Forget wave power, Google and others may use poo power for data centers
May 19, 2010
Google has been tinkering with the idea of a floating, wave-powered data center for a while, but it looks like a better solution could come from a more basic power source: manure. Hewlett Packard has released a research paper that states that tech companies like themselves, Google, and Microsoft could benefit from a partnership with dairy farmers, using the cattle waste for fuel.
The research paper says that the dairy farmers could rent out land and power to the tech companies with a return on investment in waste-to-fuel systems in two years, making it a great arrangement for the farmers too. Farmers want to build biogas plants where manure is processed and the methane produced is used in place of natural gas or diesel, but the cost of equipment is often too expensive for them to finance on their own. This is where the tech companies come in.
As companies move their larger and larger data centers into rural areas with plenty of land, teaming up with local farms seems to be a natural fit -- farmers need a way to get rid of the vast amounts of waste and tech companies need an affordable, clean source of energy.
An average cow produces enough manure to power a 100-watt light bulb and 10,000 cows could potentially power a 1-MW data center, a small computing center. But another possible link between the farms and companies is that the biogas systems require a lot of heat to make fuel and computing equipment in data centers produce a lot of waste heat, so a loop could be created where the biogas plant powers the data center and the waste heat from the data center helps power the biogas plant.
The paper sees California and Texas as being the testing grounds in the U.S. for this partnership, while China and India could also benefit from such an arrangement.
via NY Times
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Is white vinegar green?
May 19, 2010
A bottle of white vinegar is probably sitting somewhere in the back of one of your cabinets. Perhaps forgotten, there has never been a better time to put this inexpensive and non-toxic cleaning product to work.
After your half-marathon training runs or Zumba workouts, are you faced with sweaty, smelly exercise clothing that never seems fresh again, even after several washings? How about the stubborn odor of your teenage son’s t-shirts or socks?
It pays to keep a big bottle of white vinegar in the laundry room.
Vinegar is terrific for restoring the fresh scent to your clean clothes and linens. Simply add ¼ cup of white vinegar with the detergent in the washing machine and offensive odors will be banished.
For cleaning your house, car or boat interior: Fill a spray bottle ¾ with water, add a drop of liquid dishwashing detergent and top it off with white vinegar. You may also want to add a few drops essential oil for fragrance, peppermint or grapefruit work well here.
This all-purpose cleaner is great for glass and virtually any surface, even hardwood floors.
If a dirty surface needs a little grit to remove the dirt, sprinkle some baking soda on the area before you spray the vinegar solution and rub to release the dirt.
If you have a sluggish drain, pour about a cup of baking soda into the drain, follow this with a “chaser” of about ½ cup of white vinegar. Cover the drain with a plug or damp dishcloth to form a seal so the “volcano” can do its work inside the pipes. After about 20 minutes, remove the plug and pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain.
Sherry Brooks is healthy, happy and trim “Frugalista” living the lean and green life in and around Malibu in sunny southern California.
More from ecomii:
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- Learn more about the potential of nutritional supplements
- Find natural remedies for headaches
- Does aromatherapy actually work?
- What is your carbon footprint?
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China’s telecom sector credits telecommuting with huge emissions reductions
May 14, 2010
China's telecom sector released a report this week claiming that it had slashed emissions by 48.5 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2008 by increasing telecommuting, a greater reliance on electronic data storage and more efficient logistics. This savings is comparable to the amount of emissions Sweden's entire economy is responsible for each year.
The report came from the WWF and China Mobile who had Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications carry out the study. The report says the emissions savings came from all of the transportation, freight and paper and material production that was avoided by digitizing the sector.
The study also concluded that future increases in telecommuting could save up to 340 million tons of emissions in China by 2020. Even better potential is seen in virtual meetings over air travel, which could save 623 million tons of emissions by 2030.
The report is slightly controversial because the growing energy demand of data centers is increasing emissions, but the report says that those increases are more than offset by the overall emissions savings.
via Guardian
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