Articles from Technology News

Global industry CO2 output rises even in weak economy

Explore Technology News (Dec 5 2011) Emissions , Fossil Fuel

Global carbon dioxide emissions from industry rose about 3 percent in a weak global economy this year, a study released today showed, adding fresh urgency to efforts to control planet-warming gases at U.N. climate talks in South Africa. The study by the Global Carbon Project, an annual report card on mankind's CO2 pollution, says a slowdown in emissions during the 2008-09 global financial crisis was a mere speed bump, and the gain in 2011 followed a 6 percent surge in 2010. "The global financial crisis was an opportunity to move the global economy away from a high-emissions trajectory. Our results provide no indication of this happening," the authors say in the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   U.N.   United Nations

Secret to Facebook's green data center? Water misters

Explore Technology News (Nov 18 2011) Construction , Fossil Fuel , Servers

Facebook says its Prineville, Oregon data center received Gold-level LEED green building certification on the back of an elaborate evaporative cooling system that taps outdoor air for heating and cooling. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Greenpeace   Facebook   LEED

AMD's big new number: 16 cores for your server

Explore Technology News (Nov 14 2011) Cloud Computing , Servers

Advanced Micro Devices today rolled out its new Opteron 6200 and 4200 processors in a bid to regain server market share and become a more relevant player. The announcement comes amid a bevy of high-performance computing announcements this week at the SC11 conference in Seattle. For AMD, the new chips represent a part of the company’s focus on emerging markets, mobile and cloud computing. These Opterons, which include more cores, performance and efficiency, fall into AMD’s strategy to power cloud computing server farms. As for the processors, AMD’s new chips, which were code-named “Interlagos” and “Valencia”, promise 84 percent higher performance, more memory bandwidth for virtual machines and energy efficiency improvements. Among the key points: (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Intel   IBM   ZDNet UK

IBM brings solar power to data centers

Explore Technology News (Nov 2 2011) Emissions , Fossil Fuel , Solar , Servers

The company tomorrow will detail a pilot project that couples solar power with water-cooled servers that run on high-voltage direct current. The method results in about a 10 percent energy savings by reducing the losses that normally happen in converting from alternating power from the grid to the direct current servers run on, according to Kota Murali, the chief scientist of nanotechnology at IBM India who developed the pilot as a side project. That level of energy reduction is significant for large data centers with many servers, but the implications of solar and servers are potentially profound for places that don't have access to reliable power, Murali said. A bank, for example, that wanted to set up a remote branch and operate a data center could use solar power as a way to supplement power from the grid and on-site generators. IBM plans to offer the system in custom ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   IBM

Facebook to world: Clone your own data centers

Explore Technology News (Oct 27 2011) Fossil Fuel , Cloud Computing

Facebook today created a foundation to lead Open Compute, borrowing the open source software model to advance a set of freely available data center designs in order to speed hardware innovation and reduce the environmental impact of cloud computing. The company announced initial members and directors of the foundation at the second Open Compute Summit today in New York. It also intends to release details on its guiding principles and how projects will be proposed and handled. Facebook launched the Open Compute Project in April under the idea that the designs and specifications of its data centers can be shared to speed up innovation and improve the energy efficiency of data centers at Facebook and the industry at large. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Facebook

ClearEdge Power to make fuel cell for data centers

Explore Technology News (Aug 23 2011) Emissions , Fossil Fuel

ClearEdge Power is making what it hopes is the Goldilocks of fuel cells, a power source big enough for a business or school but less expensive than larger, high-end models. The Hillsboro, Ore.-based company today said it has raised $73.5 million from institutional investors as well as Austrian energy supplier Gussing Renewable Energy and utility Southern California Edison. ClearEdge Power's fuel cell delivers 5 kilowatts of electric power and the equivalent of 5.8 kilowatts of heat. (Credit: ClearEdge Power) The series E round will be used to expand to the east coast U.S. and internationally, including into central Europe. The company also intends to expand its product line with a fuel cell designed specifically for data centers, a product which is being now tested with customers, according to CEO Russell Ford. The data center fuel cell will provide power at about half the cost of ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Europe   Southern California Edison   Bloom Energy

Bloom Energy to power data center with biogas

Explore Technology News (Jul 28 2011) Fossil Fuel

NTT America soon will be able to claim a data center that runs on biogas. The Japanese telecommunications company today said it will install five Bloom Energy fuel cells in its California data center that will use biogas as a fuel. It's a sign of the growing interest in cleaner fuel cell technology, which proponents say will increasingly be adapted for residential customers. The fuel cells will be able to generate 500 kilowatts of power, which is enough for about 500 U.S. homes. At the data center, they will generate 4.2 million kilowatt-hours per year and reduce NTT America's carbon dioxide emissions by 1.6 million pounds. Utilities in California offer the option of purchasing biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide captured from dairy farms. The Bloom Energy "servers" are designed to run on natural gas, which is mostly methane, but will also convert ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   NTT   At&T   Bloom Energy

AT&T signs up for 11 fuel cell Bloom boxes

Explore Technology News (Jul 12 2011) Emissions , Fossil Fuel , Servers

Bloom Energy and telecom giant AT&T said today that the clean-tech start-up would install its fuel cell-powered Energy Servers--known colloquially as "Bloom boxes"--at 11 facilities in California. The AT&T facilities include sites in Corona, Fontana, Hayward, Pasadena, Redwood City, Rialto, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Jose, and San Ramon. The units are expected to provide 7.5 megawatts of energy for AT&T, reducing its carbon emissions footprint for the facilities involved by half, or about 250 million pounds of CO2 per year. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   At&T   Bloom Energy

U.K. wagers on large-scale wave power

Explore Technology News (May 12 2011) Fossil Fuel , Hydro , Wind

The European Union will consider whether a massive wave energy project from Scotland should receive a piece of a renewable-energy and carbon reduction project fund that could total billions of euros. The Pentland Orkney Wave Energy Resource (POWER) project was nominated this week by the U.K. government for the NER300, a fund managed jointly by the European Commission, European Investment Bank, and member states that's named after the 300 million carbon "allowances" being sold to raise the funds. If approved, funded, and built, the wave energy farm would be the largest grid-connected wave energy farm in the world, according to the Scottish European Green Energy Centre. The POWER project as currently proposed would place 24 wave energy converters from Pelamis Wave Power and 10 Oyster 3 wave energy converters from Aquamarine Power in the Orkneys off the coast of Scotland. They would tie in to the Scottish electric ... (Read Full Article)

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Study warns against hyping carbon-fixing biochar

Explore Technology News (Nov 29 2010) Emissions , Fossil Fuel

Of all the approaches to cutting carbon emissions, making charcoal and putting it in the ground as fertilizer would seem one of the least controversial. But a report published today offers words of caution around expecting too much from biochar. Biochar, also called man-made charcoal, is made by decomposing plants and other organic materials into charcoal through pyrolysis, or slowly burning biomass at high temperatures with no oxygen. The resulting biochar can be used as a soil fertilizer, a technique used by ancient civilizations in the Amazon. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Amazon.com

Study: Cloud computing for business uses less energy

Explore Technology News (Nov 9 2010) Fossil Fuel , Cloud Computing , Servers

A Microsoft-sponsored analysis released today reaffirms what many tech companies have long been saying: computing is more efficient when it's concentrated in the "cloud" at giant data centers. The range of savings from having hosted vs. on-premise IT infrastructure is between 30 percent and 90 percent, according to the study, which was conducted by Accenture and sustainability consulting company WSP Energy & Environment. The greatest energy and greenhouse reductions can be achieved by small businesses with fewer than 100 users. The study was designed around a comparison of three Microsoft applications--SharePoint, Exchange, and Dynamics CRM--in an on-premise mode or using the online versions. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Amazon.com   Google   Microsoft Corp

U.S. signs lease for Cape Wind project

Explore Technology News (Oct 7 2010) Fossil Fuel , Solar , Wind

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday formally signed the nation's first lease for a major offshore wind project, as the Obama administration pushes forward to boost renewable energy output. The lease for the controversial $1 billion Cape Wind wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts officially ends a nine-year regulatory process for the project. "Our responsibility now is to take the lessons learned from that process--and from the growing pool of experiences with offshore wind development around the globe--and build a smart U.S. program," Salazar said at an offshore wind energy conference in Atlantic City, N.J. (Read Full Article)

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South Korea firms jump onto solar bandwagon

Explore Technology News (Sep 30 2010) Fossil Fuel , Solar

outh Korea's technology giants are behind the pace in getting on the $35 billion global solar energy bandwagon, but are now making up for lost time, snapping up assets overseas. The push factors are compelling. The markets for their traditional businesses in chips and LCD screens are saturated and their margins thinning while their rivals in Japan and Taiwan are already racing ahead in the green technology arena. This year, the market share of South Korean companies in the global solar cells business is expected nearly double to 4.7 percent versus a year ago, according to Mark Jee, a senior researcher at Solar & Energy, a photovoltaic market research institute in Seoul. (Read Full Article)

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N.Y. Jets on offense with solar power

Explore Technology News (Sep 28 2010) Fossil Fuel , Solar

More than 3,000 solar panels from manufacturer Yingli Solar have been installed at the team's Atlantic Health Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., making them green in terms of energy as well as uniform. The solar system will provide the team's 120,000-square-foot training, teaching, and medical facility with 750,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. The New York Jets claim it's the largest photovoltaic system currently installed at any National Football League team headquarters. "This project is the first of many green initiatives on behalf of the team, and we are proud to be green in color and also in deed," Thad Sheely, the New York Jets executive vice president of finance and stadium development, said in a statement. (Read Full Article)

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More time spent on Facebook than Google

Explore Technology News (Sep 10 2010)

Internet users are spending a bit more time these days socializing on Facebook than searching on Google, according to new data from market researcher ComScore. In August, people spent 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, accounting for 9.9 percent of the total number of minutes they spent online for the month. That inched past the 39.8 million minutes, or 9.6 percent of total time, that Net users spent on all of Google's sites combined, including its search engine, YouTube, Gmail, and Google News, ComScore said Thursday. For the month, Yahoo proved the third most popular online hangout, with people spending 37.7 million minutes, or 9.1 percent of total time, on Yahoo sites. In July, Facebook slipped past Yahoo in the number of minutes spent online for the first time, noted ComScore. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Google   Yahoo   Facebook

Aboard an Alcatel-Lucent undersea cable ship (photos)

Explore Technology News (Sep 7 2010)

The Ile de Batz is one of three dedicated ships that Alcatel-Lucent uses to lay the submarine fiber-optic cables that carry broadband connectivity across the oceans. The ship is usually based in Calais, France, but made a stop recently in Greenwich, England, to pick up components from Alcatel-Lucent's factory. The telecommunications infrastructure company invited ZDNet UK to see the factory and the ship, and have a look at a vital part of the global Internet that's normally hidden by miles of water. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Apple   Google   Toshiba

IBM's reorg shows shape of IT to come

Explore Technology News (Jul 28 2010)

I'm always wary of analyzing corporate organizations and reporting structures. They change frequently--every year or two, in some companies--so they're always in flux. And the details of who reports to whom, or what they want to call this business unit or that--those things matter, a bit, but not nearly so much as the products and services a company offers, how it goes to market, who its competitors are, and so on. Finally, company structures are very "inside baseball"--the kind of detailed who's-on-first, who's-warming-up-in-the-bullpen information that industry insiders may find interesting, but that isn't really all that useful to most customers or investors. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Sun Microsystems   Oracle   Cisco

GE invests in SynapSense to cut data center energy

Explore Technology News (Jul 26 2010) Fossil Fuel , Cloud Computing , Servers

General Electric on Monday said it will invest in and partner with SynapSense, a start-up which makes a system for reducing data center energy with wireless sensors. Using sensors, SynapSense can create a thermal map of the racks in a data center. (Credit: SyapSense) GE Energy Financial Services is joining existing investors to put $5 million into Folsom, California-based SynapSense which was founded four years ago. It had previously raised $20 million from Emerald Technology Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, American River Ventures, Nth Power, and DFJ Frontier. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   General Electric   SynapSense

U.K. layers climate shift on Google Earth

Explore Technology News (Jul 16 2010) Emissions , Fossil Fuel

The U.K. government on Thursday launched a Google Earth layer that models what Earth might look like in the event of a significant worldwide rise in temperature. Specifically, the interactive map visually demonstrates what could happen if carbon emissions are not curbed, and as a result, Earth's temperature rises four degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial worldwide climate average. As a plethora of scientists and politicians have repeatedly stated, an increase in things like drought and agricultural disruption as a result of drought, could lead to instability and violence in some parts of the world. (Read Full Article)

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Report: Carbon cap to spur nukes, gas, renewables

Explore Technology News (Jul 16 2010) Emissions , Fossil Fuel

About half of the electricity in the U.S. is made by burning coal, but a limit on carbon emissions from utilities would lead to a shift toward nuclear, natural gas, and renewable energy, according to a report. Research and consulting company ICF International released one of its periodic Energy Outlook reports last week, projecting a change in the fuel used for generating electricity in the U.S. if Congress passes an energy and climate bill. A change in the fuel mix for the grid? (Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET ) After months of political wrangling, Senate Democrats in recent weeks have decided to pursue a scaled-down energy and climate bill that would put a national cap on carbon emissions from utilities, rather than all industries. Utilities account for about one-third of emissions. Other measures expected in the bill are incentives for energy efficiency, a renewable-energy mandate for utilities, and a response ... (Read Full Article)

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More than half of new power in U.s., Eu is green

Explore Technology News (Jul 16 2010) Emissions , Fossil Fuel , Wind

More than half of all new electricity capacity added in the United States and Europe last year was from renewable power such as wind and solar, a body backed by the International Energy Agency and the UN reported. Last year was also a record year for the amount of new green power added to the grid, partly a result of shifting deployment and manufacture to emerging economies including Brazil, India and China, from flagging developed countries. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Europe

Australia going smart-grid

Explore Technology News (Jun 9 2010) Emissions , Fossil Fuel

Newcastle, in the state of New South Wales, will be the first Australian city to move onto a smart grid in what the government says could be a nationwide change. The announcement, made Monday, is part of Australia's "Smart Grid, Smart City" initiative involving the collaboration of several Australian government ministries, private contractors including GE Energy and IBM Australia, and Energy Australia, one the country's leading electricity utilities. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Department of Energy   IBM

Muglia on Google, Azure, and the future of Windows Server

Explore Technology News (Jun 9 2010)

Although he's presided over the expansion of Microsoft's server business, Bob Muglia is ready to help companies move away from that same server software. Well, he is at least as long as those businesses are moving to the Microsoft cloud-based services that are replicating the software that, at one point, ran only in a company's own data center. Muglia (Credit: Microsoft) In an interview, the president of Microsoft's server and tools business talked about the shifts to the cloud, Google's role in the enterprise and the future of Microsoft's server products, including the next version of Windows Server, which he said will be a major update. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Google   Bob Muglia   Microsoft Corp

Bill Joy on Sun's downfall, Microsoft's prospects, green tech (q&a)

Explore Technology News (May 25 2010) Fossil Fuel

Though he helped start Sun Microsystems, Bill Joy has been spent the last five years thinking a lot more about solar energy than about that other Sun. "It's early days," Joy said of the green-technology industry he now focuses on as a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins. "It's like the Internet before the Netscape IPO." But, he said, there are needs in his new field that are quite different from those encountered by most Internet ventures. "Most Internet companies don't make anything other than software or a Web site," Joy said. "They don't have factories like you'd see in China or Taiwan. Starting a lot of these companies is a lot more like trying to create a manufacturing base." (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Sun Microsystems   Oracle   Microsoft Corp