If you have no power, energy efficiency is irrelevant
September 30, 2011
There are dozens, if not hundreds of research initiatives around the world looking at improving energy efficiency in computers and networks. Greentouch, Greenlight, GreenICT, etc are some typical examples. It is important to note that with energy efficiency we will only hope to reduce energy consumption and thereby lessen our dependence on coal and other dirty fuel sources. In the case of IT however, given its dramatic growth rate, the best we can hope for, in the short term, is to slow down the rate of growth of energy consumption.
But all these initiatives suffer from a single fundamental flaw in thinking – and that is the assumption that power from the grid will always be available, on demand and effectively unlimited.
In a rapidly warming world, with a growing dependence on renewable energy, means the reliability and availability of power from the grid is going to be less certain. Many jurisdictions such as California for example are committed to have 30% of their power from renewable resources. This means that on cloudy, windless days, the utilities will be scrambling to purchase power from out of state or shed low priority customers. Countries like Switzerland and Germany are also facing an impending power shortage because of their commitment to abandon nuclear power and to rely increasingly on renewable energy.
While energy storage and integrated grids will help mitigate some of the challenges of dealing with a greater percentage of renewable power in the energy mix, new energy architectures are needed on the demand side of the energy equation. So our future challenge will be more than simply reducing energy consumption but living in a world with frequent power outages as more of our energy comes from renewable sources.
A good example of this forward thinking of energy outages versus energy efficient is a recent project be undertaken by AMD, Hewlett Packard and Clarkson University funded by NYSERDA in New York State to carry out research in follow the wind/follow the sun cloud networks.
One of the challenges facing New York State is the number of stranded wind power assets that exist in the state, because “Nimbyism” has prevented the deployment of high voltage power lines to connect these facilities to the grid. As a result the state is funding this project to explore the idea of deploying small computing pods at each windmill linked together by fibre to build a follow the wind/follow the sun cloud/network.
Some further resources:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/www/files/publications/public/sa497/akoush-hotos11.pdf
www.greenstarnetwork.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFPvBjURlHA
http://green-global-economy.blogspot.com/
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/research/wiki/CFTFP
