Category: IT Energy
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Hiding greenhouse gas emissions in the cloud
The scientific journal, Nature Climate Change, has published a paper I’ve written about how moving to the cloud can result in greenhouse gas emissions being hidden.
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How much water do data centers use?
US data centers are expected to use 660 billion litres of water in 2020. In 2018, Google consumed 15.79bn litres and Microsoft 3.61bn litres, primarily for their data centers. What is this used for and how does it impact the environment?
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Energy efficiency, edge compute and serverless
We want to encourage more efficient use of cloud resources but designing incentives is hard. That changes with serverless and edge compute. Now energy usage is linked to price.
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Carbon emissions aware cloud compute
The first example of carbon aware compute is uniquely suited to hyperscale cloud environments. It becomes even more interesting with carbon aware load balancing and serverless.
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The environmental impact of buying a new laptop – comparing the MacBook Air and Surface Laptop
Apple produces the most environmentally friendly laptops from both a carbon footprint and energy efficiency perspective, but it depends on which model you compare. The best thing you can do for the environment is to not buy a new laptop.
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Data center energy and the importance of efficiency
Data center energy usage has only grown by 6% in the last decade. How important have efficiency improvements been for decoupling energy from growth?
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How much energy do data centers use?
Globally, data centers were estimated to use between 196 TWh and 400 TWh in 2020. This would mean data centers consume between 1-2% of global electricity demand.
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How can data centers use 100% renewable electricity?
If we still generate energy from non-renewable sources, how can a data center be 100% renewable? What does 100% renewables and sustainability mean for data centers and the cloud?