Predicts 2012: Data Center Growth and the Impact of Cloud Computing on Energy Efficiency

Overview

Data center deployments are moving at different speeds in emerging and mature markets, with focus on operational efficiency to drive down cost for energy and real estate. Off-premises cloud computing not only provides more-flexible infrastructure and fewer physical network layers, but also enables organizations to conserve energy and therefore improve their environmental performance. Despite the benefits of cloud computing, the lack of IT maturity in emerging markets will slow cloud computing adoption by enterprises.

Key Findings

• Operational efficiency and its impact on the data center footprint in urban areas are often triggered by high real-estate costs, as in Brazil.
• The stability and availability of energy and the lack of broadband connections remain big challenges for data center deployments in emerging countries.
• As data centers are increasing their server and rack workloads, their power and cooling requirements are expected to push the stable energy availability of the utility grid.
• Cloud providers are challenged to optimize their energy consumption planning by mapping peak utilization and safety margins of capacity with intelligent patterns to level usage across their available infrastructure resources.
• While China's government is pushing cloud computing through initiatives to enable economic growth, enterprises are slow in adoption due to security concerns and poor business models.
• Markets with low understanding of IT maturity and affinity are slow in adopting cloud computing and instead maintain their physical data center infrastructure.
• Stakeholder, government and shareholder interest is to avoid the brand reputation of a "dirty" data center, using coal-fired power.

Recommendations

• Data center sourcing should include energy sourcing and pricing agreements. Especially as data center capacity is increasing, data center executives should plan for capacity and performance constraints to avoid potential outages.
• Managers of cloud data centers or high-performance computing (HPC) should consider low-energy servers when mapping power and cooling directly to data center footprint.
• Reporting green data center performance, especially in a cloud delivery environment, has to include an assessment framework that is based on technology, workloads and applications, as well as energy sources as key parameters.
• A successful cloud computing strategy in data centers not only must include technical requirements but also must be tied into the overall business objectives of an organization.
• As governments, such as in Brazil and China, are pushing for IT penetration, utilize the momentum to build out data center infrastructure based on some government initiatives.
• Develop security solutions or hosted security services in order to overcome the security concerns of enterprise customers assessing the cloud computing opportunity.

Table of Contents

Contents

• Analysis
  • What You Need to Know
  • Strategic Planning Assumptions
  • A Look Back

Analysis

What You Need to Know

Data center energy management and cost and availability of energy remain main trends for stakeholders in data center management. In facilities and on the IT level, the deployment of low-energy servers, as well as cloud computing, can not only provide energy cost savings, but also significantly reduce the floor space, resulting in a decrease of real estate value, especially for data centers in urban environments. Especially in emerging countries, the range of operational efficiency not only has cost components but also includes the availability and the stability of the electricity grid in a growth mode of economic development. The plans to expand data center capacity must include early adoption of new infrastructure as a service and other cloud computing models in order to remove the glass ceiling of available total power in a grid for the data center. That could painfully inhibit international offshoring to markets such as India, China and Brazil when pricing for the availability of electricity is increasing with demand. As a result, vendors need to position their ability to offer energy management as a holistic view in order to enable their customers to visualize and efficiently reduce energy usage.

Table of Contents

Strategic Planning Assumptions

Strategic Planning Assumption: By year-end 2012, sales of extreme-low-energy servers, offered by several server providers, will grow to 1.5% of server market revenue.
Analysis By: Errol Rasit
Key Findings:
Extreme-low-energy servers are defined as servers using processor types previously not designed to be used in server systems, rather typically found in small devices like tablets and smartphones, or small objects with embedded processors. Examples today for this type of server are Intel's Atom, ARM architecture and Tilera's TILE-Gx. The aim of using extreme-low-energy servers is to optimize data center space and reduce power and cooling costs. Optimization is achieved by rightsizing the processor to the requirement of the application thread or unit of work.
Extreme-low-energy servers are typically optimized for a limited number of workload types, unlike mainstream x86 servers that are appropriate for a broad range of workload types. Examples of suitable applications or application functions are as follows: Hadoop MapReduce, database management system searches, shared-memory servers like memcached, static Web servers performing many fetch functions, video servers running unmodified fetch functions, big data/simple logic searches, and HPC workloads in which input/output or memory is the point of constraint (e.g., specialized implementations in which thousands of nodes run one application, such as IBM's Blue Gene).
Market Implications:
Despite the number of workloads that are suitable for low-energy servers, today the technology segment is embryonic and has relatively little provider support but does show promise as a differentiated segment.
Extreme-low-energy servers are predominantly targeted at enterprise customers or those that typically buy servers in large volumes. Due to this market positioning, we expect growth in low-energy server sales will largely be targeted at mainstream x86 servers rather than purchases of non-x86 and PC-class servers.
Customers focused on the best power and cooling efficiency and organizations looking to reduce the data center footprint will stand to benefit from adoption of these servers. Energy and space-saving improvements are largest when transitioning from mainstream alternatives. We expect the relative difference between mainstream and extreme-low-energy servers will remain largely stable, with small incremental improvements as extreme-low-energy server technology evolves further.
Customer segments that have a workload bias toward applicable low-energy server workloads (for example, cloud data center providers or HPC customers) are obviously a natural target for low-energy servers. The profile of the workloads that can be addressed by these types of server, being typically broad — like Web or database search — means that potential adoption isn't limited to any particular customer vertical, but rather is limited by the attitude of the IT organization to invest in alternative solutions.
In order to gain a broad footprint, there will be ecosystems of energy efficiency in the energy stack of the data center, which needs to include the OS and software applications engineered to really leverage low-energy-server approaches effectively.
Recommendations:

• Benchmark to verify fit, and engineer the production environment in enough detail to understand the resulting expansion of server images, network and storage connections, and their effects on operational processes.
• Move work from traditional to extreme-low-energy servers when the net benefit, factoring in all the consequences and project costs, is sufficient to justify some added risk and the switching costs involved.
• Verify the key attributes of extreme-low-energy servers — relatively light CPU demands and excellent scaling — and benchmark them on real machines before committing to any purchases.
• Apply all traditional and mature approaches to increasing energy efficiency to solve short-term tactical constraints (such as imminent exhaustion of spare energy or space in an existing data center) before undertaking a move to extreme-low-energy solutions as a quick fix.

Related Research:
"Hype Cycle for Server Technologies, 2011"
"SWOT: SeaMicro, Servers, Worldwide"
"Market Insight: The Top Five x86 Server Workloads for the Optimal Data Center Strategy"
"Introducing Extreme Low-Energy Servers"
Strategic Planning Assumption: By 2013, 15% of enterprises investing in off-premises cloud computing will rate green measures among their top three priorities.
Analysis By: Errol Rasit
Key Findings:
In 2010, a global survey of organizations with more than 1,000 employees revealed that 33% of organizations planning cloud investment cited "green" as a driver, and 27% cited social responsibility as a driver. These drivers, however, ranked sixth and seventh on the list of priorities. The top three drivers for cloud investment were "improve business agility," "provide capital expenditure (capex) savings" and "part of our data center transformation strategy."
We believe that a number of factors will drive customers to increase the importance of green as a driver to invest in cloud computing:

• Gartner inquiries reflect that most organizations overprovision their infrastructure resources, such as server or storage, by provisioning based on peak utilization. In some cases, safety margins are added on top. Collectively, a public cloud provider has the potential to be extremely resource-efficient due to a high level of standardization that may result in better sharing and optimization of resources across a larger infrastructure base. While this is resulting in operating expenditure savings, it also offers more sustainable usage of infrastructure.
• Work by organizations such as Greenpeace has increased industry and customer interest around cloud provider power sources. Greenpeace published a report titled "How Dirty Is Your Data?" that judged several providers' data centers on the amount of coal used in powering data centers, the transparency of this information to the public domain, infrastructure location and mitigation strategy. In addition, financial benchmarks, such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, are rating green IT efficiency and the utilization of the cloud for a more sustainable performance, giving thrust for CFOs to ask questions about sustainable business operations.
• Carbon tax schemes, aimed at penalizing the use of fossil fuels as a power source, are being implemented by many governments around the world, largely in response to the treaty set out by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC). The treaty is commonly referred to by its most famous legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, the Kyoto Protocol. Due to legally binding initiatives like the Kyoto Protocol, enterprises should expect that governments will increasingly seek to penalize consumers of fossil-fuel-based power.

Market Implications:
Greening of any service is an end-to-end process, such as selection of technology, implementation, waste management or power production source. There are a number of alliances that are focused on providing standards or references for green computing, all of which are still evolving. Examples are the EU, Energy Star and the Green Grid.
Many of the current reference frameworks focus on measuring the technology that delivers the service. Although some providers are focusing on providing some measurements on green cloud services, green visibility varies wildly from provider to provider; some of them do not share information, because they consider the design and management of the data center to be a competitive differentiator and therefore a closely guarded secret. The responsibility of measuring the green credentials of a provider will likely stay with the customer in the near term until providers improve the visibility of their green credentials.
As it stands, green frameworks and standards are not all-encompassing, so there is no single standard to adhere to. There is significant scope for providers to improve their participation in standards adoption and investment. Gartner believes that the likelihood of an all-encompassing or recognized singular green cloud standard in the near future is low.
Recommendations:

• Monitor the development of green standards, such as Energy Star or the Code of Conduct of the EU; in particular, assess the implication of laws or taxes that may come into effect in locations where your IT resides.
• Before signing a commercial agreement, test your cloud computing provider's ability to share data that commonly used green metrics, frameworks and ratings require.
• Apply the same amount of stringency and detail of your internal IT infrastructure to your off-premises IT infrastructure in order to measure the end-to-end greenness of IT services independent of responsibility or ownership of infrastructure.

Related Research:
"Greening the Cloud: Location Is Critical for the Sustainable Future of Outsourced Data Storage and Services"
"Data Center Decisions: Build, Retrofit or Colocate; Why Not a Hybrid Approach?"
Strategic Planning Assumption: By 2016, data centers in India will reach limitations in power supply by utilities, which will gravely impact business operations.
Analysis By: Naresh Singh
Key Findings:
Data center capacities in India are expanding at a 20%-to-30% annual rate and are expected to touch a raised-floor supply of 5.5 million square feet by 2016. While service provider space will grow at a higher rate, captive data centers owned and managed by users will also see a healthy growth in the forecast period. For more details, see "Emerging Market Analysis: Future Outlook of Indian Data Center Market."
With growing adoption of high-density multicore servers and more-powerful network and storage devices, the energy use by data centers has become a big challenge for the IT organization among Indian users. Users are realizing the need to design and upgrade their data center power and cooling facilities to meet the current requirement, as well as future requirements. As users try to increase their server workload and rack equipment load, users are planning for an ever-higher energy "footprint" for their data centers. Planning for a modular data center, users are typically segmenting their data centers into racks with high-density usage, normal usage and low-density usage to be able to optimally meet the composite current and future requirements. These designs also essentially factor the cooling requirement implications that are different for different zones with varying IT loads.
Assuming that users will go for a mix of data center zones with typical rack loads of 4 kilowatts (kW), 10 kW and 20 kW, the total energy required, including the load necessary to cool all the data centers in India, will reach 4,397 megawatts (MW) by the end of 2016. This energy use equates to over 2% of the 218,209 MW projected demand of the country in the same period, according to the 17th Electric Power Survey of India published by Central Electricity Authority in 2007. This is an extraordinarily high task for an emerging country that is already challenged to meet its current public- and private-sector obligations. Power blackouts and unavailability are a persisting common problem even in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai — which has the largest concentration of data centers in India.
Market Implications:

• Both users and service providers stand a significant risk of their data center energy sourcing strategy becoming unsustainable. They need to address this risk by securing their future requirement through long-term commitments from local utilities. They also need to closely work with the utilities, sharing their forecast plans, etc., so that their future requirement can be met adequately and on time.
• Data centers in India will continue to see the need for relatively higher power generation backups than their global counterparts, because they are less likely to rely on their utility providers for an uninterrupted supply of electricity. The consequent greater use of captive generators will also mean higher capex and cost of operations.
• Energy-efficient IT equipment, technologies and data center designs will see growing demand in India, as the challenges escalate upward. Also, energy monitoring and management tools will have higher adoption in the coming years.
• India is unlikely to reduce or remove the negative perception of being an infrastructure-challenged location for the purpose of setting up data centers for a regional and global requirement. This not only can seriously impact India's ambitions of emerging as a preferred regional location for data center hosting, but also could impede the overall IT and business outsourcing opportunities for India.

Recommendations:

• Data center technology providers: Encourage and educate users to adopt energy-efficient solutions and designs, even if they mean an apparently higher capex at the onset — especially if it will give the customer a sustainable data center strategy and also help achieve a lower total cost of ownership in the long run.
• Data center hosting service providers: Monitor the energy requirement mix of your existing as well as potential customers, and conduct scenario planning for low, medium and high energy demand. Shape your data center planning based on the most likely scenario, while having a Plan B for either of the other scenarios getting more realistic in the future.
• Users and hosting service providers: Make facility planning a board-level priority — with the stakes translated out adequately to the key business leaders. Initiate or support an energy-efficient culture among internal and external users of your data center.
• Users and hosting service providers: While planning your data centers, seriously evaluate locations that are not necessarily business hubs but have adequate current and future supplies of power, like major electricity grid sources, in addition to other necessary factors, like telecommunications facilities, water supply and disaster implications.
• Users: Create adequate power source backups and redundancies, like multiple grid providers. Maintain enough captive power generation capacities (along with redundancy designs) and adequate fuel to keep the data center running in the event of a long period of power blackouts, which are not uncommon in India.

Related Research:
"Emerging Market Analysis: Future Outlook of Indian Data Center Market"
"How to Build a World-Class Data Center in India"
Strategic Planning Assumption: By 2012, Brazil will surpass Canada and become the No. 7 country in the server market in terms of revenue.
Analysis By: Kiyomi Yamada
Key Findings:
Emerging markets have been increasing their presence in the server market as many organizations in these regions have been trying to build new IT infrastructure. By 2012, Brazil will become the new No. 7 country by surpassing Canada in terms of server revenue. The outlook for data center spending in Brazil is robust because its economy is expected to continue a growth spurt for the next five years. Brazil's data center business has been also supported by the government's commitment to push IT modernization throughout the country, as well as preparation for worldwide events, such as the Olympics (2016) and the World Cup (2014).
Market Implications:
The Brazilian server market has been steadily growing, and more providers are focusing on this market. We believe that the market is still undersaturated and has potential to grow further. In comparison with other technologies, such as PCs, the No. 7 ranking is not impressive for Brazil. It often is the case that consumer-related technologies (e.g., PCs or mobile phones) take off first and enterprise technology adoption follows. Brazil is the No. 4 country in the PC market in 2011 (in end-user spending).
The Brazilian server market outlook is bright, but the country needs to work more on the following points:

• IT infrastructure modernization projects have been done mainly in the metropolitan areas, although they are spreading to smaller cities.
• Few small and midsize businesses (SMBs) embrace data center functions.
• A shortage of trained IT personnel has been a big issue.
• Cloud services are still in an infancy stage because of unstable broadband connections and limited applications.
• Although many organizations have strong interests in cloud services, broadband coverage is still sketchy and expensive due to lack of infrastructure. Better broadband coverage and service will create additional data center demand, as the country can provide offshore services for other countries in addition to domestic service.

Recommendations:

• Understand the characteristics for the Brazilian data center market. The interest in energy efficiency is relatively low compared with other countries because the country has abundant oil supplies and alternative energy resources (the country is a top global producer of ethanol and hydroelectricity). Instead, demand for small-footprint data centers is high, as the country's real estate prices are rising.
• Keep monitoring cloud service adoption in Brazil. Although interest in cloud services is very high, currently many organizations prefer to have their own data centers. In addition to immature infrastructure environments, conservative attitudes toward new technologies hinder further cloud adoption. This could, however, change dramatically once these services start being accepted.
• Work closely with government. The Brazilian government is very aggressive in promoting IT development.
• Try to expand market reach to smaller organizations and smaller cities via channels.

Related Research:
"Market Trends: Brazil's Emerging Middle-Class Consumer Subsegment Shines With IT Opportunities"
"Emerging Market Analysis: Brazil, a Growing IT Frontier"
Strategic Planning Assumption: By 2015, China's cloud computing will make up more than 25% of the Chinese data center market.
Analysis By: Jennifer Wu
Key Findings:
In 2010, the number of servers used in China's public cloud computing was estimated to be 10% of all servers sold. Gartner estimates that by 2015 this number will reach 20%. Given that servers are the main components of a data center, this projected growth indicates a healthy future of cloud in China (see "Market Trends: Opportunities for Server Providers in China's Public Cloud").
In mid-2010, Gartner conducted a survey of large enterprises in China to analyze the growth of private clouds in the country. Fifty-eight percent of Chinese respondents indicated they had already invested in cloud computing or planned to do so in 2011 (see "User Survey Analysis: China's Data Centers Accelerating Adoption of Storage Technologies and Cloud Computing").
In addition, in 2010, China's government vowed to support the five "cloud city" projects, serving as a signal of the government's incentives for enterprises to push the cloud throughout the country. Data centers and cloud infrastructure are seen as the foundation for future industrial growth and services (see "China Plans to Advance Its Economy by Exploiting Cloud Computing").
Market Implications:
Cloud computing has drawn the attention of the Chinese government and is seen as one of the ways in which the country can leapfrog over technologically more advanced economies. Given the government's long involvement and role as a catalyst to industrial innovation, its adoption of cloud computing as part of its Five-Year Plan indicates the importance that this will have in the market. The government is also directly investing in the development of a cloud-based environment both at the national and provincial levels. Enterprises generally follow the government's lead, hoping to emulate the success of mobile technologies that helped China skip the further spread of landlines to move directly into mobile telecommunications some 20 years ago.
Notably in 2011, China bypassed Japan, becoming the second-largest data center market in the world. That year, data centers in China accounted for about 8.3% of the world market. Gartner predicts that growth will continue into 2015 and rise to more than 11% of the global data center market. Cloud computing, both private and public, will be a significant factor in such growth. At the moment, many companies are being held back by concerns for security and stability. Gartner, however, believes that by 2013, these will become less of a problem due to the improvement of security technology and government endorsement of public cloud, and more than 30% of large companies will deploy private cloud computing solutions.
Successful cloud computing calls for more than just the technical infrastructure, as it also needs the support of management to be tied closely to overall business objectives. For now, it seems that Chinese enterprises still are weak in integrating the cloud into clear overall business plans and extracting the best usage for competitive ends.
Recommendations:

• Cloud technology providers have to build cloud teams capable of providing wider services than the physical components of clouds — integrating the cloud into the overall objectives of the enterprise and providing clear lines to successful business solutions.
• Cloud technology providers should use pilot and service trials for potential clients to facilitate commitment and broad implementation.
• Technology providers should be prepared to adjust product development priorities and market strategy to address China's unique characteristics. In particular, providers should explore market opportunities in security as a service and platform as a service in China. Cloud computing service suppliers should leverage the government's support to invest in China's cloud computing market.

India is taking the first step in curbing down pollution !!! hurrah!!!

Govt plans Rs 1 lakh/day fine for missing energy saving target

On Wednesday 30 March 2011, 2:28 PM
New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) The Power Ministry plans to impose huge penalties of over Rs 1 lakh per day on industries that fail to achieve energy efficiency targets under the three-year Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) programme starting April 1.
PAT, which aims to increase industrial energy efficiency, is expected to bring down energy consumption by 5 per cent, amounting to an avoided capacity of over 5,600 MW over the three-year period.
There would be strict penalties, as well as an incentives, for industries participating in PAT, starting April 1. The penalties would be more than Rs 1 lakh per day, apart from some other charges based on tonnes of oil equivalent consumption, a senior Power Ministry official told PTI.
"Those entities that fail to achieve the targets will have to pay huge penalties. Other (entities) that perform better will be awarded Energy Savings Certificates (ESCerts), which can be traded," the official said.
Entities that are short of targets can also buy these certificates to make up for the shortfall.
Eight industries, which account for over 50 per cent of energy consumption, would be a part of PAT. These are: cement, thermal power plants, pulp & paper, textile, fertiliser, iron & steel, aluminium and chlor-alkali industries.
PAT is expected to result in electricity savings corresponding to about 9.78 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent. This would be more than 5,600 MW of avoided capacity (which otherwise need to be added).
The programme will end on March 31, 2014.
The basic aim of PAT is to bring down energy consumption and the programme has been finalised after many rounds of meetings and consultation with the stakeholders.
An initiative of the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), the programme will be implemented by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
As per BEE, ESCerts would be traded on special trading platforms to be created on the two power exchanges. Data on traded prices, traded volumes and trends would also be maintained on the bourses.

Choosing an efficient air conditioner

Choosing an efficient air conditioner
As the summer is starting to grill us, many people have already started installing Air conditioners in their homes.

The most important thing to look for with an air conditioner is the star rating. You need to work out what size you require for the task and then choose the most efficient model that will perform the task.
The two main types of air conditioners for household use are window-wall systems and split systems. While both can be equally efficient, split systems tend to be more efficient for a particular size range as their components are generally less constrained by size (although this is not always true). Split systems have the advantage of being quieter indoors during operation but they are also more expensive. Some larger houses may choose ducted or packaged units. Be sure to check the stars before you buy.
A new innovation in air conditioner technology is the use of an inverter or variable speed drive in the motor system that drives the compressor (comes with Voltas, Hitachi and Onida now). While these systems tend to look less efficient at full load (ie their star rating at rated capacity is not always as high as conventional air conditioners), they tend to be very efficient at part load operation, which is a more common mode in a typical household. So if you are likely to use an air conditioner for long periods because you live in a hot climate, it may be worth considering an inverter system. They are, however, more expensive to buy, as a rule.
Sizing an air conditioner
The output capacity is a measure of the amount of heat that will be removed (cooling) or added (heating) to the room/s in your house by the air conditioner. The output range you need will depend upon your particular requirements. Air conditioner outputs are measured in kilowatts (kW). As an approximate guide for sizing a room unit allow:
125watts (0.125kW) per square metre of floor area to be cooled in living areas;
80 watts (0.080kW) per square metre of floor area in bedrooms.
These estimates depend on the climate and the efficiency of your house design (orientation, glazing and insulation levels).
It is advisable to get a full heating or cooling load calculation from an authorised air conditioning installer or manufacturer before you buy.

Simple thumb rule is that 1.5 tonne will do good for a 200 to 250 sq.ft area. And 1.0 or .8 tonne for areas lesser than 200 sq.ft.


Best suggestions as a user of AC: Go for brands like Hitachi and O General.

Calculate your Energy saving by Using Star rated Air conditioners

This simple and user friendly Energy Calculator, allows you to choose different capacity of AC, quantity, efficiency level and operating time. Follow the steps shown below and click at appropriate places of your choice. You can estimate savings in Electricity charges by use of Star-5 AC over Star-0 AC.

This is from Bureau of Energy Efficiency site.....


http://www.saveenergy.co.in/20-module-positions-mainmenu-44.php

Why should people use CFL? Compact Flouride Lamps

Why should people use CFLs?

Switching from traditional light bulbs (called incandescent) to CFLs is an effective. Making this change will help to use less electricity at home and prevent greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global climate change. Lighting accounts for close to 20 percent of the average home’s electric bill. Bulbs, last up to 10 times longer, cost little up front, and provide a quick return on investment.

Do CFLs contain mercury?

CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 4 milligrams – about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. By comparison, older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury – an amount equal to the mercury in 125 CFLs. Mercury is an essential part of CFLs; it allows the bulb to be an efficient light source. No mercury is released when the bulbs are intact (not broken) or in use. Most makers of light bulbs have reduced mercury in their fluorescent lighting products. Thanks to technology advances the average mercury content in CFLs has dropped at least 20 percent in the past year. Some manufacturers have even made further reductions, dropping mercury content to 1.4 – 2.5 milligrams per light bulb.

What are mercury emissions caused by humans?

Mercury released into the air from the coal-fired electrical power is the main way that mercury gets into water and bio-accumulates in fish. (Eating fish contaminated with mercury is the main way for humans tube exposed.)
Most mercury vapor inside fluorescent light bulbs becomes bound to the inside of the light bulb as it is used. It is estimated that the rest of the mercury within a CFL – about 11 percent – is released into air or water when it is sent to a landfill, assuming the light bulb is broken.

How do CFLs result in less mercury in the environment compared to traditional light bulbs?

CFLs use less electricity than incandescent lights, meaning CFLs reduce the amount of mercury into the environment .Because CFLs also help to reduce greenhouse gasses, other pollutants associated with electricity production, and landfill waste (because the bulbs last longer), they are clearly the environmental winner when compared to traditional incandescent light bulbs.

In principle nod for energy saving concept

Energy Efficiency Project in Tamilnadu, India - Gets a kick start!!!
Hurray !!!

21 April 2010

CHENNAI: The State government on Tuesday approved, in principle, the concept of energy savings through energy servicing companies (ESCOs) in urban local bodies.

Kumbakonam and Sivakasi municipalities will be covered on a trial basis, according to a senior official in the Municipal Administration Directorate. Totally, 29 municipalities will be taken up in three instalments.

The project envisages energy savings through improved performance of electrical equipment. For instance, the local bodies maintain street lights. A conservative estimate reveals that the power bills cost them Rs.30 lakh-Rs. 40 lakh annually.

A preliminary energy audit study, covering 45 municipalities, indicated that there was a possibility of 30 per cent energy savings.

Only 29 municipalities have now been chosen because the maintenance of street lights has been privatised in the remaining municipalities such as Tambaram, Alandur and Pallavaram.

The municipalities selected do not have to incur expenditure to implement the project. The identified ESCOs will study the profile of their energy consumption and replace existing street lights with energy-efficient ones. Better degree of automation will also be achieved while switching on or off the lights. The value of energy thus saved will be shared between the companies and the municipalities, depending upon the terms of reference, the official explains.

Among the advantages of the project that the local bodies may accrue are the reduction in their expenditure, additional revenue through carbon trading and re-deployment.

In August last, a workshop with elected representatives of the identified urban local bodies was held to disseminate the concept.

The representatives wanted the government to issue an order, giving its approval to the concept in principle.

Food Vs. Fuel: Growing Grain for Food Is More Energy Efficient

(Apr. 19, 2010) — Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, Michigan State University scientists concluded, after analyzing 17 years' worth of data to help settle the food versus fuel debate.

"It's 36 percent more efficient to grow grain for food than for fuel," said Ilya Gelfand, an MSU postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study. "The ideal is to grow corn for food, then leave half the leftover stalks and leaves on the field for soil conservation and produce cellulosic ethanol with the other half."

Other studies have looked at energy efficiencies for crops over shorter time periods, but this MSU study is the first to consider energy balances of an entire cropping system over many years. The results are published in the April 19 online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"It comes down to what's the most efficient use of the land," said Phil Robertson, University Distinguished Professor of crop and soil sciences and one of the paper's authors. "Given finite land resources, will it be more efficient to use productive farmland for food or fuel? One compromise would be to use productive farmland for both -- to use the grain for food and the other parts of the plant for fuel where possible. Another would be to reserve productive farmland for food and to grow biofuel grasses -- cellulosic biomass -- on less productive land."

He, Gelfand and Sieglinde Snapp, another co-author and an MSU associate professor of crop and soil sciences, analyzed data collected from 1989 to 2007 at the W.K. Kellogg Long Term Ecological Research site. That National Science Foundation-funded project studies ecology and environmental biology to provide a better understanding of both natural and managed systems. It is the only agricultural program in the 26-site NSF national LTER network.

The scientists compared the energy inputs and outputs of producing corn, soybeans and wheat grown using four systems: conventional tillage, no-till, low chemical input and organic, and then using all harvested plant material for either food or biofuel production. They also looked at energy balances for growing alfalfa, an important forage plant that can be used either for biofuel or for beef cattle feed.

The analysis showed that using no-till production to grow grain for food was the most energy-efficient system for food or fuel production. Avoiding plowing with no-till management reduces tractor fuel use during production.

Producing a kilogram of corn for human food provides more energy than converting the corn to either ethanol by processing or to meat by feeding it to animals. Growing alfalfa for biofuel is 60 percent more efficient than using it as cattle feed, according to the study.

Robertson and Gelfand also are members of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a partnership between Michigan State and the University of Wisconsin-Madison funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct basic research aimed at solving some of the most complex problems in converting natural materials to energy.

The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for biofuels to comprise 22 percent of the nation's transportation fuels by 2022.

"This research is aimed at policymakers who have to decide how and where biofuels should be grown and the best way to encourage farmers to follow those suggestions," Robertson said.

Research by MSU agricultural economics professor Scott Swinton earlier found that the most profitable cellulosic biofuel crop right now is corn stalks and leaves.

"Our research suggests that this is an energy-efficient strategy as well, so long as the grain is used for food," Robertson said. "But there are not enough corn stalks to meet expected energy needs and federal policy also may decide to offer incentives to grow crops that offer more environmental benefits than corn, including incentives to grow grasses on less productive land.

"The promise of biofuels made from biomass is huge, from both climate mitigation and economic perspectives," he continued. "But the promise could come up short if we don't pay attention to details such as the land on which they are grown."

The research is funded by the GLBRC, the NSF and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.

The Homeowner’s Guide to Alternative Energy

The Homeowner’s Guide to Alternative Energy

Do you ever watch the sun hitting your house, or the feel the wind rushing at your windows, and wonder just how hard it would be to harness all that energy?

The timing has never been better for average consumers to start using alternative energy in their own homes. The technology is better than ever, more and more contractors specialize in installing green energy generators in homes and state and federal money will often help you pay for it.

The key is to find out what type of green energy is right for you.

“When you look at alternative energy choices for a home, the choice has a lot to do with geography, where in the country you are,” said P.J. Stafford, co-founder of the eco-consulting firm Green Irene. “Your cost per kilowatt you generate is going to vary significantly from state to state.” For example, solar power in Minneapolis may not be a good choice, but in Arizona it’s a no-brainer.

Since sorting through the options can be confusing, many consumers hire consultants to visit their homes and offer customized advice. Green Irene, for example, has 150 consultants in 37 states who help customers complete “Green Home Makeovers” to save money and energy.

Since you might not be quite ready to call in a professional, here are some basics for getting the ball rolling.
Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have adopted Renewable Energy Standards, which require that a certain percentage of all of their power comes from renewable sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. - Lcv.org

29 states, including D.C., have adopted Renewable Energy Standards, which require a certain percentage of their power to come from renewable sources. - Lcv.org
1. Greening the Grid

“The first step is, people should opt for green power from their existing utility,” Stafford recommended. For an added price, you can often choose to buy green energy over conventionally-derived energy from your electricity utility company. In general, this option costs a couple cents more per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity you buy.

The average U.S. monthly household uses 938 kWh per month, so if the household opted to replace 100 percent of its energy with green energy, at a 2 cents-per-kWh premium, its monthly electricity bill would cost about $20 more.

But since you usually pay a flat rate for, say, wind power, and the price of oil and coal power can fluctuate throughout the year, consumers may end up saving money if conventional energy prices rise. And you’ll be contributing to the solution of greening the grid.
2. Do it Yourself

Another option is to install the actual generating equipment on your property to create green energy, rather than simply buy it. Building a wind turbine in your yard or installing solar panels on your roof requires a larger investment to begin with, but can end up saving more money in the long run, since you’ll no longer have to purchase as much energy from utilities.

Plus, many states offer tax incentives, rebates and subsidies to encourage consumers to install alternative energy technology. The rates vary largely from state-to-state, and from energy technology to energy technology. For example, sunnier states often provide greater rebates for solar panels than cloudier states where the technology is less useful.
3. Solar

In many areas of the U.S., solar power is the most practical option. Installing an average 5 kW solar panel system in New York, for example, might total about $60,000. However, the state offers such generous rebates and tax credits, that the job will actually cost only about $11,000.

“There’s no better deal right now in the country,” said Robert Covello, a certified solar panel installer for Mercury Solar Systems of New Rochelle, NY. “If you look at the numbers, the payback is like five years. It’s like stealing.”

Since the entire system pays for itself in as little as five years, it sounds surprising that most residents of New York haven’t installed solar panels yet. “Why are people not doing it? Because they don’t know, that’s part of the problem,” Covello said. However, the news of the deal is spreading. Covello’s business has been doubling ever year recently. “It’s the only business where people call me up and say, ‘Thank you,’ because three months later they are getting virtually no electric bill.”
Companies like Wells Fargo, Pepsico and Starbucks have made significant investments in renewable energy in various forms. Why not try it on your home? - Commercialenergy.net

Companies like Wells Fargo, Pepsico and Starbucks have made significant investments in renewable energy. Why not try it for yourself? - Commercialenergy.net
4. Wind

Wind power is also a great option for many homes.

“Our most active markets are typically on the coasts,” said Scott Merrick of the Bergey WindPower company, based in Norman, Okla., which installs small wind turbines for homes and businesses around the country. “There you have incredibly high utility rates, good wind resources and large subsidies.” In situations like these, a typical 10 kW wind turbine system, that costs between $55,000 to $67,000 to install, will usually pay for itself in six to eight years.

Surprisingly, wind power isn’t as popular in places like Oklahoma, even though the Plain States get tons of wind. That’s because electricity prices are so low anyway, most people aren’t motivated to switch over to green energy. In areas where energy is cheaper, the same 10 kW wind system can take as much as 12 years to pay back its cost.

Those planning to install wind power generators also must contend with zoning laws and neighbors that don’t want the eyesore of a turbine “souring” their view. “We typically recommend people have about an acre of space,” Merrick said.
5. Geothermal

Geothermal energy, or energy generated from the heat stored in the ground, is another up-and-coming alternative energy source. To harness this energy, consumers can install a heat pump in their yards to transfer heat from the ground to the house in the winter time, and divert heat from the house to the ground during the summer. It can also be used to heat water. The systems start at around $15,000, and can usually pay for themselves after four to six years.

“Once you install the unit, it’s going to save about 40 to 60 percent on your monthly heating and cooling bill,” said Bridgette Oliver, marketing communications manager for ClimateMaster, a manufacturer of geothermal heat pumps. “It’s using energy from the Earth that’s already there, that’s free.”

Unlike solar and wind energy, Oliver said geothermal energy works about equally well all over the country. “You just have to have dirt,” she said.
6. Cutting Down on Energy

Ultimately, installing alternative energy generators in your home, or buying green power from your utility can do a lot of good, and even save you money in the long-term. But just as important, experts say, is reducing your energy usage in the first place. This makes it easier to meet your energy needs with alternative sources, and is the easiest way to go green right now.

“The best thing you can do today is not put in solar panels, but do some things to reduce the electric and gas usage in your home,” said Green Irene’s Stafford. “The best energy [people] can generate is saving the 30 to 40 percent of energy they’re wasting in their own house right now.” Insulating your house, using compact fluorescent light bulbs and switching off appliances and electrical outlets that aren’t in use is a great place to start.