Berkeley Lab To Help China Improve Energy Efficiency of Data Centers
The amount of energy consumed by data centers is increasing rapidly around the world, and China is no exception. With its growing information technology and telecom industries and its emerging status as a supercomputer power, China continues to expand its data center capacity. In an effort to help reduce carbon emissions, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a world leader in high-performance buildings, has started working with China to improve the energy performance of its data centers.
The project is jointly run by Dale Sartor, leader of the Building Technology’s Applications Team (A-Team), which specializes in the energy efficiency of high-tech facilities, and Bo Shen of the China Energy Group. The Berkeley Lab scientists will work with the China Institute of Electronics and the China Electronics Standardization Institute to share best practices, case studies and other material to help China develop standards and training programs for its industry. “As in other countries, there’s huge variation in the data centers in China, but there is a lot of room for improvement,” Sartor said, after two visits to China in four months.
Berkeley Lab scientists Dale Sartor (second from left) and Bo Shen (far right) visit Huawei’s data center in China.
China is eager to participate in initiatives to boost its energy efficiency, partly because of a central government mandate to reduce the economy’s energy intensity. And for its data centers, there are cost incentives that are often even stronger than those for data centers in other countries. “The overall cost of both utility-supplied and onsite-generated power is expensive, so therefore, it can be even more cost-effective for China than here to take energy efficiency actions,” Sartor said.
Moreover, it is an opportune time to implement standards, given that China is still relatively early in the development curve and may be on the brink of explosive growth. “It’s important because one of our interests is targeting an industry that’s in its youth so it can leapfrog, and we can make sure they do it right the first time,” Sartor said. “China is looking at India and saying, ‘we want to be knowledge workers as well.’ It’s eying the IT [information technology] industry as a growth area, not just to support their manufacturing, but they see the kinds of services India is providing as something their population can profit from. So the IT industry growth is potentially huge.”
In the United States and other countries, data centers have proliferated due largely to skyrocketing demands for communications, data storage, data processing and the digitization of vast sectors of the economy. A 2007 report by the Environmental Protection Agency found that the energy used by data centers—including the servers as well as the infrastructure to power and cool them—had doubled in the previous five years. Data centers accounted for 1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption in 2006 and were on track to double by 2011.
In China, it appears the telecommunications rather than the IT industry dominates the data center market. China is also moving aggressively into the supercomputer market—it now has two of the top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world and 42 of the top 500, ranking second behind the United States (with 275).
Another difference is that most data centers in China tend to be government owned or controlled. “It’s a little harder to use the entrepreneurial approach, but once you convince the government to make the changes, since it’s centrally controlled, they can make the changes quicker,” Sartor said. “If you get them to change, big changes can occur rapidly.”
A common measure of data center efficiency is the power utilization effectiveness (PUE), which is the ratio of the entire data center’s energy usage to the energy going just to the servers and other IT equipment. A typical U.S. data center has a PUE of 2, meaning that for every kilowatt of power going to the computers, another kilowatt goes to the cooling, electrical system losses, lighting and other building functions. But the performance varies widely in the U.S., with the very best ones having PUEs as low as 1.1 and some inefficient ones as high as 4 or more.
Sartor says it is not difficult to make data centers more efficient and attain a PUE of 2 or lower. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of turning computers around, or plugging an empty slot in a rack with a blanking plate so that hot air doesn’t recirculate. “The level of engineering that goes into the infrastructure around a data center is so far behind what’s in the rack it’s not even funny,” he said. “Throughout the world, lack of knowledge of how to implement energy-efficiency measures is what’s holding industry back, not economics.”
Turning computers around so that they all face the same direction and the hot exhaust goes out the back creates hot and cold aisles; this is a basic element of energy efficient data centers that can be achieved with little additional cost. Furthermore, the “cold aisles” do not need to be cold. Computers can be cooled at 80 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. “Our goal is to reduce or eliminate the need for mechanical (compressor) cooling,” Sartor says.
Berkeley Lab also hopes to work with China to implement more advanced concepts, such as warm-water liquid cooling and DC power, through its partner agency.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory managed by the University of California for the DOE Office of Science. Berkeley Lab provides solutions to the world’s most urgent scientific challenges including sustainable energy, climate change, human health, and a better understanding of matter and force in the universe. It is a world leader in improving our lives through team science, advanced computing, and innovative technology.
Reference Link
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/12/21/china-energy-efficiency-of-data-centers/
Courtesy
University of California
Solar Power Towers coming to California
The United States of America will now produce clear power that can light up as many as 11000 to 277500 homes in the country. The Sectary of Interior Ken Salazar has given a go ahead to the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system, a project proposed by BrightSource of Oakland that can produce up to 370 megawatt of clear energy and generate nearly 1100 opportunities for employment. The project, located in San Bernardino Country, California, is the inaugural large-scale solar energy project on US public soil to use the power tower.
Key features of the project.
- The project, which will be in three phases, will finish by the year 2013.
- This know-how takes the help of mirror fields so that solar energy is pointed on the power tower receivers closer to every array. To generate electricity, Steam from the solar boilers in the towers is used to drive a turbine and electricity is produced.
How will it help the Administration.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system will be one project that will be a win-win situation for both the administration and BrightSource.
- This will give a boost to administration’s efforts for quick growth of production of renewable energy on public property on a large scale. Whereas the Sectary of Interior had given a green signal to first of such projects on October 5, with Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system, this figure has reached to 3.
- A day later, Salzar also signed a lease deal with Cape Wind to generate 468 megawatts of clean renewable electricity for Nantucket Sound Communities by purchasing a 130 turbine offshore wind farm.
- This would be the first lease on the Outer Continental Shelf to develop commercial wind energy.
- All these efforts will help USA to build a clean energy economy that could generate 1124 megawatts of clean energy to lit-up between 337000 and 843000 homes.
- It will reduce carbon emission and help the nation as a whole by making USA independent in its energy needs and strengthen its national security.
How will it help BrightSource Energy.
- The decision gives the power to Interior’s Bureau of Land management to give a site in the Southern California’s Mojave Desert, close to the Primm, Nevada border, to BrightSource so that they can use it for 30 years, provided they comply with all conditions including rent.
- BrightSource will be eligible to recover 30 percent of their cost, which the energy developers can recover under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provided they have started the construction work before or in 2010. The U.S. department of Energy has also awarded them $ 1.37 billion in conditional loan guarantees as per the provisions of Recovery act.
- The project Ivanpah is processed by Bureau of Land Management and the California Energy Commission (CEC) cooperative model established by an October 12, 2009 agreement. It is based on an agreement between Secretary Salazar and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which tells the Interior and state agencies to take initiative to develop renewable energy in the land of California, which is best suited to the environment.
Environmental hazards And public accountability.
Keeping with the norms of the state- private partnership and the fact that it is working on harnessing alternative means of energy, BrightSource is required to make its share of contribution to protect the environment. BrightSource will be needed to acquire around 7300 mitigation acres. According to a plan of the US Fish and Wildlife services, which BrightSource has to follow, it has to test 3 million Desert Tortoise selected by Bureau of Land Management in California for diseases and then monitor them by locating them to a more suitable place. The company will also have to contribute to the joint compensation fund created by Federal and State agencies and operated by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the negative effect it causes to various resources including water and wildlife.
As a part of its social duty, BrightSource has allowed its solar energy enhancing projects to go through various public scrutinies for environment hazards. These include:
- Public scoping in 2007
- Draft environment Impact Statement in 2009
- Full public involvement in 2009
- A supplement draft in 2010 before a final environment Impact Statement was prepared.
As noted by Salazar, important changes were made in the project. The size of BrightSource’s project was cut by 15%, from 4,073 acres down to 3,471 acres and the number of heliostats (solar mirrors) from 214,000 to 173,500 by the Bureau of Land Management after this scrutiny.
Reacting to these changes made in the project after public scrutiny, Salazar said, “Since it is essential that we learn from our past experiences to make certain that we wisely develop clean energy at the appropriate places, I am happy that changes have been made to improve the project.”
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/solar-power-towers-california/
Courtesy
AE News Network
Recycling waste isn't a waste of time for surfboard form maker
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- Joey Santley and Steve Cox sweep up polyurethene dust, make surfboard blanks
- Blanks are board-shaped foam cutouts that are finished at surfboard manufacturers
- About 40 percent of each surfboard blank winds up in the dump, Santley estimates
- Professional surfer says boards made with Green Foam just as good as others
One Simple Thing features people who through small yet innovative ways are making a difference in education, energy, the environment, and the use of the planet’s resources.
San Clemente, California (CNN) — Joey Santley’s flip-flops rhythmically clap as he strolls through San Clemente’s surf ghetto, a cluster of boxy surfboard-making businesses.
This chatterbox entrepreneur spouts out ideas like big waves churn up foam.
Surfing is a sport with a black spot on its eco-friendly soul, and Santley thinks he found a way to cleanse it.
“We’re going to take the biggest pile of trash that our industry makes and we are going to figure out a home for it,” Santley explains.
The shaping and making of surfboards for decades has produced a chemical residue, a toxic white dust that can be found all over the surf ghetto.
Santley grabs a plastic bag inside the major surfboard manufacturer Lost, and points down at a pile of polyurethane powder, excess foam that sprinkled from a surfboard-shaping machine.
“I’ll come in here and clean up all this stuff,” explains Santley, using a broom and dustpan to put the polyurethane dust into a plastic garbage bag. “They can keep cranking [producing surfboards] because it gets too full in here.
“They love it because they don’t have to clean up. And I love it because I come and get material for my boards. And if I wasn’t doing this, the dust would be going into the landfill over the hill.”
Santley estimates that 40 percent or more of each surfboard blank winds up in the dump.
The flaky foam waste collects and swirls like light snow throughout the surf ghetto shops. The board makers use high-pressure air hoses to blow off the itchy powder.
Santley and his partner, Steve Cox, have now recycled enough foam dust to provide the raw material for 2,000 surfboards.
“It saves room for tomorrow,” says Mike Giancola, the director of Orange County, California, Waste & Recycling. “We’re glad that they [Santley and Cox] took the initiative and found alternatives to the waste at the Prima landfill. That’s the kind of sustainability we like to see.”
Surfboards are made from blanks — board-shaped foam cutouts that are finished at manufacturers such as Lost, where legendary shapers such as Matt “Mayhem” Biolos sculpt the final product.
Biolos says the average cost of a surfboard is $650 and each board is custom made to the buyer’s specifications in flexibility, length, width, thickness and more, down to 1/16 of an inch.
“There is really no other example of it in the sporting world, so we are really spoiled about our equipment,” says Biolos. “We can go and get them made in almost any surfing country in the world, to fit our exact specs. It’s not like buying a tennis racket or a baseball glove with another athlete’s name on it.”
So the question hanging ten out there is: Will surfers with spiritual connections to their beloved custom-made boards be willing to ride on recycled material?
Professional superstar Cory Lopez says among the many boards he rides are some of Biolos’ Lost boards, crafted from Green Foam Blanks.
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Video: Surfing’s dirty little secret//
// “Green foam, it works just the same as the other boards but it’s just a little more environmentally friendly,” Lopez told CNN. “So it’s a win-win situation. You have to enjoy the fact that it is good for the environment and the fact that you can go out there and ride it just the same as any other board.”
The earliest generation of Green Foam Blanks suffered from a slight flaw that does not affect the ride, but could turn off surfers with their notoriously picky tastes.
The surfboards made from recycled foam blanks were dotted with little specs, giving the boards just a slightly dirty or murky finish.
But the buzz in San Clemente’s surf businesses is newest batches of Green Foam Blanks are less murky and Santley showed off some visibly cleaner next-generation boards.
But surfers are the last people who should worry about looks, Santley says.
“I don’t know many surfers that wear lipstick and makeup when they surf,” he says. “I don’t wear lipstick and make up, so what does it matter what it looks like if it [the surfboard] is light and strong and has the right flex and does the job under your feet?”
Green Foam Blanks may have never gone from one of Santley’s ideas into the water, if not for a major shake-up in what the Surf Industry Manufacturing Association calls a $190-million-a-year business (about 300,000 surfboards).
The dominant supplier of surfboard blanks, Clark Foam, shut down in 2006, opening the market to new firms, including one created by some of its former employees, U.S. Blanks.
Santley saw an opportunity to “green up” surfing by recycling all that blanks’ dust and is now teamed with U.S. blanks.
“Everyone kept saying, ‘Don’t waste your time, don’t waste your time,'” Santley recalls. “Finally we got the opportunity to, and a blank manufacturer to do a test. After 50 years of rigid polyurethane production on Earth, we successfully proved our concept in one hour.”
Reference Link
http://us.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/05/27/ost.eco.surfboards/index.html
Courtesy
Cable News Network
Jordan Romero, 13, 'becomes youngest to scale Everest'
Jordan Romero was due to do some school work during his trip
A 13-year-old American boy has become the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, his family says.
Jordan Romero, from California, telephoned his mother from the peak of the world’s highest mountain, she said.
“Mom, I’m calling you from the top of the world,” Leigh Anne Drake quoted her son as saying.
He was climbing with his father and three Sherpa guides. The previous record was held by a Nepalese boy of 16.
The 13-year-old has now conquered the highest mountains on six of the world’s seven continents.
JORDAN’S SUMMITS
Continue reading the main story
- Africa – Kilimanjaro: 2006
- Europe – Elbrus: 2007
- South America – Aconcagua: 2007
- North America – Denali: 2008
- Oceania – Carstensz Pyramid: 2009
- Everest – Asia: 2010
He climbed Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro aged 10. He just needs to scale the Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
He has also scaled Mount Kosciuszko in Australia.
The team set off from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, last month, heading for the base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain.
While Nepal insists that anyone planning to climb Mount Everest must be 16, China does not impose any age restrictions.
Some mountaineers have criticised the Romero family for letting him attempt the feat but his father said the ascent from the Chinese side is less dangerous, the AFP news agency reports.
Last month, his mother told the BBC he would do some school work during the trip.
Also on Saturday, Apa Sherpa, 50, climbed Everest for the 20th time, surpassing his own record.
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10141547.stm
Courtesy
The BBC
Electric car “filling station”
An electric filling in New York
The first public trial of a system that “refills” electric cars in minutes will be launched this month. The Californian company Better Place will test its automated battery-swap stations in Tokyo.
It is the latest element in the company’s ambitious plans to build the world’s first infrastructure networks for electric cars by the start of next year.
Globally, road vehicles generate around a fifth of carbon dioxide emissions. The figure is the same for the U.K. According to a study for the country’s Department for Transport, widespread adoption of electric vehicles with a range of 48 km or more could halve road transport emissions.
One of the biggest challenges, however, to the large-scale implementation of electric cars is the problem of infrastructure for recharging.
Better Place has come up with a model which involves building networks of charging points and battery-switch stations. At these a robotic mechanism will swap the empty battery in a car for a fully charged one. This means electric cars can be “refilled” in minutes, rather than taking several hours to charge their batteries.
On April 26 in Tokyo, Better Place will begin the first public trial of its battery-switching stations. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040758191800.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Second Acts: Recession Success Stories
Living Off the Land
The Go-Getter: Rose Godfrey, 42, speech pathologist and farmer
Got Started in: Marysville, California
The Goal : To return to nature
The Gain : Cut $160 weekly grocery bill by two thirds, forged new bonds with family
Rose Godfrey (holding baby Sicily) and her husband, Brian, now produce and sell their own food. The kids pitch in.
I still remember the moment in June 2008 when I looked at my appointments book and thought, Wow. I have only two clients all month. I started my speech pathology practice in 1998 and gradually grew the business to 13 employees in three different offices. But by last year, people weren’t paying for speech therapy the way they had been. For one thing, the insurance companies were tightening their belts, even denying reimbursement retroactively. I cut my own pay by 20 percent because I didn’t want to let anyone on my staff go. My husband, Brian, who had worked in military intelligence for 22 years before staying home with our kids, tried to rejoin the workforce. But there were no jobs in his field. His job had been to process film from spy planes—it’s a very niche profession.
We have 11 children in all, from 25 years to six months, although our oldest four are already on their own. But we couldn’t live on anything less than what we were making. We’ve always been interested in food safety and in teaching the kids where their food comes from. We love fresh vegetables from small farms. I’d raised chickens while growing up in nearby Yuba City. So we wondered, What if we started farming?
We began with two pigs. When a local farmer suggested we get laying hens because there was a market for fresh eggs, our plan came together. Brian built coops with wheels so that we could move our chickens around on fresh grass over our seven acres of land. We acquired more animals. It was scary and stressful. What if no one bought anything?
But people did buy. The local farmer took eggs to sell to his customers, and today he purchases about 20 dozen a week from us. At farmers’ markets in Yuba City, we sell out completely, earning $250 to $500 in a day. I once spent $160 a week on groceries; now I spend just $40 to $50 a week. Next year, the farm should gross about $40,000.
The children help out, which is crucial because our menagerie today includes 270 laying hens and 200 chickens. Sixteen-year-old Alyona waters and feeds the hens. Nine-year-old Bella, seven-year-old Sophia, and six-year-old Olivia milk the dairy goats and put out feed and water.
The speech therapy business is still alive, but I put in less than ten hours a week. I don’t know what the future holds. I do know that on the farm, there is life, there is physically satisfying work, and our family has bonded. Our quality of life is so much better. I spend most of the day with my children, which I’m grateful for, and at night, I have the good feelings that come from working with my hands and doing something positive.
Reference Link : http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/second-acts-recession-success-stories/article168022-1.html
Courtesy : Reader’s Digest
Prototype Solar Power-Assist for Buses
Sunpods Inc. is California-based manufacturing company. They produce modular, fully integrated and tested solar power generation systems. Recently they have come out with an idea of the first solar power-assist system for buses. They should be applauded for developing it in a mere six weeks. Their partner is Bauer Intelligent Transportation. The system developed by Sunpods will help Bauer to meet strict anti-pollution standards laid down by the State of California. California state law since 2008 has disallowed diesel vehicles to remain idle for more than five minutes. Now more than 25 states across the United States have anti-idling laws.
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Gary Bauer, founder and owner of Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation says, “We support the state’s strong commitment to reducing pollution. At the same time, as a transportation provider, we wanted to meet our customers’ requirements for comfort and connectivity. SunPods was able to make our vision a reality in less than 6 weeks. We’ve been testing the bus for the past 4 weeks and we’re impressed with the reliable performance.”
SunPod’s solar power-assist system has already been tested on a Bauer IT bus since January 2010. Bauer IT finds the performance of the solar power-assist system quite impressive. SunPods’ modular solar power assist system is made up of four thin film solar panels. They will be mounted across the length of the bus. These panels will help in charging an on-board deep cycle battery bank. When the bus engine is inactive the work of the batteries would be to power the air-conditioning and wireless connectivity equipment. This will facilitate the bus companies to meet anti-idling standards without putting passengers to discomfort.
Dan Jaeger, president and co-founder of SunPods expresses his thoughts, “We are really pleased to collaborate with an innovative company like Bauer IT. As a company, our focus is on reducing installation costs to make solar power more cost-effective and, thereby, increase adoption. With Bauer IT’s support, we have created a solar power assist system for luxury buses across the US.”
Bauer IT is an environmentally friendly transportation company. They have already taken many steps to reduce pollution. They possess a fleet of bio-diesel, EGR and propane vehicles. Bauer IT has installed in its buses the clean burning Series 60 engines. Series 60 engines use exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology and diesel particulates filters. They way they fully fulfill all EPA emission requirements. The requirements laid down conditions for a 90% reduction in particulate matter. Another condition is they should observe more than 50% reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx). EGR technology circulates cooled exhaust gas back into the engine air intake. This helps in lowering combustion temperatures and ultimately reducing the formation of NOx.
The buses have another mechanism working for them i.e. ZF Astronic transmission. It is a 12-speed manual transmission but its beauty is it behaves like an automatic version. ZF Astronic transmission takes into account the load, speed and road conditions. Then it analyzes these parameters and the transmission decides which is appropriate “shifting.” Fuel economy tests demonstrate a more than 6% increase in performance.
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/prototype-solar-power-assist-for-buses/
Courtesy
AENews Network
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