Nissan cars sold in North America and Europe will feature solar chargers from ICP Solar, under a sales agreement announced Tuesday by the two companies.
The chargers will serve to keep the 12-volt batteries of new Nissans charged while they are parked on sales lots. Car dealers often have to …
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Lightweight, UK
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Filed under: Volkswagen, Lightweight, European Union, UK, Germany, USA
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The smartest computing solution environment-wise for organizations is to go dumb, as in dumb terminals.
Richard 'Zippy' Grigonis, executive editor, Internet Telephony reports that network computing either with purpose-built thin-client systems or even 'lobotomized' PCs connected to a network server use less power than 'intelligent' PCs.
Let's look at the numbers. Assuming flat panel LCD monitors (FPMs) at each workstation, and 300 watts (W) for a router, hubs, and firewall appliances for all scenarios:
'Smart System' --120W for typical PC
'Dumb' Systems: --100W for dumb PC
Or --43.5W (40W alone for the FPMs) for fanless thin-client dumb terminals
Plus 1000 W for fat server, off two load-sharing power supplies, to support dumb PCs and terminals
Based on this it only takes 9 to 10 dumb units: thin-clients or dumb PCs connected to a fat server to equal the power consumption of 11 smart PCs. Beyond that you are 'green computing'.
There are also other advantages of going dumb. These are lower IT support costs and improved security because employees cannot knowingly or unknowingly load sniffer software or 'bot' the system or download and walk off with data. Theft risk is less because who wants a computer that is 'stupid'?
There are thin-client computers such as by , but by no means exclusive to Devon IT, Netvoyager, and Sun:
http://www.devonit.com/thin_client_computing/thin_clients_101.php
http://www.netvoyager.co.uk/
http://www.sun.com/sunray/sunray2/
Dumb computing is also for telecommuting workers, especially home agents. It lessens the cost, complex, and security issues with supporting them. There are now commercial thin client boxes like the eeePC by Asus that needs only an Ethernet connection
http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm
What your ROI is for switching from smart to dumb will depend on total costs, installation or equipment rebuild, and energy, IT savings, and monetized security benefits. There is not only direct energy savings from the hardware but also from reduced cooling demand: PCs produce heat, and it is ventilation and cooling rather than heating that draws the most power.
The 'green' benefits are fewer greenhouse gas emissions and/or other environmental consequences such as e.g. land for hydro dams and generating stations, and for unsightly transmission and distribution equipment.
The actual environmental savings will depend on where your energy supplier gets their electricity. Solar and wind are the cleanest followed by hydro, biofuels, and natural gas, though hydro has its environmental consequences i.e. destruction of open, oxygen-generating space for reservoirs.
Oil-fired generators, especially those that get their supplies from tar sands whose production process is an ecological nightmare, and coal, especially that extracted by blowing up mountaintops, are down the list. They are especially reliant on scrubbers to remove sulfur dioxide, but in doing so produce CO2.
For the eco-conscious are companies that sell green power to businesses and consumers. One example is Bullfrog Power. http://www.bullfrogpower.com
Thin-client computing may also lead to less e-waste because the units are smaller, with less toxic substances used in their construction (see the past post on this topic) and may less last longer because their principal obsolescence-prone component is the software.
That 'small-is-beautiful' approach may make smart PCs the equivalent of SUVs. And that, according to the New York Times makes the PC vendors worried; they, like the automakers, rely on the big profits from the hulking but inefficient models.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/technology/21pc.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=business
Will big "smart" PCs join the SUVs and the other dinosaurs? --BBR
Tags: electricity, emissions, energy efficient, energy reduction, environment, gadget, green tech, green technology, telecommute, thin client
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Filed under: Diesel, Hybrid, Manufacturing/Plants, Audi, Volkswagen, North America, USA
Last week, Volkswagen of America announced it would build it's first US factory since it's Pennsylvania factory closed in 1984 in Chattanooga Tennessee. The new plant will build a new mid-sized replacement for the Passat. What CEO Stefan Jacoby didn't announce was where powertrains will come from. The new car will be available with gasoline, diesel and hybrid power-plants. The power-train is one of the most expensive components in the vehicle so getting the most out of building cars in the dollar zone means building them here as well. The gasoline engines will likely be sourced from the Puebla Mexico factory that also supplies the assembly plant there. The Mexican factory doesn't currently produce transmissions. VW is apparently waiting on Audi's decision on a US factory before finalizing plans for new engine and transmission plants. Audi and VW share powertrains, so the two brands will likely want to build in a location convenient to both assembly plants. If VW does decide to build hybrid transmissions in North America they may even end up exporting some of those back to Europe as well.
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When Al Gore challenged the U.S. to produce all of its electricity from renewable sources in 10 years, his aggressive plan to combat climate change was pitted against another recently-unveiled proposal, from Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
Gore, a former Democratic vice president and Nobel Prize-winning crusader on climate change, announced his plan last week and has since promoted it on U.S. television. Expected to cost between $1.5 trillion and $3 trillion, Gore advocates investment in wind, solar and geothermal energy, energy efficiency and a national power grid. He also wants to retain energy production from nuclear and hydroelectric power plants, and invest in technology to store and capture carbon dioxide from coal and gas.
Inevitably, though, Gore’s plan has been compared to the so-called “Pickens Plan,” which calls for a massive switch to natural gas as a transportation fuel and a dramatic increase in wind power (Pickens, a legendary oil man, is currently spending $10 billion to build the world’s biggest wind farm — a project he expects will be a big moneymaker). Pickens says his $300 billion plan will reduce the amount of imported oil by more than a third in the next decade.
With a media campaign funded by Pickens’ vast personal fortune, the “Pickens Plan” has its own commercials running on TV. Gore’s plan is backed by his “We Campaign,” a $300 million effort launched earlier this year to mobilize Americans on climate change.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” this weekend, Gore said he disagrees with Pickens that natural gas should be the dominant transportation fuel, advocating for electric cars instead. Pickens, however, has said Gore’s plan doesn’t do enough address the nation’s dependence on oil imports.
So who’s right? It’s clear that there is much that the men agree on, and both plans stand in stark opposition to President Bush’s recent move to increase domestic oil production by lifting the ban on oil drilling along most U.S. coastal states.
But with a new president on the way who is expected to be kinder to the kinds of plans Gore and Pickens are proposing, which man do you think has the right plan for increasing renewables in the United States and reducing our oil consumption?
Filed under: Shopping Guide, Green on Campus
Being in school can be wasteful when you consider all of the paper, pens, pencils and highlighters that get used and abused. For students seeking a way out of this trend, we've compiled a list of eco-friendly writing options that won't break the bank.
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