GREENPEACE ON HIGH TECH

Make IT Green; Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change
April 2010 (Greenpeace International)

THE POINT
Based on the reverential pitch Charlie Rose made for the iPad, NewEnergyNews needs to get the answer to one question before sharing Charlie’s enthusiasm: How do you carry it, especially while carrying a phone and laptop (neither of which it replaces) at the same time?

Since the iPad is unlikely to replace other devices, its potential success rests on finding new users. Those users will depend entirely on the “cloud computing” concept. Data will not be on the device but on massive arrays of servers at hugely energy-intensive data centers. The emergence of the iPad affirms techies’ predictions that 2010 will be “The Year of the Cloud” and climate watchers’ worries that cloud computing will only add to the troubling growth of battery-charging and electricity-consuming in the plugged-in age.

Nationwide, almost half of all electricity comes from burning coal. Worldwide, because of enormous expansion in places like China and India where even larger portions of electricity comes from burning coal, energy consumption by the Information Technology and Communications (ICT) sector is expected to QUADRUPLE by 2020, adding enormously to the generation of climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs).

In Make IT Green; Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change, Greenpeace expresses deep concern about all this new, digitally-generated electricity consumption and challenges the ICT sector to make the “cloud” not brown but green. Greenpeace wants ICT companies to exercise conscious control over what kind of energy they subsidize and to fund R&D into more efficient data centers.

From ijustine via YouTube

Greenpeace’s attention to the ICT sector comes from 3 key observed trends: (1) Cloud-based computing has expanded DESPITE the economic downturn so it can be expected to explode when growth comes back; (2) the rising cost of power has only slowed but not reversed the deployment of data centers but big ICT players are looking for ways to design them with built-in New Energy and Energy Efficiency; and (3) the size of the individual data centers – and therefore their importance in the energy consumption and GhG emission questions – is growing.

The key concerns Greenpeace believes the ITC sector should attend to as it expands its reliance on cloud computing:
(1) Projecting and planning for the amount of power consumed and its GhG emissions implications.
(2) Siting cloud data centers to pre-select New Energy capacity.
(3) Considering the impact of the data centers on the demand of surrounding fossil fuel consumers.
(4) Planning for reduced demand from efficient designs.

Since the 2008-09 crash, the financial winners in the ICT sector have led investment in smart technology. Greenpeace’s call for the sector to take a more aggressive position in policies that cut electricity consumption only gives a theoretical framework the ICT leaders’ gut instincts. Ramping up Energy Efficiency is only logical for industries that have ramped up the 21st century’s addiction to electricity and are keenly aware they would be literally nothing without it.

Even Greenpeace regularly relies on the Internet to get the word out about its causes, though it is probably too soon for very many to be reading the new Greenpeace report on their iPads.

Last Question: To what extent is the huge iPad splash associated with its potential to change the economic model for consuming digital media? (Many of the things that come free with an internet connection will cost iPad subscribers.)

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THE DETAILS
The iPad began adding to U.S. electricity consumption when, at Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ presentation of it, the audience was filled with fans blogging, facebooking and tweeting about it as he spoke.

The iPad is essentially an entertainment device, designed for consuming movies, music, games, books, periodicals, short emails and photos or, to put it another way, it is a device designed to use electricity to distract humans.

The iPad brings its distractions to its users from the “cloud” of data center servers. It has to bring them fast to sustain the distraction. That takes power. Half of that power comes from burning coal.

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Google is both one of the greatest perpetrators of the power consumption (examples: Its Google Documents’ ambition to put all knowledge on the Internet and its Google Earth’s vivid and ubiquitous maps) and one of the leaders in the effort to make the cloud’s power more green (examples: Its proposed sea-going data centers with servers powered by wave energy and its foundation donations to the development of cutting-edge solar, wind and geothermal technologies).

Brown cloud or Green cloud? Facebook recently contracted to buy its power from PacificCorp, which relies heavily on coal. Yahoo recently built a data center in upstate New York so it could draw on hydroelectric power.

Google recently got licensed as a utility so it could have more control over its power consumption choices.

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Smart 2020, a 2008 Greenpeace report, predicted PC ownership will quadruple by 2020 to 4 billion devices, leading to a doubling of the greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs) for which they are responsible. (And that was before the advent of the iPad.) Laptops were predicted to overtake desk top computers as the main source of GhGs.

The report also predicted that cell phones would almost double to ~5 billion accounts by 2020, increasing GhGs another 4%. 2020, it foresaw, would see 3 times as many broadband accounts, doubling the emissions from that industry.

On the other hand, the report found there was a potential for a greater emphasis on the use of New Energy and more Energy Efficient practices in the ICT sector to produce a 15% cut in emissions from business as usual (BAU) levels by 2020.

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Energy [R]evolution, Greenpeace’s annual report, and Renewables 24/7, and its companion 2010 report, have repeatedly and thoroughly documented not only how the U.S. and the world can transition to a New Energy economy but how the transition will grow jobs and revenues.

Greenpeace’s Yes He Can, published at the end of 2009, pointed the way to a genuine shift in U.S. national policy away from the Old Energies.

Information specific to the ICT sector from the new report: The main elements of cloud computing are data center servers and the telecommunications network; in the absence of an effort to stop it, data center servers will grow 9% per year through 2020; emissions from data centers will generate 7% more emissions each year and the telecommunications network’s emissions will grow 5% more per year.

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Taking as its starting assumption that global emissions must peak by 2015 and return to 2010 levels by 2020, the report specifically focuses on the responsibilities of the big players in the ICT sector like Google, Facebook and, now more than ever, Apple, because of its iPad. Greenpeace calls on these IT giants to lead innovation in emissions mitigation and new efficiencies. It specifically identifies as central to the challenge (1) the deployment of smart grids, (2) the advancement of zero emissions buildings, and (3) the growth of low-emissions transport.

The paper’s policy recommendations have 2 aims, (1) to set out key principles of a climate and energy policy, and (2) to support stronger U.S. energy and climate action.

The key principles are (1) to cut GhGs in industrial countries to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and get 75% of that cut from domestic changes; and (2) to make the reductions through a system that generates $140 billion per year in funding for New Energy and Energy Efficiency infrastructure and environmental protections.

Stonger U.S. action requires (1) the goal of stopping GhG growth by 2015 and bringing GhGs to 1990 levels by 2050, (2) the goal of cutting U.S. GhGs by 25%-to-40% from 1990 levels by 2020, and (3) joining and leading a G8 drive to raise $106 billion per year by 2020 to protect the poorest and worst-hit nations from the unavoidable impacts of climate change and worsening deforestation.

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QUOTES
- From the Greenpeace paper: “If we hope to phase out dirty sources of energy to address climate change, then - given the massive amounts of electricity needed in order to run computers, provide backup power and coordinate related cooling equipment that even energy-efficient data centres consume - the last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power. The potential of ICT technologies and cloud computing to drive low-carbon economic growth underscore the importance of building cloud infrastructure in places powered by clean renewable energy. Companies like Facebook, Google, and other large players in the cloud computing market must advocate for policy change at the local, national and international levels to ensure that, as their appetite for energy increases, so does the supply of renewable energy.”

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- From the Greenpeace paper: “It is clear that as the energy demand of the cloud grows, the supply of renewable energy must also keep pace. Additionally, because of the unique opportunities provided to the ICT sector in a carbon constrained world, the industry as a whole should be advocating for strong policies that result in economy-wide emissions reductions. Among prime concern is priority grid access for renewable sources of energy. Rules on grid access, transmission and cost sharing are very often inadequate. Legislation must be clear, especially concerning cost distribution and transmission fees. Where necessary, grid extension or reinforcement costs should be borne by the grid operators, and shared between all consumers, because the environmental benefits of renewables are a public good and system operation is a natural monopoly.”

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- From the Greenpeace paper: “The ICT sector’s abilities to lead and to innovate are the reasons Greenpeace began its Cool IT Campaign in 2009. The campaign uses direct company engagement and public engagement to provide pressure on the ICT industry to put forward solutions to achieve economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions reductions and to be strong advocates for policies that combat climate change and increase the use of renewable energy.”