[clug] Re CO2 footprint of Searches: Storm in A Tea Cup or Deep Green Issue?

[Robert Edwards]

Wesley Bruce wrote:
> Its not that big a problem. Several people have been across the problem
> for years and new super efficient servers, etc are being built and
> deployed. Like everything the process is slowed down by the current bust
> {read Ron Pauls 'End the FED' on that one}. 
> 
> The Rocky Mountains Institute has built a super lean server.
> http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid535.php
> 
> Other projects include. Putting the server beside a powerstation so the
> waste heat from the powerstation can drive the coolers directly. Russia,
> Greenland and Nunavut are building passive cooled systems in the high
> arctic. 
> Putting the server farm in a swimming pool complex has also worked in
> Europe. There the computers heat the pool, the Pool is cooled passively
> by high evaporation in summer. 
> 
> I've also looked at Server sky http://server-sky.com/
> Its a very cute solution of putting the servers in outer space on
> micro-swarm-sats. There they chill down to a few degrees C in the sun,
> which powers them, and chill to cryogenic temperatures in the earths
> shadow. If server sky works its truly global giving super data and
> storage to both first world and the third world equally. Its an open
> source project.  
> Some boffins are working on computers that run hot using a variant of
> the old valve circuits at the micro scale in vacuum. These need to be
> heated to work and by combining them with systems that need to dump the
> same waste heat they compliment each other. 
> I've also heard of some NASA boffins that are designing electronics that
> run just fine at 800 C, they want to send robots to Venus that last
> longer than six minutes on the surface. Some computers like it hot.
> 
> I may not know much about linux but energy is my game.
>  

Seems to me that this discussion has moved to focussing (again) on the
data center, which is a reasonably well-understood problem. But Steve
also asked the question about all the internet infrastructure to get
your bits to/from the Arctic circle/space/Montreal etc.

I have been asking this same question for some years now but there
doesn't appear to be a lot of research results into this area. How
much does it _really_ cost in energy terms to get me a gigabyte of
data from a data center in Iceland vs. one in Canberra?

What about the "subscriber loop"/"last km"? Do some ISPs use "greener"
DSLAMs than others? Is TransACT's VDSL network more or less "green"
than iiNet or Internodes DSLAM stacks? Will the National Broadband
network with fibre to the home use more or less energy per gigabyte
delivered? What about the various 3G data technologies? And what
efforts are being made to make this final link more energy efficient?

Anybody got any good references?

Cheers,

Bob Edwards.

> 
> 
>> Apropos the search for a Green Laptop.
>> Mentioned on Lateline this week.
>>
>> "0.2g" per (google) search.
>>
>> BBC
>> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7823387.stm>
>>
>> Google
>> <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/powering-google-search.html>
>>
>> TechNewsWorld - 7g or 0.2g. 35KJ (10Wh) or 1KJ (0.3Wh) per search?
>> <http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Harvard-Prof-Sets-Record-Straight-on-Internet-Carbon-Study-65794.html>
>>
>> Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross,
>> "who manages the Web site CO2stats.com"
>> <http://www.co2stats.com/>
>>
>>
>>
>> I would've thought that server side was only a small part of the
>> equation... Backbones, transoceanic fibre, routers/switches, ISP's,
>> billing systems, ADSL, DSLAM's and your little old Desktop or Laptop
>> chugging away filling "black balloons" (according to the Adverts)
>>
>> IIRC, datacentres account for some very significant percentage of
>> power
>> used in Silicon Valley... [facts, anyone?]
>>
>> Average household electricity consumption is ~18kWh/day (67MJ/day).
>> In 2020 projected IT equipment use 3.2% residential electricity.
>>
>> Environment Australia:
>> "ENERGY USE IN THE AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTIAL SECTOR 1986 ? 2020"
>> <http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/energyefficiency/buildings/publications/energyuse.html>
>>
>>
>>
>> And what we know for sure:
>>
>>   Linux produces less CO2 :-)
>>
>>
>>
>> Hug the Planet, get a Penguin on your Desktop!
>>