Green Data Center Blog

Boeing and Airbus - Environment Sites

Boeing and Airbus have their environment sites.  This is interesting to look at for companies who have now had to make Green, carbon emissions, energy efficiency part of their everyday communications.

Pulling the Plug: Summer of '08 Sparks Creative Conservation - WSJ.com

WSJ has an article on how people are being creative turning off their air conditioning. It is 2nd most popular article today behind the US bolsters fannie and freddie.

As the article cites, get ready for the electricity price increases.

Pulling the Plug: Summer of '08 Sparks Creative Conservation - WSJ.com

Because many power plants run on natural gas, which has shot way up in price, utilities in every region of the nation have imposed -- or are planning -- big rate increases this year, some approaching 30%.

In response, nearly two-thirds of families are cutting back on air conditioning, according to a recent Associated Press-Yahoo News poll. They're buying ceiling fans and programmable thermostats; burning up hot afternoons in malls and movie theaters; and bombarding blogger Erin Huffstetler, who writes about frugal living, with questions about the merits of tinting their windows dark to block the sun.

I know the Microsoft guys say they save energy cleaning the roof.  Here is one guy who thinks he saves energy by sprinkling the roof.

On hot afternoons, Mr. Newman runs a hose to the roof and douses the shingles for 20 minutes, which he swears lowers the temperature inside. "I don't know if it's all that good for the life span of the roof," Mr. Newman says, "but when it's 110 degrees, I really could care less."

And WSJ even included a story of a bad move in air conditioning.

And Reba Kennedy, who turned off her central air altogether?

Ms. Kennedy now cools just the three rooms she uses most in her San Antonio home, with window units set at 78 degrees. To her surprise, she has found it pleasurable. With her downstairs windows open, she can smell the honeysuckle in her yard. She loves the look of her sheer curtains blowing in the breeze.

Last week, though, when she reviewed her electric bills, Ms. Kennedy found that her sacrifices haven't translated into savings. In June of 2006 -- with the central air on full blast -- she used an average of 26 kilowatt hours a day. Last month? An average of 44.

Harvey Sachs, a senior fellow at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, says that isn't surprising, because window units are notoriously inefficient.

But Ms. Kennedy was upset. Since quitting her job as a business lawyer two years ago to take up writing, she has tried to live simply and frugally; conserving energy is central to that goal.

GE Earnings: Appliances Out, Energy In

WSJ’s Environmental Blog points out GE’s strength is now its energy businesses, both traditional and renewable. 

GE Earnings: Appliances Out, Energy In

Posted by Keith Johnson

General Electric didn’t disappoint with its second-quarter earnings — they were as dismal as expected, with a profit drop of more than 5%.

The bright spot, as in past quarters? Infrastructure and energy. And regardless of what the ads might say, that isn’t all wind turbines and green energy (though GE’s wind business is going gangbusters). There’s plenty of old energy in there, too, from gas turbines to coal and nuclear.

Which is why GE is rubbing its hands. World leaders are trying to figure out whether their priority is to tackle climate change with a lot more clean energy, or to fight poverty by bridging the energy gap in poor countries with a lot more old energy. Unlike a lot of its specialized rivals, GE has the luxury of cheering on both camps — it can sell wind turbines to Texans and coal plants to India. That helps explain the conglomerate’s makeover away from 100-year old lightbulbs and toward new energy sources.

And closes with the current economic conditions favor GE.

Now, GE’s just got to hope the dollar stays weak. That means pricey oil, more attractive renewable energy, and an easier export story for all of its energy products.

Financial Times Article, Awareness a Rack uses Electricity Like a Giant Electric Oven for 5 Turkeys

This Financial Times article doesn't have anything really new, but it was interesting they chose to use a giant oven cooking 5 turkeys to explain to the financial community how much power a rack of servers consume.

IT going green: Temperature rises push heat up the agenda

By Dan Ilett

Published: July 8 2008 16:33 | Last updated: July 8 2008 16:33

A rack of computers in a data centre uses the same amount of electricity as a giant electric oven – “an oven cooking about five turkeys,” says Steve O’Donnell, senior vice-president of IT for First Data, and author of thehotsisle.com.

Heat is a big problem for data-centre operators, especially as temperatures rise in the northern hemisphere’s summer. But to remove it with air conditioning is expensive and uses more power.

“As the thermometer level increases, so does the headache for the IT director,” says Osca St Marthe, principal consultant at technology consultancy Morse.

“Power costs are coming on to the radar of the board – some people have seen electricity costs double,” he says. “All technology operates within certain temperature parameters and as the temperature increases, the efficiency of your systems decreases. ”

“People are finding they can’t get enough power into the data centre and are, therefore, worrying about adding more air-conditioning units. In fact, at one data centre I visited people were worried that plugging a phone charger in might tip the balance, let alone more air-conditioning units.”

Greene out at VMware, Big Changes Coming as Virtualization Software is a Commodity

DataCenterKnowledge chose an interesting headline which got my attention.

VMware Surprise: Greene Out as CEO

Virtualization market leader VMware (VMW) announced that President and CEO Diane Greene has departed and been replaced by Paul Maritz, a Microsoft veteran who has most recently been in charge of the cloud computing operation at EMC, VMware's parent company.

VMware's release also said that "revenues for the full year of 2008 will be modestly below" the 50 percent growth seen in 2007. The switch comes as Microsoft is finally bringing its Hyper-V virtualization technology to market, posing the largest competitive threat yet to VMware's leadership in the sector.

Greene co-founded VMware with her husband, Mendel Rosenblum, who serves as chief scientist and is a prominent advocate for the company's technology. VMware watcher Alessandro Perilli of Virtualization.info noted that Greene had been a popular CEO. "This replacement, if imposed by the parent company EMC, may have a huge domino effect on the whole VMware management team," Perilli writes.

Shares of VMware are off sharply on the news. In early afternoon, VMW is trading at $39, down $14.36 for a decline of 27 percent.

Potential slow sales are bringing VMware stock down as WSJ reports.

The warning and management change are the latest episodes in the volatile VMware saga, which has seen shares in the virtualization software maker rocket as high as $125 following its $29 initial public offering in August 2007, when it was spun off from EMC, before falling back earlier this year. Shares were recently down 26% to $39.06 on the New York Stock Exchange.

EMC still owns a nearly 85% stake in VMware.

VMWare said Tuesday that 2008 revenue growth "will be modestly below" its prior target of 50%. The mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial was for 51% growth to $2 billion.

The announcements sent shares of VMWare tumbling 26% to $39.30 Tuesday. Shares of EMC were recently trading down 12% at $13.33.

It will be interesting to see what Paul Maritz does taking his experience with Cloud Computing.

EMC’s New Cloud Infrastructure And Services Division

An important aspect of the press release is that Pi’s founder and CEO – Paul Maritz – will be President and GM of this new EMC division.

I’ve been dropping hints like crazy that something was up in this space, but I guess now it’s pretty obvious – we’re taking this shift in the industry very, very seriously.  This ain’t just PowerPoint talking here …

We’re saying that success in this new space will require a very different technology base – and a business model – very unlike other parts of the traditional IT landscape.

The visible parts of this new entity include Pi’s assets, as well as Mozy and the Fortress platform … but I think it’s worth a tour through the rest of the EMC portfolio to see other synergistic aspects.

Paul was one of the best Microsoft VPs I enjoyed working with, and I believe he'll be able to take VMware to a new possibility of cloud computing and virtualization.

Survey shows Support for Energy Exploration Rises

A survey by Pew Research Center shows Americans are shifting their attitudes towards energy exploration.

As Gas Prices Pinch, Support for Energy Exploration Rises

More Favor Drilling in ANWR

Overview

Amid record gas prices, public support for greater energy exploration is spiking. Compared with just a few months ago, many more Americans are giving higher priority to more energy exploration, rather than more conservation. An increasing proportion also says that developing new sources of energy - rather than protecting the environment - is the more important national priority.

The latest nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 18-29 among 2,004 adults, also finds that half of Americans now support drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, up from 42% in February.

The public's changing energy priorities are most evident in the growing percentage that views increased energy exploration - including mining and drilling, as well as the construction of new power plants - as a more important priority for energy policy than increased conservation and regulation. Nearly half (47%) now rates energy exploration as the more important priority, up from 35% in February. The proportion saying it is more important to increase energy conservation and regulation has declined by 10 points (from 55% to 45%).

And, the partisan, age, gender divide has disappeared.

Partisan Gap over Energy Exploration Disappears

Much of the increase in support for energy exploration has come among groups that previously viewed this as a less important priority than energy conservation - young people, liberals, independents, Democrats, women and people who have attended college.

Fully half of people ages 18 to 29 (51%) now say expanding energy exploration is a more important priority for energy policy than increasing energy conservation and regulation; only about a quarter of young people (26%) expressed this view in February. The proportion of liberals who say expanded energy exploration is the more important priority also has doubled (from 22% to 45%).

The gender gap in attitudes about whether greater exploration or greater conservation is the more important priority has disappeared, as women have become much more supportive of expanded exploration (up 18 points).

Similarly, more independents (19 points) and Democrats (16 points) view increased energy exploration as the more important priority. About the same proportions of Democrats (46%) and Republicans (43%) now say expanded exploration, rather than increased conservation, should take precedence; in February, far more Republicans than Democrats expressed this view.

New Coal Electricity Plant Carbon Emissions Limited by Georgia Court Order

WSJ reports on a Georgia Court Order limiting carbon emission from a new coal power plant.

Georgia Court Orders
Greenhouse-Gas Limits

WSJ ROUNDUP
July 1, 2008; Page A4

In a decision with potentially significant ramifications for power companies and the national debate over global warming, a state court in Georgia ruled Monday that a proposed coal-burning power plant can't proceed unless its carbon-dioxide emissions are limited.

The ruling against a proposed 1200-megawatt power plant in Early County, Ga., marks the first time that a judge has applied a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on global warming to emissions from an industrial source, environmental groups said. David Byford, a spokesman for Houston-based Dynegy Inc., which is developing the project with LS Power Group of East Brunswick, N.J., said, "We're disappointed in the ruling and we're planning an appeal."

The Supreme Court's April 2007 decision required the Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether carbon dioxide -- the greenhouse gas most blamed for global warming -- endangers public health or welfare, the legal criteria to be regulated under the federal Clean Air Act. Citing concerns about the impact of such an action on the U.S. economy, the Bush administration has yet to formally issue that declaration, however, and officials in some states have begun to fill the void by setting their own policies aimed at curbing carbon-dioxide emissions.

Action like this will help to drive energy prices higher as Environmental groups plan on using this ruling in 30 other proposed coal plants.

Environmental groups said they planned to use the Georgia court's ruling to hold up about 30 other proposed coal plants that are subject to litigation.

"We will be taking this decision and making the same arguments to push for an end to conventional coal," said Bruce Nilles, who oversees the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign. The plant's developers, LS Power Group and Dynegy, were reviewing the ruling and didn't have an immediate comment.

Prettiest Corporate Environment site - Dell or Microsoft?

Microsoft has its Environment Site.

Dell has their Earth Site.

Almost all high tech sites have a Green/Environment site now, and Microsoft and Dell have the prettiest looking ones.

Maybe I need to work on my own Green page. ;-)  Here are pictures I would use as they are the view out of my office windows, then I could justify why I picked these images.

Green (Resource Efficient) products are more competitive with rising energy prices

WSJ has a few interesting articles on Green efforts winning vs. other industries due to the fact that Green strategies uses less resources. In this article they make the point that energy intensive products are increasing in prices faster than Greener products.

Green Products Gain
From New Price Equation

They Find New Buyers
As High Energy Costs
Hurt Regular Brands

By ARDEN DALE

Does it finally pay to go green?

Consumers typically have paid a premium for environmentally friendly products. But with soaring energy prices pushing up the price of mainstream goods, green products are becoming just as -- or even more -- affordable these days.

The reason is that environmentally friendly products usually have less fossil-fuel content than competing nongreen brands. Their manufacture also tends to consume less oil, since green entrepreneurs favor renewable-energy and energy-saving practices.

TerraCycle Inc.

A TerraCycle bag made from juice pouches

The new price parity -- and, in some cases, advantage -- is allowing businesses to draw in the growing ranks of consumers who want to go green, but have so far resisted because of the higher cost. It also is giving some companies incentive to branch out into other eco-friendly products and even adopt more energy-saving manufacturing techniques.

"We try to leverage situations like this to grow into new markets," says Jeff Mendelsohn, founder and chief executive officer of New Leaf Paper LLC, a maker of recycled paper. "Where there's instability in prices, buyers tend to be more open to new sourcing, and that's a general market strategy, not just green."

This same phenomenon will occur in data center operators.  The Greenest data centers are going to be more competitive as energy costs increase.

Green (Resource Efficient) Food winning vs. Organic

WSJ has a few interesting articles on Green efforts winning vs. other industries due to the fact that Green strategies uses less resources. This article compares Monsanto an engineered food company which claims it is 30% more efficient in using land, water, and energy to produce food than other food.  The article then goes on to compare the stock price of Monsanto vs. Whole Food.  Monsanto is the winner.

Food Shortage Recasts Image of 'Organic'

By KAREN RICHARDSON
June 25, 2008

The salad days of organic salad are wilting in favor of high-tech tomatoes.

As global food shortages threaten to ignite social and economic instability from Nigeria to India, the popular aversion to genetically modified foods is turning into more of a luxury for the wealthy than a practical option for the masses.

This trend is evident in the share price and earnings growth of Monsanto, the world leader in agricultural biotechnology by market share. Its stock has soared 22% this year, trading at a breathless 37 times estimated 2008 per-share earnings. On Wednesday, the company is expected to report a third-quarter profit of $1.39 a share, up 35% from a year earlier.

Gourmets' fears of "frankenfoods" that make corn taste like cardboard seem to be taking a back seat to the growing global demands of feeding emerging middle classes in developing countries with limited natural resources.

Monsanto's seeds produce insect-resistant, drought-tolerant crops. It has pledged to double crop yields by 2030 for corn, soybeans and cotton and to reduce the need for water, land and energy by 30%, an effort to position itself as a solution to concerns about mounting strain on the globe's natural resources.

The firm is in a strong position. Farmers who want to raise their yields of corn for feed or ethanol have to pay the price, while buyers of that corn have to eat it. Monsanto has already increased its earnings outlook several times this year because of demand and higher prices.

It stands in stark contrast to Whole Foods Market, the supermarket for all things organic. It is a price taker that can't easily pass higher costs to its customers. From 2001 to the end of 2006, the company's earnings grew an average annual rate of 25%. In 2007, earnings were down more than 10%, and they're falling further.

Engineered food is clearly getting an upper hand.