Category: energy

cix, data centre, energy, hosting, IT@Cork

CIX on Intruders.tv

We held our Open Day in CIX a couple of weeks back. We invited local businesses to come in and have a look at the data centre infrastructure before we closed up all the ducts and hazardous areas.

We also invited Intruders.tv to come along and film the event. They did and they published the interview they did with Adam and I the other day.

http://new.intruders.tv/swf/flvplayer.swf

The Open day was the day after the it@cork conference so I was quite tired. Watching the video now I realise I messed up on some of the figures! Typical data centres operate at 30% energy efficiency (not 70% like I said in the video) and CIX is rated to operate at 80% energy efficiency due to the innovative technologies we outlined in this interview.

carbon neutrality, Climate Change, energy, Global Warming, Web 2.0

My Web 2.0 Expo Keynote presentation on reducing our carbon footprint

I’m back in Cork after giving one of the keynote addresses at the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin on Wednesday and speaking on a blogging panel at Microsoft’s TechEd in Barcelona on Thursday.

I didn’t create any formal presentation for the blogging panel in Barcelona but for anyone who might be interested, I uploaded my Web 2.0 Expo Keynote presentation to SlideShare:

http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=reducing-our-carbon-footprint-11944481688221-4

Climate Change, energy, Global Warming, politics

Support the US Energy Bill

Chris Abraham emailed me overnight asking me to

blog about the Energy Bill issue as discussed in http://www.energybill2007.org

The Energy Bill is a US environmental focussed bill and the energybill2007.org site Chris links to, urges US politicians to:

protect America’s energy, environmental, and economic security by ensuring that the final Energy Bill that goes to the president includes the Senate-passed 35 mile per gallon fuel economy standard AND the House-passed 15 percent renewable electricity standard.

The 35 mile per gallon fuel economy standard referred to is an aspiration to have a 35 mile-per-gallon fuel economy target by 2020!

Good God, my current car, which is a standard ’02 Renault Megane Scenic typically gets 35mpg today. By 2020 I want cars to be achieving at least 100mpg!

As for 15% renewables, the Irish government, which has an appalling environmental record, has committed to 33% renewables by 2025!

Yesterday, the United Nations Environment Programme released its fourth Global Environment Outlook report. The report says

climate change is a “global priority”, demanding political will and leadership. Yet it finds “a remarkable lack of urgency”, and a “woefully inadequate” global response.

Several highly-polluting countries have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. GEO-4 says: “… some industrial sectors that were unfavourable to the… Protocol managed successfully to undermine the political will to ratify it.” It says: “Fundamental changes in social and economic structures, including lifestyle changes, are crucial if rapid progress is to be achieved.

No prizes for guessing what it is referring to there.

If you are US-based, by all means head over to http://www.energybill2007.org. Agitate to get those first steps in place but believe me when I say you will be re-visiting those targets sooner than you think to get them revised upwards.

energy

Using Energy Demand Management to increase wind energy in Ireland

Wind energy currently contributes around 6.5% of the electricity generation in Ireland. The government has committed to increasing this to 33% by 2025.

That is a good thing, right? Well yes, but it brings with it some problems which will have to be addressed before it can become a reality.

In 2006 the minimum demand on the electrical grid was 1.8GW (think 4am on a summer’s morning) and the maximum demand was 5GW (winter’s evening between 5pm and 7pm).

The wind energy output during 2006 varied from 0% (on a calm day) to 0.9GW or just over 45% (think 4am in the middle of a windy night).

Projections are that by 2025 the maximum electrical demand will be 10GW and the minimum will be 3.6GW. The governments plans to increase the wind energy means that the maximum wind energy output will be 6.3GW. If this happens when the country only needs 3.6GW there will be a surplus of 2.7GW.

On the other hand if the maximum demand of 10GW happens on a calm day (not unusual) there will need to be 10GW of generating capacity on the grid.

How do we facilitate this? We can’t control the supply (the wind blows, or it doesn’t!) but we can think about starting to manage the demand.

Imagine if EirGrid, the Energy grid operator, could control the diesel generators of any companies who own them. They could switch them on, thereby reducing the overall demand on the grid at times of electrical supply shortage.

Taken a step further, if EirGrid had control of the thermostats in refrigeration plants or in the hot water tanks of larger companies, they could ratchet them up or down one or two degrees to either consume extra electricity or to reduce demand.

Taken to a logical conclusion, plug-in hybrid cars, smart domestic appliances (fridges, clothes dryers, dish washers, etc.) and central heating could all be used to help stabilise the grid and allow more wind energy come onstream.