How Microsoft is Going Green Article

NetworkWorld does a good job of summarizing Microsoft's Going Green status.  The article is 4 pages long on the web site, and here are some highlights for interest in green data centers.

Microsoft also is committing billions of dollars for new data centers around the globe that, although they use a lot of energy, incorporate cutting-edge power efficiencies. New facilities are planned for Ireland and Russia's Siberia region, and ground was broken in 2007 for another in San Antonio, Texas.

The company, which will say only that it has between 10 and 100 data centers, has used software to create a map of the world that aggregates 35 factors, such as power costs and climate, to determine the best places to build. The map is a living artifact that changes with world affairs, utility prices and other events.

The showcase, however, may be in Northlake, Ill., a 430,762 sq.-ft. energy-efficient building the company will move into in April 2008. It was built by Ascent to house multiple tenants, but Microsoft will lease the entire building to support data-center operations for Windows Live, Hotmail, and MSN Video.

While Microsoft will install its own green design inside the building, the structure itself has unique qualities.

"I think the real story with the building is the size and scale, the proximity to transmission-grade power, the dedicated onsite substation and the outside air-cooling efficiency. That is where the real sizzle is," says Phil Horstmann, founder and CEO of Ascent, which has been building and operating data centers since 1998.

The building sits on 12 acres and connects to the power grid at 138,000 volts, which is about eight times higher than typical connection voltage, Horstmann says. The connection provides a very efficient power supply and makes the building one of the most powerful data-center developments in the United States, he says. He would not reveal construction costs for the building.

For the inside of its data centers, Microsoft has come up with a set of design classes for energy efficiency and created standards around such things as server and rack configurations.

"It is really about how we take these designs and how they fit into the local area," says Mike Manos, senior director of data-center services for Microsoft. "Which design is going to give you the biggest impact, the most servers, the most efficient power with the most sustainability."

And, here are comments on Power Management in the Windows OS.

Vista's default settings for power management are far more aggressive than those in previous versions, and sleep mode happens much more quickly, Microsoft's Bernard says.

Power management extends to servers in Windows Server 2008, which will support a virtualization technology called Hyper-V that allows consolidation of servers to improve CPU use and provide real-time capacity management.

Read more

EPA's Cel Phone eWaste Program

The eWaste momentum continues with the EPA's partnership with AT&T Wireless, Best Buy, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Office Depot, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Staples, and T-Mobile to recycle old cel phones. It's only a matter of time before the momentum shifts to IT equipment.

"Thanks to our Plug-In partners' efforts, recycling an old cell phone has become a quick and easy way for Americans to help protect the environment," said Susan Bodine, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "By dropping it off at a store or sending it through the mail, Americans have more recycling options today than ever before."
To kick-off the campaign, EPA released today a series of print public service announcements, "Recycle Your Cell Phone. It's An Easy Call," which highlight the convenience and environmental and social benefits of recycling a cell phone. EPA also introduced a podcast that addresses many common questions on cell phone recycling.
EPA started the campaign because many consumers still do not know where or how they can recycle their unwanted cell phones. Consequently, less than 20 percent of unwanted cell phones are recycled each year.
Recycling a cell phone offers an opportunity for everyone to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, and conserve natural resources. An estimated 100 to 130 million cell phones are no longer being used, many languishing in storage. If Americans recycled 100 million phones, we could save enough upstream energy to power more than 194,000 U.S. households for a year. If consumers were able to reuse those 100 million cell phones, the environmental savings would be even greater, saving enough energy to power more than 370,000 U.S. homes each year.

Read more

Geeks attempt to save Power in the home

I heard about this project a while ago, and thought it was naive at the time, giving end users the ability to monitor and set their power usage #'s.  I can tell these guys are not User Interface developers.

An easy UI I would have done is have a button to turn the system on and off.  The algorithms for on and off should be modified unseen from the users.  You test whether they are willing to keep the system on and when they turn it off to override it.  Expecting millions of people to play around with a dial to set energy savings is asking too much from users to guess on what dial settings are right for them.

Keep in mind when you want your users to save energy they need a simple User Interface. Do you want to save energy? Yes or No.  Don't give them a bunch of choices that will confuse them and waste their time.

The results were written in the NY times

The homeowners could go to a Web site to set their ideal home temperature and how many degrees they were willing to have that temperature move above or below the target. They also indicated their level of tolerance for fluctuating electricity prices. In effect, the homeowners were asked to decide the trade-off they wanted to make between cost savings and comfort.

The households, it turned out, soon became active participants in managing the load on the utility grid and their own bills.

“I was astounded at times at the response we got from customers,” said Robert Pratt, a staff scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the program director for the demonstration project. “It shows that if you give people simple tools and an incentive, they will do this.”

And thank god, they finally figured out that the UI needed to be simpler.

After some testing with households, the scientists decided not to put a lot of numbers and constant pricing information in front of consumers. On the Web site, the consumers were presented with graphic icons to set and adjust.

Read more

EBay Data Center pays $79,200 penalties for operating Diesel Generators when not permitted

Ebay picked a bad area, Sacramento, state capitol of California, and the backyard of Arnold Schwarzenegger the environmentalist governor to pollute the air.  The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District collected $79,200 from Ebay for an air quality permit violation.

“Our agency is deemed with the task of enforcing air quality laws to protect public health and the environment”, said AQMD’s Executive Officer Larry Greene.
“Bad air is bad for business and discharging harmful pollutants over several days carries a big fine when compromising the air quality and the health of our residents”.

The penalty is part of a settlement between AQMD and eBay to resolve a Notice of Violation (NOV) issued by the District on August 21, 2007 for Rule 201, General Permit Requirements.

Ebay’s data center facility in Rancho Cordova operated three standby generators for several days for purposes other than maintenance or emergency use, resulting in a discharge of emissions such as NOx and Diesel PM in excess of the limits allowed by their permits to operate.

Read more

Trouble for Greenwashers

FTC is starting hearings on Jan 8 for Environmental Marketing claims.

The Federal Trade Commission is beginning a regulatory review of its environmental marketing guidelines, also known as the Green Guides. The guides outline general principles for all environmental marketing claims and provide specifics about certain green claims, such as degradabilty, compostability, recyclability, recycled content, and ozone safety. In a Federal Register Notice, the Commission is requesting comments on the guides, including standard questions about costs, benefits, and effectiveness of the guides, and questions on specific topics, including “sustainable” and “renewable” claims. While the review was scheduled to begin in 2009, because of the current increase in green advertising claims, the Commission is reviewing the guides at this time to ensure they reflect today’s marketplace. The guides were last updated in 1998.

Read more