Climate Change puts USA Power Generation at Risk

US Dept Of Energy put out a report on the risks to the USA power generation system by climate change.

Today’s report U.S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Extreme Weather examines current and potential future impacts of these climate trends on the U.S. energy sector. Researchers have identified several critical issues, including power-plant disruptions due to drought and the disruption of fuel supplies during severe storms. They’ve also pinpointed potential opportunities that would make our energy infrastructure more resilient to these risks.

If you go to the interactive map on the site you can get the specifics for the marked locations.

The map above shows how the following three extreme climate trends have caused major issues to the energy sector across the country over the past ten years:

1. Increasing air and water temperatures;
2. Decreasing water availability across regions and seasons; and
3. Increasing intensity and frequency of storm events, flooding and sea level rise.

Here are some more details from the report:

• Climate change has created an increased risk of shutdowns at coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. Why? Changes in the climate mean decreased water availability -- which affects cooling at thermoelectric power plants, a requirement for operation. 
• There are also higher risks to energy infrastructure located along the coasts thanks to sea level rise, the increasing intensity of storms, and higher storm surge and flooding.
• Power lines, transformers and electricity distribution systems face increasing risks of physical damage from the hurricanes, storms and wildfires that are growing more frequent and intense. 
• Air conditioning costs will rise due to increasing temperatures and heat waves, along with the risks of blackouts and brownouts in regions throughout the country.

Microsoft's new organization puts "datacenter" four times and "supply chain" three times in Steve Ballmer's memo

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer sent out a memo to the company and rest of the world on a new organization for innovation, speed, and efficiency. Which may be kind of obvious.  Who wants to enable legacy, slow, and wasteful organizations. :-)

Being an a data center guy, Industrial Engineer, and ex-Microsoft I was curious where data centers showed up and saw "supply chain" show up three times.

Datacenter shows up 4 times.  The correct way to spell data centers is datacenter, but almost no one does.

The Microsoft data center group used to report to Qi Lu and will now report to Satya Nadella.  Qi Lu is focused on apps and services.

Applications and Services Engineering Group. Qi Lu will lead broad applications and services core technologies in productivity, communication, search and other information categories

Supply chain shows up three times.

With Microsoft showing up with so much interest in supply chain I wonder if they'll start recruiting amazon.com supply chain folks.  Wal-mart people have already joined Microsoft including COO Kevin Turner.

BMW's i3 a car with carbon fiber made from low carbon power from Eastern Washington

I heard about the BMW i3 and when I looked it up the carbon fiber is manufactured in a new Moses Lake, WA.  Near where other data centers have gone.

At a dedicated facility in Moses Lake, Washington, BMW has partnered with SGL Group to fill all the i3's carbon fiber requirements. Producing carbon fiber since 2011, the hi-tech CFRP facility runs two lines, capable of producing 1,500 tonnes of fiber per year. Fibers are then shipped to the Wackersdorf Innovation Park where they are transformed into basic carbon fiber sheets. From there the sheets are shipped to the Bavarian villa of Landshut, and pressed into various CFRP components for the i3. BMW claims that in comparison to conventional CFRP production, CO2 output from the Moses Lake facility is roughly 50 percent less than its competitors.

Here is a 15 minute video that discuss the process and show the carbon fiber plant.

Taking pictures in low light with Canon 6D

I am going to DCD SF and I think I am going to bring my Canon 6D and take lots of pictures.

The 6D is a lot of fun and amazing what it can do.

Here is a picture of my daughter in the dark with ISO 12800.  Yes 12,800.  f/4 the lens is wide open to get as much light as it can.  Shutter speed is 1/8 of a second.

Same picture crank exposure to +1.34 and look what the camera captures.

My son, roughly same conditions.

Bump exposure +1.33

What would happen if IDEO addressed the DCIM market?

The Economist has an article on how voluntary and public sector companies are reaching out to IDEO to design their services.

A growing proportion of IDEO’s work in re-engineering services is for NGOs and governments. Oxfam employed the firm to redesign its core product, gift-giving. Singapore asked it to revamp its system for handling applications for work permits. Often, it is not exactly rocket science: make forms easier to fill in, make each step in the process clearer and less prone to errors, and so on. But, as anyone who has ever applied for a United States visa (let alone an Indian one) will know, governments can be startlingly poor at designing their processes and serving their customers.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if DCIM companies used IDEO's approach?

A growing proportion of IDEO’s work in re-engineering services is for NGOs and governments. Oxfam employed the firm to redesign its core product, gift-giving. Singapore asked it to revamp its system for handling applications for work permits. Often, it is not exactly rocket science: make forms easier to fill in, make each step in the process clearer and less prone to errors, and so on. But, as anyone who has ever applied for a United States visa (let alone an Indian one) will know, governments can be startlingly poor at designing their processes and serving their customers.

But, part of the mind flip is the mind flip that users know better than the creators.

Rich countries’ welfare states were designed for a more homogeneous and deferential society in which most people accepted that the men in the ministry knew best. Now, the public rightly expect better, but governments constantly fail to live up to their demands. Since public agencies have generated so few good ideas of their own, a bit of outside help would appear to be worth trying.

How many DCIM vendors focus on you being right and they need to design the software to live up to your demands?

If you hear the words customization.  Run.  Run quickly.  As customization almost always leads you to more costs, more time, and more frustration.