ValleyWatch

September 25, 2012-By Robert McMillan in Wired. Editor’s note: This page has long advocated substantial increases in energy efficiency as well as increased use of electronic files to mitigate the use of paper across society. The Times report linked below and this story reflect on why there is a perceived need to build more and more power plants using increased fossil fuels when there might be other answers that will save us both money and the planet.

When The New York Times published the first part of its sweeping investigative report on the state of the world’s data centers, it led with a six-year-old story about Facebook dispatching engineers to local Walgreens stores in a desperate bid to cool down the 40- by 60-foot rental that was home to the company’s servers.

The report — which ran on the front page of the paper this Sunday, above the fold — then proceeded to describe an extremely wasteful industry that’s “sharply at odds with its image of sleek efficiency and environmental friendliness.”

Yes, data centers are wasteful. But Facebook, for one, has evolved over those six years — significantly. And that’s no secret. Largely lost amid the Times’ multiple-page analysis is the fact that the data centers built by a handful of internet giants are looking less and less like the 40- by 60-foot rental space that was home to Facebook back in 2006 — and that these advances are just beginning to trickle down to the rest of the industry.

Facebook engineers no longer forage for fans. They think about how to optimize undersea cable routes. They design brand-new ways of storing data with some of the power turned off. They even design their own servers. And Facebook is now sharing many of its designs with the rest of the world.

Companies like Google and Apple and Amazon are also building a new generation of data centers that look nothing like that 40- by 60-foot overheated Facebook cage from 2006. But they’re doing most of this work in secret. “We generally don’t give out — for competitive advantage — a lot of details,” says an engineer with a large internet company who, well, wasn’t authorized to speak with the press. In fact, none of the big internet companies we reached out to could provide us with on-the-record comment by deadline Monday.

That makes it tricky to write an investigative expose on the industry. The stuff that companies will talk about is often so out-of-date that it’s obsolete.

The Times asked McKinsey & Co. to study data-center energy use, and the consulting firm found that “on average, they were using only 6 percent to 12 percent of the electricity powering their servers to perform computations,” the newspaper reported.

That’s pretty much in line with what McKinsey was saying back in this 2008 PowerPoint presentation, where it found “6 percent average server utilization” overall and that 80 percent of servers were running at between 5 and 30 percent utilization. But at the biggest data-center operators, things are changing in so many other ways.

Continue reading →

Spetember 17, 2012-by Deep Rogue Ram

Arctic ice cover just reached its lowest point in recorded history. Pippa goes off script and drops some science. For more, check out http://www.deeprogueram.tumblr.com
Or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Deep-Rogue-Ram/270636419712713
Or Twitter: https://twitter.com/deeprogueram

A musical investigation into the causes and effects of global climate change and our opportunities to use science to offset it. Featuring Bill Nye, David Attenborough, Richard Alley and Isaac Asimov. “Our Biggest Challenge” is the 16th episode of the Symphony of Science series by melodysheep.

Visit http://symphonyofscience.com for more science remixes!

September 8, 2012, by Jen Alic, in Oilprice.com via CNBC

Half of all industrial toxic air pollution comes from power plants, and 6,700 power plants and heavy industries are responsible for 80 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Coal- and oil-fired power plants contribute 44 percent of all toxic air pollution. Toxic mercury and emissions from the country’s electricity sector are estimated to cause tens of thousands of premature deaths, heart attacks, asthma cases and chronic bronchitis every year.

Many of the US’ most toxic states have seen a reduction of pollution over the past several years, but a federal court of appeals ruling to scrap an EPA regulation on “Cross-State Air Pollution,” designed to reduce air pollution carried from one state to another. Power plants had been expecting this ruling to be approved for over a year, and had adjusted their practices accordingly. The immediate reaction to the federal court’s scrapping of the rule resulted in a queuing up of power plants to abandon preparations for this compliance. Likewise, the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics standards (MATs), designed to cut mercury air pollution beginning in 2015 by 79 percent from 2010 levels failed in the Senate in June.

So where are we now? Well, we’re stuck with this list of states that are the most toxic, and while much progress has been made, the list is likely to contain the usual suspects next year and fewer improvements on pollution.

Number 1: Ohio

Ohio’s electricity-generation sector emitted more than 36.4 million pounds of harmful chemicals in 2010, accounting for 62% of state pollution and about 12% of toxic pollution from all US power plants. The state also ranked 2nd in industrial mercury air pollution from power plants, emitting almost 4,210 pounds in 2010 (73 percent of the state’s mercury air pollution and 6 percent of US electricity sector mercury pollution).

Ohio is home to the Gen J M Gavin coal plant in Cheshire, which is the 9th biggest polluter in the United States, according to the EPA, which estimates the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2010 at 16,872,856 CO2e.

Number 2: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is ranked third on the second annual “Toxic 20” ranking of states whose residents are exposed to the most pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants. It represents a small improvement over last year, when Pennsylvania ranked second in the nation in the percentage of toxic pollution generated by power plants. Pennsylvania is responsible for some 10% of all toxic pollution from power plants in the US, releasing nearly 32 million pounds of harmful chemicals in 2010 alone.

From 2009 to 2010, air pollution from all sources in Pennsylvania dropped by 20 percent and from coal-fired power plants by 24 percent, according to HRDC.

Number 3: Florida

While the EPA ranked Florida the 6th worst polluter in 2010, the NRDC ranked it as 2nd worst in its 2012 list. Florida’s electricity-generation sector emitted nearly 16.7 million pounds of harmful chemicals in 2010, according to the EPA, accounting for 57 percent of all state pollution and 5 percent of toxic pollution from all US power plants. Florida’s electricity sector emitted some 1,710 pounds of mercury into the air, accounting for 75 percent of the entire state’s mercury air pollution for that same year.

Florida has undergone a major shift from coal to natural gas. Twelve years ago, natural gas accounted for less than 30 percent of Florida’s electricity production. By 2011, Florida was generating 62 percent of its total power from natural gas, with coal accounting for 23 percent. (Only Texas has a higher percentage.) Florida has three nuclear power plants, which accounted for just under 10 percent of electricity generation in 2011. Florida has 10 large power plants, eight of which are now fueled by natural gas.

However, despite the shift from coal to natural gas, Florida’s carbon dioxide emissions have continued to increase, while sulfur dioxide emissions have been reduced. Florida has seen its greenhouse gas emissions increase from 91 million tons in 1990 to 124 million tons in 2010.

Number 4: Kentucky

Kentucky may not have been ranked the worst overall polluter in the US, but it is ranked worst in terms of toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants, with HRDC officials specifically citing Kentucky’s poor control over these plants and its failure to adopt any laws or regulations that would lead to a notable reduction in pollution.

Kentucky’s electricity sector actually saw an increase in toxic air pollution from 8.8 million pounds in 2009 to 9.6 million pounds in 2010.

It’s not likely to improve much. Just one day after a federal appeals court scrapped the EPA rule to curb long-distance power plant pollution drifting, the Kentucky-based Big Rivers Electric Cooperative power plant announced it would abandon pollution controls that would have allowed it to comply with the EPA’s regulation.

Number 5: Maryland

Ranked 5th overall for total industrial pollution, coal-burning power plants keep Maryland higher on the pollution list than the state would like. In terms of coal-burning power plant pollution, Maryland is ranked 19th by the NRDC, which also noted that the state’s toxic emissions from power plants dropped by 88 percent over the course of one year. The biggest polluters are the Chesterfield, Chesapeake and Clinch River power plants.

Number 6: Indiana

The Gibson coal plant in Owensville had total greenhouse gas emissions of 17,993,350 CO2e in 2010, according to the EPA, which ranked the plant the fifth worst polluter in the US. The state’s Rockport coal plant ranked the 10th worth polluter in the country, with total greenhouse gas emissions of 16,666,035 CO2e. Continue reading →

August 30, 2012- by YERTians

The Solar Roadways project is working to pave roads with solar panels that you can drive on. Co-founder Scott Brusaw has made some major steps forward since our first visit back in 2007, so we visited him again for an exclusive update on the project, including the first ever video recorded of the Solar Roadways prototype! For more information visithttp://www.solarroadways.com . This Solar Roadway project is highlighted as one of many planet-friendly solutions in the feature film by YERT – Your Environmental Road Trip. To learn more about YERT, visit http://yert.com .

Flattr this video here: https://flattr.com/thing/407726/YERT-video-about-Solar-Roadways-The-Prototype

And you can become a fan of YERT on Facebook here:http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/YERT-Your-Environmental-

August 28, 2012-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor

To achieve the much greater mileage, electric cars are figured to play a big part. Tesla, Toyota, Nissan and GM and Ford are all offering some version of hybrid or plug-in model cars some of which already achieve the standards set for 2025. Other options could be fuel cell powered automobiles. Pictured is the Chevy Volt.

After years of debate and acquiescence, the Obama Administration today issued new Federal mileage regulations which will force auto manufacturers to increase fuel economy to an equivalent of 54.5 MPG for cars and light trucks by the year 2025.

These fuel standards represent the single most important step we’ve ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said President Obama. “This historic agreement builds on the progress we’ve already made to save families money at the pump and cut our oil consumption. By the middle of the next decade our cars will get nearly 55 miles per gallon, almost double what they get today. It’ll strengthen our nation’s energy security, it’s good for middle class families and it will help create an economy built to last.”

These new standards will undoubtedly transform our vehicle fleet and present new opportunities to improve the overall economy of the USA as well as that of the entire world. It will do that by changing not only vehicles, but also promoting a transformative “conservation ethic” which Valley Watch has been promoting since its inception in 1981.

New manufacturing norms, new technologies and new product lines will emerge as manufacturers seek new and better ways to improve transportation modes as well as infrastructure to accommodate the new standards.

According to Whitehouse projections, the new mileage standards will save American families more than $1.7 trillion dollars in fuel costs, resulting in an average fuel savings of more than $8,000 by 2025 over the lifetime of the vehicle. For families purchasing a model Year 2025 vehicle, the net savings will be comparable to lowering the price of gasoline by approximately $1 per gallon. Additionally, these programs will dramatically reduce our reliance on foreign oil, saving a total of 12 billion barrels of oil and reducing oil consumption by more than 2 million barrels a day by 2025 – as much as half of the oil we import from OPEC each day.