integration with Facebook and Twitter – it’s bad enough getting inane tweets from people, let alone buildings.  Perhaps that’s just me.

Smart grid communications – is there collaboration in sight?

There’s been a lot of news and discussion recently around smart grid communications and the competing platforms.  Here’s a brief update. 

Back in March Cisco announced that it had bought a stake in Grid Net, a privately-held smart grid company.  Grid Net develops software that handles transmission of electricity over power grids and also smart meter software. 

The thing is that Grid Net is a WIMAX supporter when it comes to smart meter communications and it now has Clearwire, Motorola, Intel and General Electric on its side.  Grid Net sees its 4G WIMAX integration as a product differentiator.  Cisco’s support gives the approach a lot of extra clout, but WIMAX is the (relatively) new kid on the blog and faces stiff competition.

From the likes of smart grid solutions company SmartSynch, which advocates the use of public wireless networks for smart meter communications.  The company recently extended its partnership with smart meter supplier Itron to include mobile communications, integrated with Itron’s IP-based Open Way platform. 

It seems that DTE Energy, a Detroit-based energy company, is experimenting with the functionality in a deployment of OpenWay which will extend to 2.6 million electric meters and 700,000 natural gas meters.

There is also a third option, in the form of proprietary networks such as that from Trilliant, helped by the acquisition last year of wireless equipment company SkyPilot.  We reported on recent network products from the company back in March.

In the light of these competing platforms and technologies, it was good to hear, earlier in April, that SmartSynch has formed the GridRouter EcoSystem with the intention of establishing an interoperable, IP-based communications business network for the smart grid.  Companies that join will gain access to a collaborative network of cross-vendor innovation, made possible by the SmartSynch GridRouter, described as “the industry’s first universal smart grid communications solution supporting multiple communication networks (public or private) and connectivity to any smart grid device”.

The idea is to transform competition into collaboration to provide utilities with a differentiated choice of smart grid solutions that are certified for interoperability. Supporters already include AT&T, Motorola, T-Mobile, Rogers Communications, Itron, Daviscomms USA, Futaba Corporation and AuthenTec.

Given that Pike Research forecast last December that ”Smart grid infrastructure, including grid automation upgrades as well as smart metering, represents a huge market opportunity and will attract $200bn in worldwide investment between 2008 and 2015”, there’s clearly a lot to play for. 

Motorola and AMD report on emissions achievements and targets

• Motorola published its 2009 Corporate Responsibility report last week which showed greenhouse gas emissions down 35% since 2005.  However, it seems that much of this is down to reduced business due to the economic climate, since, as the chart shows, normalised emissions, i.e. compared with sales revenue, has been on the increase since 2006.

 

The company has a target of reducing its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 6% by the end of 2010, compared with 2000, as part of its commitment as a founding member of the Chicago Climate Exchange.  The target is legally binding and subject to third-party verification.

In addition, Motorola has committed to reducing normalised greenhouse gas emissions from operations by 15% by the end of
2010, compared with 2005.  It also has the long-term goal of increasing the purchase of electricity from renewable sources to 30% by 2020. 

• Meanwhile, AMD has launched a new set of web pages addressing corporate responsibility.  They cover changes to the company’s environmental goals as a result of the transfer of its wafer fabrication assets to Globalfoundries in early 2009.  The impact is clear from the chart below. 

The company is “currently assessing our carbon footprint and reduction strategies after the transfer”.  But AMD points out that it’s main impact is now within scope 3, indirect emissions not owned or controlled by AMD.

Oracle includes Ndevr’s GHG reporting software in its ERP solutions

Oracle has announced that Ndevr’s greenhouse gas (GHG) management and reporting capabilities are now available for use within Oracle Applications.

Australian company Ndevr, which started out as a JD Edwards consultancy, has developed GHG Accounting Software for Australia’s National Greenhouse Energy Reporting (NGER) legislation and the GHG Protocol.  That software is now pre-integrated with both the Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle’s JD Edwards EntepriseOne financials applications.

The solution provides additional data capture, analysis and presentation capabilities to help customers assess their carbon footprint, comply with internal and external reporting standards and develop more energy-efficient solutions.  The capability can also be used to track additional environmental metrics such as waste and water consumption and complies with standards published by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

 

Jon Chorley, Vice President of Supply Chain & Sustainability Product Strategy at Oracle said: “The integration of greenhouse gas and other environmental metrics directly within ERP applications is a logical extension and ensures that sustainability becomes truly embedded within a business”.  That pretty much hits the nail on the head. 

For large companies, counting emissions is not just going to be some tacked-on option, its going to be as core to the business as counting money (indeed, it often will be counting money).  It will become increasingly embedded within ERP, which, as we’ve said before, is a challenge for the Carbon Emissions Management Software (CEMS) suppliers.  They need to focus on niche markets or hope to do the sort of deal that Ndevr has (or sell the company).

Energy Star gets more strict, but will smaller suppliers/channel partners lose out?

The US EPA and Department of Energy have announced changes to the Energy Star certification process to ensure that products meet the required standards.  The changes will strengthen the verification, testing and enforcement aspects of the program after it has come in for some criticism in recent months.

In particular, an investigation from the US Government Accountability Office (GOA) concluded that Energy Star is for the most part a self-certification program vulnerable to fraud and abuse.  The GOA managed to obtain Energy Star certifications for 15 bogus products, including a gas-powered alarm clock.  The clock was described as being the size of a small generator and powered by gasoline.  Another fictitious product, a computer monitor, was approved by Energy Star within 30 minutes of submission.

As of the start of last week, the EPA is no longer relying on an automated approval process.  Manufacturers wanting Energy Star certification must submit complete lab reports and results and all new qualification applications will be reviewed and approved individually.

In addition, from the end of the year all manufacturers must submit test results from an approved, accredited lab for any product seeking the Energy Star label. Currently only certain product categories require testing from an accredited lab.

 

The Energy Star certification process always did sound like there was potential for abuse.  Given that it’s becoming a global standard, at least for ICT equipment, it’s important that certification should be rigorous, so it’s good that the process has become more strict.

There is a downside, though, since it means manufacturers will have increased costs in getting product approval, which will be more of a burden for smaller companies and could, potentially, stifle innovation.  There was one discussion in a Green IT group on LinkedIn pointing out that the result will be a reduction in test process flexibility, added cost and time delays.  It was apparently on behalf of the NASBA, the North American association of channel resellers, calling for channel customers on the Energy Star certified list to give the EPA there views.  It seems that the EPA wants feedback by April 30th.

European Commission considers smart grid legislation

According to EurActiv, the European Commission is waiting to hear from an expert group before deciding on a whether to implement any legislative framework for smart grids.  A task force was set up in November 2009 to study the issue and is due to report in June on the functionalities required of smart grids and the need for standards.

There is no current EU legislation on the deployment of smart grids, but there has been references to their development in previous initiatives, including a new electricity directive which requires smart metering systems to be fitted in 80% of homes by 2020.  The European Commission has also earmarked €2bn of public and private investment to the 'European electricity grid initiative' in order to enable 50% of Europe's networks to operate as smart grids.

EurActiv got its information from a planning document which it says lays out four potential actions for a framework, planned for adoption at the end of 2011.  These are:

• Do nothing.

• Issue recommendations on the roles of the actors involved and include a monitoring mechanism on deployment.

• Establish a set of guidelines and recommendations for member states on the implementation of smart grids.

• Create a new annex for the directives in the EU's third energy liberalisation package, laying down a European legislative framework and timetable for deployment.

It does seem, though, that the Commission is keen to consult on the issues and ensure that any new initiative (or funding) would address the practical issues involved in smart grid implementation.

 

There’s always potential conflict between government and industry when it comes to the implementation of new infrastructure technology such as smart grids.  The argument is that governments may not necessarily choose the best technology or solution and legislation can, in any case, restrict innovation.  It does seem, though, that the EU is being fairly circumspect in this instance.  In any case, it’s the nature of smart grids to be flexible in the way they manage the energy they distribute, so some degree of inter-operability between systems, providers and countries is a good thing.  Having the EU involved can only help that integration – the market doesn’t always get it right on its own.

Intermedia helps small companies with green communications

Earth day is a good time to promote energy saving solutions and hosted communications company Intermedia has taken the opportunity. 

The company has released some estimates of how small businesses can reduce their carbon footprints and save money by outsourcing their communications technology:

• Osterman Research has calculated that in addition to reduced costs for on-site servers and staffing costs, about $870 per server each year can be saved from lower power consumption alone.

• Intermedia also claims it can power 240 mailboxes using the power and equipment resources equivalent to one computer server, whereas an in-house, business critical solution would require four to eight servers.

Jonathan McCormick, COO of Intermedia said that “Outsourcing communications technology and using hosted providers can help businesses reduce costs, replace big hardware expenses with predictable monthly bills, and cut back on power consumption. These same services also help businesses operate remote workforces with less travel, further reducing energy consumption and costs. It’s a start.”

 

Hosted communications certainly ticks a lot of boxes for small businesses and I’ve no doubt has received a boost during the economic slowdown as companies have looked to fixed cost solutions.  Communications complexity is growing, but so are the potential benefits in other parts of the business, so you can see the potential appeal.  The economies of scale of outsourcing also mean that it’s usually a greener solution. As in so much of ICT the green aspect is really at the bottom of the list of priorities, but that doesn’t make it any the less a climate-saving alternative.

I wish they hadn’t referred to it as cloud-based communications services, though.  Every ICT service is now referred to as cloud-based and it’s losing any meaning.  In any case, the recent experience of (ash) clouds in the UK is that the cloud was the problem, not the solution!

Earth Day

It’s the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day today.

Events over the last six months or so have brought the planet into focus even more.  Despite overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change and demonstrations of the destructive power of nature (including in Iceland over the last week) the climate change denial movement is growing, there has been a failure to reach global agreement on continued action and as yet no national legislation in the US.

Nevertheless, there is a lot going on for Earth day – there’s a dedicated web site in the US, where Earth Day started.  The web site of the EPA in the US also has a lot of coverage of activities.  Unfortunately in the UK we’re in the run up to a General Election, which means that government departments avoid anything considered controversial.  I assume that’s the reason for no mention of Earth Day on the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s web site (although there wasn’t any last year either).

According to the Earth Day 2010 campaign web site; ‘Earth Day 2010 can be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy’.  Apparently more than one billion people in 190 countries are taking action.

e-Stewards certified green electronics recycling launched

It’s good to hear that the Basel Action Network (BAN), the group that told the world about the dumping of toxic electronic waste in China and Africa, last week officially launched the world’s first ‘global’ e-waste recycler certification.  It’s backed by both environmental organisations and major corporations.

The certification is built round the e-Stewards Standard, created by BAN with input from industry leaders and health and environmental specialists.  The Standard calls for recyclers to stop exporting hazardous e-wastes to developing countries, to stop dumping such wastes in municipal landfills and to stop the use of captive prison populations to manage toxic e-wastes.

There are 50 e-Stewards Recyclers that have already passed a review by BAN as the first step to certification and each has committed to becoming fully certified by September 2011.  Several have already received full certification.

 

Sounds like a great initiative and I hope it really does get adopted globally.  As far as this announcement is concerned, though, all the companies involved are US-based.

Eyjafjallajokull – a taste of things to come and a green ICT opportunity

As you may know, the snappily-named Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland is erupting.  I know because I’m in the UK and the ash being thrown up by the volcano has drifted into our air space shutting down all flights in and out of the UK.  (Much of mainland Europe is also affected).

It’s interesting because it shows just what an impact nature can have on our everyday lives, even when events are more than a thousand miles away and with no visible signs that there’s a problem.  We have people who can’t get back to the UK to their jobs (some schools are short of teachers), there are queues for all routes in and out of the country by train and boat, businesses can’t bring in some goods and services (some suppliers in the developing world are watching crops rot because they can’t deliver them), shortages are likely for some foods, there are airlines that could go bust, etc.

It’s a lesson for those planning how they will handle the inevitable disruption that climate change will bring.  The threat can come from a variety of sources – storms, rising sea levels, water shortages, etc, and although the impact may be localised it can have extensive repercussions across supply chains.

Adapting to disruption is an overlooked area of public and private life.  The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in the UK recently produced a report entitled ‘Adapting Institutions to Climate Change’ in which it concluded that many UK institutions are poorly prepared to adapt.  ‘UK projections suggest warmer, drier summers and warmer wetter winters. The consequences are likely to be profound, even devastating with more extreme events – floods, drought and heat waves – coupled with sea level rises’.

The organisation offers a ten-point check list to be followed by all organisations. But it also goes further in suggesting that an ‘adaptation test’ should be integrated into
public and private decision making and that the UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 should be amended to impose an adaptation duty on public bodies (which is already the case in Scotland).

 

What’s all this got to do with green ICT?  Well with no planes flying in the UK you can bet that the use of videoconferencing shot up this week.  Vendors are seeing the promotional opportunity and sending out information on their online collaboration services.  In the long term there are many more opportunities for ICT to help companies negotiate their way around travel, logistics and supply chain disruption with better information, real-time responses, alternative solutions, etc.

Of course, in the case of Eyjafjallajokull it’s actually helping to reduce the emissions from flying and getting us used to the idea of doing without, so not all bad (unless you’re stuck abroad).

Fujitsu announces the next stage of its Group Environmental Protection Programme

Fujitsu has announced Stage 6 of its Group Environmental Protection Program (who knew there were stages 1-5?) which sets new goals for its financial years from April 2010 through to March 2013.  It’s all part of the company’s longer term Green Policy 2020, which began in 2008 and set goals under the three themes of benefiting customers and society, pursuing internal reforms, and preserving biodiversity.

The new program sets specific goals in 18 areas.  This is pretty detailed stuff - full coverage is here – but among the targets are the following (although there are more):

• By the end of FY2012 more than 35% of all technology developed will be solutions for reducing the burden on the environment.

• Over the FY2009–12 period the company will provide green ICT that will reduce cumulative CO2 emissions by 15 million tons.

• ‘Super Green’ products that contribute to reduced environmental footprints through low energy and resource demands must comprise 30% of all green products by end of FY2012.

• The environmental efficiency of newly developed green products must be raised to 2.5 times the FY2008 value by end of FY2012.

• The company will sustain a 90% resource reuse rate of business ICT equipment globally.

• The company will promote the development and provision of environmental solutions in all sectors and in major regions, including Japan, Europe, Americas and Asia/Pacific.

• Total greenhouse gas emissions associated with manufacturing globally will be reduced to 6% below FY1990 levels by end of FY2012.

• Renewable energy sources will be increased to 3 times FY2007 levels by end of FY2012.

• CO2 emissions from domestic transport will be reduced to 11% below FY2008 levels by end of FY2012.

• The company will promote procurement from business partners that limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Waste generation will be reduced to 20% below FY2007 levels by end of FY2012.

 

At first site it looks like a long list of disparate goals, but it seems that it has all been planned out to achieve the 2020 objectives.  In fact it’s this attention to detail that’s also reflected in some of the company’s green offerings, where Fujitsu has tried to quantify the savings that customers can make in their own organisations from both products and services.

Fujitsu has certainly benefitted from its Japanese heritage in the rigour that it has brought to bear on addressing green issues.  The impression is that stage 6 is as much about expanding the scope of what has been done before, in terms of offerings, industry sectors and geography.

Getronics picks Greenstone for carbon reporting

Greenstone Carbon Management has announced that Getronics UK is using its Acco₂untenterprise carbon accounting software to establish an internal carbon management programme for its UK operation. 

As well as helping Getronics to understand and communicate its internal emissions, using Greenstone’s solution is also seen as a way to add value to client contracts.  In fact Greenstone will be helping Getronics develop ‘Green’ client propositions.

 

Getronics is the certainly the sort of ICT infrastructure services company that really needs to help clients address green issues, so this tie in is no real surprise.  The company manages the workspaces of some sizeable organisations in the finance and commercial sectors in the UK.  In fact the two companies demonstrate the sort of partnership needed around green ICT, particularly as the focus moves down from the major ICT suppliers and their customers.

This is not Greenstone’s only ICT client.  As we reported last year, Fujitsu Services in the UK is a customer and much of the proving of the software has apparently been achieved through their relationship.  Greenstone is playing in a very competitive market, though.

ICT supplier green plans and targets are getting more ambitious – HP, Sony and IBM

A number of ICT companies have been in the news in the last couple of weeks, with announcements ranging from new product strategies to converting to electric vehicle fleets.  Among the highlights were the following: 

• In its 2009 CSR report HP says that it decreased total energy use by 9% compared with 2008 (including former EDS sites).  This was attributed to a decrease of 9% in square footage, due to the EDS integration, various energy reduction
initiatives, an increase in renewable energy purchases from 2.5% to 3.6% of total electricity and the purchases of large hydroelectric energy contracts in Europe.

Following integration of EDS the company has now set a new goal to reduce GHG emissions from HP facilities worldwide to 20% below 2005 levels by 2013.

The company also reported that it had ‘worked with’ Greenpeace International to share the details of how it planned to phase out PVC/BFRs from PC products.  This is presumably because Greenpeace took direct action against HP in the US because of what it saw as the company's continuing contribution to toxic electronic waste.

• Sony has updated it’s environmental targets, aiming at a ‘mid-term’ horizon of 2015. The company’s long-term plan is to have a zero environmental footprint by 2050. The new 2015 targets include:

- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an absolute value of 30% from the fiscal 2000 level

- Achieving an absolute reduction in waste from sites of 50% from the fiscal 2000 level

- Increasing the waste recycling rate Group-wide to more than 99%

- Achieving an absolute reduction in the total volume of water used of 30% from the fiscal 2000 level

- Reducing CO2 emissions from logistics by 14% from the fiscal 2008 level

- Reducing waste from packaging for incoming parts by 16% from the fiscal 2008 level

- Reducing annual per-product energy consumption by 30% from the fiscal 2008 level

• IBM is starting a new sustainability push among its suppliers.  Until now supplier sustainability standards have sometimes been ad hoc, but the company is now asking every supplier around the world to define a management system around three areas: energy conservation, greenhouse gas emissions and waste management/recycling.

Suppliers will need to create a system, set goals, measure their performance and publicly disclose their results.  It’s a large and diverse set of suppliers (IBM spent $40bn with 30,000 suppliers in 90 countries in 2009) so the company wants them to create a management system that works for their businesses

This is seen as a carrot, not a stick, approach and the suppliers will not be ‘graded’. IBM maintains that it wants to help suppliers improve their businesses, whether they work with IBM or someone else, and has tools and mentoring available.

 

It’s great to see ICT companies continuing to push their green efforts, even though the plethora of targets, measurements and base levels against which they are measured makes them difficult to compare.  Perhaps the most significant is IBM’s move out to its suppliers.  This is a growing trend, but the company seems to have formalised the process of ascertaining supplier sustainability and given its market standing and breadth of supplier base it’s likely to have a significant impact on the market.

Google publishes open letter on data centre standards in the US

Well it seems that I’m not the only one that’s concerned about how we measure data centre energy efficiency (see my comments yesterday).

On Google’s Public Policy blog, Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Operations and Google Fellow, posted a comment on Monday criticising the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) for its prescriptive standards for data centres.  It’s not just a Google comment, though, it’s an open letter from senior executives at a number of prominent IT companies and data centre operators, including Digital Realty Trust, Dupont Fabros Technology, Amazon, Nokia and Microsoft.

It seems that the ASHRAE has recently added data centres to its building efficiency standard. The standard defines the energy efficiency for most types of buildings in America and is often incorporated into building codes across the country.

Google and the others feel that the proposed standard is too prescriptive because it dictates which types of cooling methods must be used.  For example, it requires data centres to use economizers — systems that use ambient air for cooling.  We’ve reported in the past how effective it can be to use available air for cooling, but, as Google points out, requiring their use doesn’t guarantee an efficient result.  In any case, they may not be the best solution and future cooling methods may be even better.

The point being made by Google and the other signatories is that in data centres, where the energy used is easily measured, for cooling for example, a standard should set the required efficiency without prescribing the specific technologies to accomplish that goal.  (The letter points out that, in the case of car fuel efficiency, standards specify how much gas/petrol a car can consume per mile but not what engine to use).

Google points out that data centre industry leaders have already agreed that Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is the preferred metric for measuring efficiency and that the EPA Energy Star program already uses this method.

 

This seems like a collision between a fast moving, international technology sector and a much more slowly developing national building industry. Both are trying to ensure energy efficiency but from very different perspectives.

My first thought is that many major IT companies and data centre operators have already made extensive efforts to increase efficiency in data centres, with significant success. Anyone reading my comments over the last couple of years will know of the leapfrogging between companies to see who has the greenest data centre.  If you introduce a prescriptive standard then that may well become a limiting factor.  And what about re-fits?  I assume the standards only address new data centres, but many are being re-fitted to be more energy efficient.

But my main reason for supporting Google et al is that I want to see transparent, globally agreed, comparable standards employed, such as those now being developed by The Green Grid.  That’s the only way that real comparisons can be made enabling companies to be judged and customers to make informed choices. 

Data centre efficiency – different reports from SAP and Dell, but what does it mean?

SAP reports that two of its data centres in Germany have been certified as energy efficient by TÜV Rheinland, a German technical services group.  Apparently to date only 10 data centres from various companies have received this certification and of those, the SAP data centre in St. Leon-Rot, Germany, has set a new standard

The press release says that the SAP data centres were specifically recognised for the use of advanced technologies, which in 2009 saved around 55 million kilowatt hours of electricity or 14,000 tons of CO2 emissions.  It helps towards the company’s 2009 target to reduce its carbon emissions back to the levels of 2000 by 2020, the equivalent of half its year-2007 peak.

Also on the subject of data centres, Greener Computing reports that Robin Johnson, Dell's CIO, and Dane Parker, the company’s Global Facilities Lead, said in the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference this week that Dell may never need to build a new data centre. 

By virtualisation, removing underused assets and updating old equipment with the latest technology the company had halved the power demand of two of its data centres in Texas and could see the possibility of delaying the need for new data centres indefinitely.  By replacing the oldest 25% of servers every year and replacing them with the latest models the company worked out that it could recover the cost from reduced energy use and delay data centre expansion.

 

I have a problem with both of these reports.  Firstly, well done to SAP for checking out the efficiency of its data centres, but for most of us a certification by TÜV Rheinland doesn’t mean very much (and a quick look through their web site didn’t shed much light).  For these sorts of measures to be meaningful they need to be widely known and available so that comparisons can be made.  For example, the US EPA is expected to launch the Energy Star program for data centres in June, and Energy Star, the EU and others are collaborating with the Green Grid to develop global data centre energy efficiency metrics based on the widely quoted PUE measure.

As for Dell, replacing a quarter of all servers each year looks more like a cost-based move, rather than a sustainability benefit.  Energy consumption may be reduced, but it doesn’t sound like the embedded energy in manufacture is an issue in the calculations (and as machines become more efficient it’s likely that the embedded energy will represent a greater proportion).  Perhaps if it prevents a new data centre from being commissioned it will have a net benefit, but that pre-supposes that the technology in the data centre structure has not itself moved on.

Australian PM looks for energy efficiency ideas.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who’s government has been struggling to pass a cap-and-trade climate bill this year, has established a Task Group on Energy Efficiency to advise the Government on options to improve Australia’s energy efficiency by 2020.

The Task Force is looking for ideas via a consultation process.  There’s an Issues Paper that highlights some key topics they would like covered, but it seems that any comments would be gratefully received.  

 

It’s a big question and hopefully the government has some views of its own (else what are government’s for?) but based on experience in the UK I would suggest that those concerned with the ICT industry make their voices heard.

There’s a danger that the ICT sector is seen primarily as part of the problem (a polluter) rather than an essential part of the solution.  That’s what’s happening with the Carbon Reduction Commitment cap-and-trade legislation just introduced in the UK.  Companies who are included primarily because of their data centre operations will lose most financially and are also likely to get a bad reputation through the legislation’s published league table.  (The UK’s CRC gets a mention in the Issues paper for the Australian consultation process).

So my advice would be to highlight the energy efficiencies that can only be achieved through the use of ICT, e.g. dematerialisation, smart grids, intelligent buildings, more efficient logistics, etc.

The deadline for comments is May 3rd. If you don’t have time, then point them to this web site – I guess I’m included in the ‘diverse range of people and organisations, including local and international researchers’ that they want to hear from.

Logica works on the infrastructure for electric car charging stations in The Netherlands

Logica in the Netherlands has announced that it will work with the Dutch e-laad.nl foundation to develop the national infrastructure necessary to roll out 10,000 charging stations for electric cars in the Netherlands.

The E-laad.nl foundation is a group of Dutch energy grid companies which aims to encourage the use of electric cars. The foundation will collect essential data needed for future energy grid investments.

The charging station infrastructure will be the backbone for a range of services and associated payment systems. Logica delivers the back office systems to maintain the charging stations and process transactions.  The company has already developed a similar back office system in a successful trial and also developed the charging stations’ software.

 

It’s another example of the many and varied IT opportunities out there that a new green economy will throw up.  There’s a lot of basic infrastructure changes needed to address climate change, which, in turn, are likely to result in a review of and changes to existing business processes.  A move to a green economy is a move to a more efficient economy, and efficiency means more ICT.

Smart grid implementation gains momentum

There’s been lots of news on the smart grid front in the last week or two. The announcements included the following:

• According to Bloomberg, Japan plans to spend 100 Billion Yen ($1.1bn) on smart grid trials over five years in four Japanese urban areas. Toyota, Toshiba and Panasonic are among companies participating in the trials.

The government wants Japan to get 10% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, which will require a national grid upgrade costing an estimated 6.7 trillion yen by 2030.

• The US Department of Energy has announced the award of $100m for 54 smart grid workforce training programs with community colleges, universities, utilities and manufacturers. It is expected that around 30,000 people will be trained on the transmission and distribution systems as well as new intelligent grid systems, such as smart meters, phasor measurement sensors and advanced communication networks.

• The Climate Group, Google and 45 green groups, technology companies, investors and retailers have sent a letter to President Obama, asking for his Administration to “adopt the goal of giving every household and business access to timely, useful and actionable information on their energy use”. Among the signatories were AT&T, Best Buy, Dow, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Johnson Controls, Inc, the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change and Whirlpool.

The letter builds on recommendations in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) National Broadband Plan, which included the goal that ‘every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption’ (based on the findings of The Climate Group’s SMART 2020 Report).

• British Gas (BG), the UK’s largest energy supplier, has announced plans to accelerate the roll-out of its smart meter programme and install two million smart meters in customers' homes by 2012. BG also revealed the companies it will be working with - mobile phone company Vodafone; wireless network supplier Zigbee; SAP for the billing software; smart meter software and communications firms OSIsoft and Trilliant; and smart meter manufacturer Landis+Gyr. (It may not be a complete coincidence that a few days later Landis+Gyr announced that it had reached an agreement to raise $165m to fund growth and support smart metering roll-outs worldwide).

With the huge opportunities emerging around smart grids there’s going to be a feeding frenzy among IT suppliers. Whilst it’s a competitive market, it’s also an opportunity on such a scale that some of the more specialist companies may have to be careful not to overstretch themselves (hence Landis+Gyr’s timely financing). Even the largest suppliers are weighing up opportunities carefully so as to match opportunities with resources. It’s a market where I would expect to see some significant acquisitions in the coming years.

CRC – issues and opportunities for the IT sector

For those who didn’t know, the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme, now known as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC EES) came into effect from April 1st (but it’s no joke – see previous coverage for more details). Basically, any business that uses more than 6,000 megawatt-hours of electricity with half-hourly metering will have to buy CO2 allowances.

According to the launch day press release from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the cap-and-trade scheme has two aims:

• Saving public and private sector organisations around £1billion per year by 2020 through cost effective energy efficiency measures that are not yet being taken up.

• To help change behaviour by requiring large public and private sector organisations like supermarkets, hotels, hospitals, local authorities and central government departments, to improve their energy efficiency.

The scheme is non-revenue generating, with income recycled back to participants according to performance, published in the form of a league table. 

Organisations have until September to register, with a fine of £5,000 if they don’t.  In all, 20,000 organisations are expected to register with around 5,000 fully involved in the scheme. 

By 2020 the scheme is expected to have delivered emissions savings of at least 4.4 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

 

The CRC is perhaps not the ground-breaking introduction initially expected, given the stalled climate legislation around the world, particularly for cap-and-trade schemes, but it does have a significant impact on the IT sector for a couple of reasons:

• It impacts most data centres.  The UK ICT industry was a little late in realising the impact, by which time the government was set on the CRC course.  Data centre energy usage will inevitably increase with business, even though many large organisations have started to address data centre energy efficiency and are, in any case, using ICT to addresses emissions issues elsewhere in the organisation.

If you supply data centre services, then business is likely to get a boost as companies offload their CRC responsibility.  But reputations will suffer as emissions increases push data centre service suppliers down the league tables, labelling ICT service companies as polluters.

• On the pure plus side for the industry, there are now 20,000 companies that need to be aware of what their energy use is and 5,000 of those will need to monitor, manage and report on their CO2 emissions and buy allowances.  This will give a significant boost to providers of carbon emissions management software solutions.

India’s mobile phone infrastructure goes green

The Hindu has reported that India’s Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy along with the Union Ministry of Telecommunications is working on converting the country’s mobile phone towers from diesel generation to solar power.

There is a push within the Indian government to generate energy from the sun, embodied in India’s National Solar Mission.  The Minister was quoted as saying: “We are going to generate within the first three years 1,300 MW of solar energy with 1,100 grid connected and 200 non-grid connected. By 2022, we should have 20,000 MW of solar power”. 

The mechanism for using solar panels for mobile phone towers is currently being worked out and subsidies for the proposed initiative are also being developed.  The Indian government is likely to come out with a mandate that would require telecom operators to make the transformation.

According to CleanTechnica.com there are more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers in India serviced through 250,000 towers.  The number of subscribers, and towers, is expected to double by 2015.

CleanTechnica has calculated that using solar powered cell phone towers would eliminate five million tons of CO2 emissions a year and save $1.4bn annually.

Corporate sustainability news – Alcatel-Lucent, Intel and Accenture

• Alcatel Lucent has been named as a winner in the 2010 European Commission’s Sustainable Energy Europe (SEE) campaign.  The company was recognised in the ‘Market Transformation-Voluntary Commitments’ category for its Alternative Energy Program for Global Green Telecommunications.

The Alcatel-Lucent program is designed to enable communications service providers to extend the reach of their wireless services to areas not served by an electrical grid through the use of base stations powered with alternative energies.  The program will also make it possible to retrofit wireless base stations so that they can take advantage of advances in alternative energy technology.

• According to Harrington Investments, Inc., Intel has agreed to to include ‘corporate responsibility and sustainability performance’ into the policy responsibility of its Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee.

Harrington had introduced a shareholder resolution to amend Intel's bylaws to create a Board Committee on Sustainability. Intel initially opposed the resolution but ultimately agreed to change their corporate charter to require the Governance and Nominating Committee to report to the Board on corporate responsibility and sustainability performance.

• In its latest CSR report Accenture says it has achieved its initial target of a 25% reduction in per-employee carbon emissions in 2009, compared a 2007 base year.  The company has further committed to reducing per capita carbon by 40% by fiscal 2012. 

Most of the companies emissions are from business travel and office energy use, hence a particular focus on reducing air travel.  The company has a policy of minimising non-critical business travel, particularly for internal meetings, and increasing the use of collaborative business tools.

It’s clearly going to get tougher for Accenture, though, since it doesn’t have the easy wins that many IT services players have.  In the long run per-capita reductions will not be enough anyway, since we need to reduce absolute emissions to make real progress.

Microsoft and Ford collaborate on electric vehicle energy management

Ford and Microsoft are teaming up to implement the Microsoft Hohm energy management application for Ford’s electric vehicles, starting with the Focus Electric next year.

The idea is that Hohm will help owners determine when and how to most efficiently and affordably recharge electric vehicles.  It should also help utility companies manage the added demands of electric vehicles on the grid.

Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company president and CEO said: “For Ford, this is a needed step in the development of the infrastructure that will make electric vehicles viable.”

The press release quotes an Accenture survey that 42% of consumers say they are likely to buy a hybrid or electric vehicle in the next two years.  (Seems unlikely, but Ford is planning to put five new electrified vehicles on the road in North America and Europe by 2013).  But the mass market is not going to happen if the infrastructure is not in place to support charging the vehicles and Hohm is a key to that infrastructure.

Microsoft’s Hohm, which I reported on last year, is a free solution designed to provide users with insight into their energy usage patterns and recommend actions to reduce usage.

 

 

This may sound trivial, but putting an energy management application in an electric car represents an essential piece in a jigsaw, with the potential to have a profound impact on both consumers and utility companies.  This is all about having the energy ‘ecosystem’ in place to make the electric vehicle market viable.

Plugging in a car can double the energy use of a household, so choosing the cheapest time will be essential, which is where smart meters and energy management systems like Hohm will help. Utility companies will need to manage significant increases in demand, so are likely to adjust tariffs to spread the load, making re-charging times a significant decision.  For example, wind-generated power will be on line 24-hours a day, so overnight charging is an ideal solution (in fact electric vehicles are seen as a primary storage resource for future wind-generated energy). 

But it won’t work unless consumers have the information to act on.  You can see the attraction to Microsoft, since it represents a new route to consumer use.

The Green Grid forms a universal agreement on data centre energy efficiency metrics

The Green Grid announced yesterday that it is has reached an agreement with a number of organisations around the world on the guiding principles of data centre energy efficiency metrics.  It has joined with the US Department of Energy’s Save Now and Federal Energy Management Programs, US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star Program, European Union Data Centre Code of Conduct, Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI) Green IT Initiative and Japan’s Green IT Promotion Council (GIPC) to ensure that data centre metrics are clear and consistent globally.

The group will leverage its agreement to drive an understanding of energy efficiency metrics and improve data centre efficiencies.  A task force has been set up from the various organisations to push the initiative and monitor progress.

The Green Grid also announced that it has established an EPA Energy Star Program Management Office with the aim of positioning itself as a trusted technical advisor to the Energy Star program.

 

It’s clearly a good idea to have a universal agreement on data centre energy efficiency metrics.  The more global these metrics are the more likely they are to be adopted.  Only a couple of weeks ago we reported on separate work in Australia to come up with their own measures, partly because the Green Grid’s Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE - the ratio of the total power used in the facility to the power used by the IT equipment) is fairly crude.  But this is addressed in the desired outcomes of the agreement between these organisations, which states that metrics should:

• Measure the actual IT work output of the data centre compared to actual energy consumption. The following interim measurements are being defined and/or validated:
  - Measure the potential IT work output compared to expected energy consumption; and measure operational utilization of IT equipment 
  - Data centre facility and infrastructure - Measure the data centre infrastructure efficiency (PUE)
• Measure renewable energy technologies and re-use of energy to reduce carbon

Tom Brey, Secretary of The Green Grid, said: “The ultimate goal is to create a set of globally accepted metrics for data centre energy efficiency. One of the first, and perhaps most important factors to successfully achieving this aim is establishing a unity of communication”.

Greenpeace reports on the climate impact of cloud computing

Greenpeace has published a report called ‘Make IT Green - Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change’.  Basically, the 11-page report highlights the energy used by, and hence emissions from, data centres and how this will increase with the growth of cloud computing.

The report points out that cloud data centres are not making use of renewable energy.  According to Greenpeace, cloud-computing companies are focusing on reducing the energy consumption of their data centres mainly as a cost containment measure. The pure environmental benefits of green data design and location are generally of secondary concern.

Greenpeace cites Facebook’s decision to build its own (highly-efficient) data centre in Oregon, where it will be substantially powered by coal-fired electricity.  ‘Increasing the energy efficiency of its servers and reducing the energy footprint of the infrastructure of data centres are clearly to be commended, but efficiency by itself is not green if you are simply working to maximise output from the cheapest and dirtiest energy source available’.

Greenpeace goes on to say that ultimately, if cloud providers want to be greener they must use their power and influence to drive investments near renewable energy sources.  Not only that, they must also become involved in promoting the policies that will drive the development of renewable electricity generation.

 

Well, first of all, as I’ve said before, I have reservations about Greenpeace’s black-and-white view of the world. It also wasn’t clear to me what the message was from much of this report.  And referring to cloud computing is just at attention-grabber – it’s data centres that are actually being referred to.  Cloud computing may be fuelling growth but it’s a much bigger issue.

Having said that, the central point of the Greenpeace report is a good one. Looking at the chart above, the PUEs of these data centres are impressive - by any reading, they are very efficient compared with the industry norm.  But that’s because it saves money, whereas simply pursuing an environmental outcome, such as using renewable energy may not.

It’s a moot point and has led to some confusion.  HP, for example, has just opened its most energy-efficient data centre to-date in north east England.  The company describes it as ‘the world’s first wind-cooled data centre’, but that’s not renewable energy, it’s free-air cooling technology, which the company claims reduces the energy required for cooling IT equipment and plant rooms by 40% compared to a traditional data centre. 

To be a truly environmentally friendly, perhaps the ideal route is to reduce PUE and invest the savings in renewable energy, if it’s available.  But siting a data centre for the best PUE may limit the power options.  Certainly the IT industry is not slow in using renewables where it can.  Last July we reported on the EPA Green Power Partnership ranking of the leading Fortune 500 purchasers of green energy in the US.  Intel lead, Dell was in 5th place, Cisco 7th, Sprint Nextel 20th and Motorola 21st.

But the point about cloud providers becoming involved in setting the policies that will drive rapid deployment of renewable electricity generation is well made. I’ve said before that IT companies need to be more directly involved in the policy making process that impacts their business. Global IT companies with huge data centre requirements can have a lot of influence.