Category: Nuclear

Apple tills a solar farm to power its data center.ITworld.comAfter that, hardware elements will be added, including HP's POD with systems running AMD's Opteron server processors, which the chip maker said are designed for greater energy efficiency and cloud computing. This company, CG Tech Services, ...and more »

Even as Japan plans to phase out nuclear power as too risky for domestic use, the government is supporting a new push by Japanese industry to sell nuclear power technology to other countries. Enlarge This Image Hoang Dinh Nam/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A model of a Japanese nuclear reactor on display in Hanoi, Vietnam. Add to Portfolio NRG Energy Inc General Electric Company Toshiba Corp AREVA Siemens AG Hitachi Ltd Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited Go to your Portfolio » Japanese industrial conglomerates, with the cooperation of the government in Tokyo, are renewing their pursuit of multibillion-dollar projects, particularly in smaller energy-hungry countries like Vietnam and Turkey. The effort comes despite criticism within Japan by environment groups and opposition politicians. It may seem a stretch for Japan to acclaim its nuclear technology overseas while struggling at home to contain the nuclear meltdowns that displaced more than 100,000 people. But Japan ...

The IndypendentWhat it Will Take to Make Renewable Energy a Reality in the USThe IndypendentStill, its main initiative on global warming has been an unsuccessful attempt to enact a “cap and trade” system–essentially, “in exchange for being allowed to operate a coal-fired power plant in Tennessee, we'll buy a forest in Brazil and not cut it ...and more »

Global energy demand will increase 53 percent from 2008 through 2035, with China and India accounting for half of the growth, the United States Department of Energy said on Monday. A blog about energy and the environment. Go to Blog » Add to Portfolio NDB Energy Inc Go to your Portfolio » China and India will consume 31 percent of the world’s energy by 2035, up from 21 percent in 2008, the department’s International Energy Outlook projected. In 2035, Chinese energy demand will exceed that of the United States by 68 percent, it said. “Economic growth continues to look good in emerging nations,” Howard K. Gruenspecht, acting administrator of the Energy Information Administration, said on Monday at a briefing in Washington.

Siemens, the largest engineering conglomerate in Europe, announced Sunday that following the German government’s decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022, it would stop building nuclear power plants anywhere in the world. “The chapter for us is closed,” Peter Löscher, the chief executive of the Munich-based conglomerate, said in an interview with Der Spiegel, the weekly news magazine. He emphasized the company’s commitment to the rapidly growing renewable energy sector. He said the decision was also “an answer” to political and social opposition to nuclear power in Germany. Siemens, which built all of Germany’s 17 nuclear power plants, is the first big company to announce such a shift in strategy. But other German companies involved in the nuclear energy industry are also reconsidering their options.

The half-century-old, oil-fueled power generators here had been idle for more than a year when, a day after the nuclear accident in March, orders came from Tokyo Electric Power headquarters to fire them up. “They asked me how long it would take,” said Masatake Koseki, head of the Yokosuka plant, which is 40 miles south of Tokyo and run by Tokyo Electric. “The facilities are old, so I told them six months. But they said, ‘No, you must ready them by summer to prepare for an energy shortage.’ ” Now, at summer’s peak, Yokosuka’s two fuel-oil and two gas turbines are cranking out a total of 900,000 kilowatts of electricity a day — and an abundance of fumes. The generators are helping to replace the 400 million kilowatt-hours of daily electricity production lost this summer because of the shutdown of all but 15 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors ...

RWE, the German utility, said Tuesday that net profit for the first half of the year plunged nearly 40 percent as a result of Berlin’s decision to phase out nuclear power generation by 2022 and to impose a special tax on nuclear fuel. To cope with the impact of the nuclear policy, RWE said it would increase the scope of its divestment program, move more quickly into the renewable energy sector, and review its investments. The company is Germany’s second-largest energy producer, after E.ON. “Decisions taken by the German government to accelerate the nuclear phaseout have led to substantial financial burdens,” Jürgen Grossmann, the chief executive of RWE, said during a conference call. “However, the German government’s energy concept also presents us with opportunities.”

August 2, 2011 -- UK web hosting and data center provider The Bunker announced on Monday that it has successfully added more power capacity to its ultra secure data center in Newbury, UK and added a new data hall within the existing bunker. The move comes a week after The Bunker announced its partnership with IT security provider CNS.

Washington State has one nuclear power plant that is up for renewal. Seattle Times science reporter PREV 6 of 6 NEXT RICHLAND — When Washington's only commercial nuclear-power plant applied for license renewal last year, the timing seemed charmed. Hailed as a clean alternative to carbon-belching coal and gas, atomic power was poised for a renaissance. Operators at the Columbia Generating Station near Richland were so bullish on the technology they talked about expanding with small, modular reactors. In another Seattletimes article discussing the cost and benefits of nuclear power, the maintenance cost is mentioned. Looking only at operating and maintenance costs, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) puts the price at 3.6 cents per kwh. Hydropower costs about 2.8 cents per kwh. BPA has had to boost rates — including a proposed 8 percent increase for 2012-13 — to pay for upgrades at the nuclear-power plant. According to a 2009 BPA ...

Japan’s energy crisis is bringing about changes to data centres. The same thing will have to happen here, says Peter Judge When disaster struck Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station in the 11 March earthquake, the first consideration was shutting down and ensuring safety. The long term effects could be more significant. Japan got nearly 30 percent of its power from nuclear plants, and now much of that is gone. In the wake of the disaster, other plants have closed, either as a direct result or for safety checks, and in May only 17 of the country’s 54 nuclear plants were in operation. That could imply that as much as 20 percent of the country’s electricity supply is in question – but actually, we don’t know what capacity the 17 reactors are working at, or how hard the 54 would have been working.

Domenico Alcaro, VP of Sales Schneider Electric presented to a full room breakout session on Human Error in the Data Center.  Domenic shared his presentation and here it is for your viewing with his permission. Human error continues to be cited as a leading cause of data center downtime. The goal of eradicating this blight from the data center can be advanced by studying the US Nuclear Navy. In fact, the similarities between a mission critical data center and a mission critical nuclear propulsion plant are striking and many. This presentation will demonstrate the operational methodologies utilized by the US Nuclear Navy to reduce human error drawing comparison to a modern day data center every step of the way. Domenic Alcaro, Vice President, Enterprise Sales, Schneider Electric I was able to get access to Domenic presentation and I shared it with some other people ahead of time, and we started ...

The next decade -- and I really hate long time scales -- is looking to be a boom time for green data center hardware, as Germany and Switzerland take the non-nuclear vow and Japan looks to move more aggressively into renewable energy.   Combine that with organic and expanding growth in Asia and Africa to see green (energy efficient) turn into green (profits). I've already covered how I believe how net zero energy usage should become the new gold standard for data centers, and if you can't get there, data center operators should at least try to move to using less energy by generating power on-site, lessening dependence on the grid.  In my mind, these are pragmatic moves if you are serious about cutting back on carbon generation and ultimately saving money by consuming less (off-site) power.  In the emerging and growing markets of Asia and Africa, having green (i.e ...

The German government on Monday announced plans to shut all of the nation’s nuclear power plants within the next 11 years, a sharp reversal for Chancellor Angela Merkel after the Japanese disaster at Fukushima caused an electoral backlash by voters opposed to reliance on nuclear energy. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in Berlin on Monday. The government has decided to phase out its nuclear reactors. Related In Japan, a Culture That Promotes Nuclear Dependency (May 31, 2011) The plan calls for phasing out all of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors — eight of which are offline — and expanding the use of renewable resources. The decision was based on recommendations of an expert commission appointed after the Japanese disaster to study an industry that generates 23 percent of Germany’s electricity.

Google to Switch on World's First Seawater-Cooled Data Center This FallGigaOmGoogle has been on the forefront of data center energy efficiency design, and as Yahoo and Facebook start to show of data center efficiency designs, too, a healthy competition has emerged. By the Numbers: Greenpeace's Green Data Center Report Card.and more »

Will Japan have enough diesel fuel to support all of its data centers if power rationing is implemented more widely this summer? As authorities urge businesses and residents to conserve energy, Japan's country's data center industry is assessing worst-case scenarios.