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FaceBook open sources building an energy efficient data center

FaceBook's new custom-built Prineville Data Centre

Back in 2006 I was the co-founder of a Data Centre in Cork called Cork Internet eXchange. We decided, when building it out, that we would design and build it as a hyper energy-efficient data centre. At the time, I was also heavily involved in social media, so I had the crazy idea, well, if we are building out this data centre to be extremely energy-efficient, why not open source it? So we did.

We used blogs, flickr and video to show everything from the arrival of the builders on-site to dig out the foundations, right through to the installation of customer kit and beyond. This was a first. As far as I know, no-one had done this before and to be honest, as far as I know, no-one since has replicated it. Until today.

Today, Facebook is lifting the lid on its new custom-built data centre in Prineville, Oregon.

Not only are they announcing the bringing online of their new data centre, but they are open sourcing its design, specifications and even telling people who their suppliers were, so anyone (with enough capital) can approach the same suppliers and replicate the data centre.

Facebook are calling this the OpenCompute project and they have released a fact sheet [PDF] with details on their new data center and server design.

I received a pre-briefing from Facebook yesterday where they explained the innovations which went into making their data centre so efficient and boy, have they gone to town on it.

Data centre infrastructure
On the data centre infrastructure side of things, building the facility in Prineville, Oregon (a high desert area of Oregon, 3,200 ft above sea level with mild temperatures) will mean they will be able to take advantage of a lot of free cooling. Where they can’t use free cooling, they will utilise evaporative cooling, to cool the air circulating in the data centre room. This means they won’t have any chillers on-site, which will be a significant saving in capital costs, in maintenance and in energy consumption. And in the winter, they plan to take the return warm air from the servers and use it to heat their offices!

By moving from centralised UPS plants to 48V localised UPS’s serving 6 racks (around 180 Facebook servers), Facebook were able to re-design the electricity supply system, doing away with some of the conversion processes and creating a unique 480V distribution system which provides 277V directly to each server, resulting in more efficient power usage. This system reduces power losses going in the utility to server chain, from an industry average 11-17% down to Prineville’s 2%.

Finally, Facebook have significantly increased the operating temperature of the data center to 80.6F (27C) – which is the upper limit of the ASHRAE standards. They also confided that in their next data centre, currently being constructed in North Carolina, they expect to run it at 85F – this will save enormously on the costs of cooling. And they claim that the reduction in the number of parts in the data center means they go from 99.999% uptime, to 99.9999% uptime.

New Server design
Facebook also designed custom servers for their data centres. The servers contain no paint, logos, stickers bezels or front panel. They are designed to be bare bones (using 22% fewer materials than a typical 1U server) and for ease of serviceability (snap-together parts instead of screws).

The servers are 1.5U tall to allow for larger heat sinks and larger (slower turning and consequently more efficient) 60mm fans. These fans only take 2-4% of the energy of the server, compared to 10-20% for typical servers. The heat sinks are all spread at the back of the mother board so none of them will be receiving pre-heated air from another heat sink, reducing the work required of the fans.

The server power supply accepts both 277V AC power from the electrical distribution system and 44V DC from the UPS in the event of a utility power failure. These power supplies have a peak efficiency of 94.5% (compared to a more typical 90% for standard PSU’s) and they connect directly to the motherboard, simplifying the design and reducing airflow impedance.

Open Compute
Facebook relied heavily on open source in creating their site. Now, they say, they want to make sure the next generation of innovators don’t have to go through the same pain as Facebook in building out efficient data centre infrastructure. Consequently, Facebook is releasing all of the specification documentation which it gave to its suppliers for this project.

Some of the schematics and board layouts for the servers belong to the suppliers so they are not currently being published, though Facebook did say they are working with their suppliers to see if they will release them (or portions of them) but they haven’t reached agreement with the suppliers on this just yet.

Asked directly about their motivations for launching Open Compute Facebook’s Jay Park came up with this classic reply

… it would almost seem silly to do all this work and just keep it closed

Asking Facebook to unfriend coal
Greenpeace started a campaign to pressure Facebook into using more renewable energy resources due to the fact that Pacific Power, the energy supplier Facebook will be using for its Prineville data center produces almost 60% of its electricity from burning coal.

Greenpeace being Greenpeace, created a very viral campaign, using the Facebook site itself, and the usual cadre of humurous videos etc., to apply pressure on Facebook to thinking of sourcing its electricity from more renewable sources.

When we asked Facebook about this in our briefing, they did say that their data centre efforts are built around many more considerations than just the source of energy that comes into the data centre. They then went on to maintain that they are impressed by Pacific Power’s commitment to moving towards renewable sources of energy (they are targeting having 2,000MW of power from renewables by 2013). And they concluded by contending that the efficiencies they have achieved in Prineville more than offsets the use of coal which powers the site.

Conclusion
Facebook tell us this new custom data centre at Prineville has a PUE of 1.07, which is very impressive.

They have gone all out on innovating their data centre and the servers powering their hugely popular site. More than that though, they are launching the Open Compute Project giving away all the specs and vendor lists required to reproduce an equally efficient site. That is massively laudable.

It is unfortunate that their local utility has such a high gen-mix of coal in its supply to besmirch an otherwise great energy and sustainability win for Facebook. The good thing though is that as the utility adds to its portfolio of renewables, Facebook’s site will only get greener.

For more on this check out the discussions on Techmeme

You should follow me on Twitter here

Photo credit FaceBook’s Chuck Goolsbee

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Can corporate social responsibility affect your company’s bottom line?

Nestl? share price drops

Your company’s share price can be negatively affected if you fail to behave responsibly in your business practices.

I have written here a couple of times about environmental risks companies could potentially face. This first time I wrote about this it was in reference to FaceBook’s decision to source the power for their new data center from a utility which uses coal-fired power primarily.

I followed that up with a post about how the EPA, the SEC and institutional investors are becoming more interested in environmental risk, asking companies to report on risks which may impact on a business’ sales, properties or even their reputation.

The importance of this has been driven home forcibly over the last couple of days as GreenPeace launched an international campaign targeting Nestl?. Why? Because it turns out Nestl? is purchasing palm oil from companies whose plantations cause deforestation of Indonesian rainforests with all the attendant knock-on effects this has (massive CO2 emissions, indigenous communities destroyed, and devastation of the Orang-utan’s habitat to name but a few).

As part of the campaign, Greenpeace launched a report called Caught Red Handed [PDF] outlining the connections between Nestl?, their suppliers and habitat destruction in Indonesia. As part of the launch campaign, Greenpeace had people on the ground at Nestl? offices in Orang-utan costumes publicising the report and they posted a spoof video on YouTube.

Unfortunately Nestl?, decided that instead of fixing their supply chain, that they should go down the censorship route. They quickly contacted Google and had the video removed from YouTube. Nestl? didn’t reckon with the Streisand effect though and in very short order the video was posted on vimeo and promptly re-posted on many other sites.

Nestl?’s lawyers quickly abandoned the take-down option realising they’d merely be playing a game of whack-a-mole if they continued. The storm of publicity which ensued even spread as far as CNN and within 24 hours Nestl? was forced to backtrack . The video is now back up on YouTube.

Nestl? censoring comment on FaceBook

As these things do, the debate took place on FaceBook and Twitter too with many people calling for a boycott of Nestl? products! In a classic social media shot to the foot Nestl? warned people:

we welcome your comments, but please don’t post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic – they will be deleted.

Now, in any social media forum (or any forum for that matter), threatening people with censorship is definitely not a way to win friends or influence people. And predictably this threat inflamed an already upset audience. The censorship threat went viral and Nestl?’s reputation went into freefall.

The end result, as you can see at the top of this post, Nestl?’s stock price fell too.

This was eminently preventable.

And it is a clear demonstration of the need to be fully aware of all the potential risks in your supply chain.

If Nestl? was utterly transparent and ethical in its business practices, then it couldn’t have been ambushed by Greenpeace.

If Nestl? had ensured that its supply chain was completely free of controversy it would have avoided the pr storm, the reputational damage and the financial losses from loss of sales and the fall in its share price.

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Energy and Sustainability show for Monday Feb 8th

Watch live streaming video from greenmonktv at livestream.com

We had a great Energy and Sustainability show yesterday – in case you were unable to make it, I recorded the video (above) and the chatstream (below):

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:22
Tom Raftery :

Monday Feb 8th – show kicking off in just under 10 mins
Hi everyone, can you see/hear me ok?

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:31
Joe Garde :

all good tom

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:32
Tom Raftery :

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/409887/rbs_labelled_dirtiest_bank_in_britain.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-decock/nuclear-energy-toxic-expe_b_446868.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/japan-guilty-whaling080210

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:36
jonerp :

Tom, it’s ok, we can drink that nuclear water after the plant is done with it – you gotta mellow out

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:37
Tom Raftery :

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2257313/fertile-topsoil-lost-globally
http://tcktcktck.org/stories/climate-news/think-tanks-take-oil-money-and-use-it-fund-climate-deniers
http://www.naturalnews.com/028108_Chevron_Ecuador.html

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:40
jonerp :

God I hate that oil company sponsored pseudo scientific “research”….and I see so called “reasonable” people citing that research all the time…grrrrr…..

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:41
Tom Raftery :

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/chevron_toxic_legacy_5/
http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-strong-us-manufacturing-data-plus-nigerian-violence-means-oil-will-rally-2010-2
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/07/branson-warns-peak-oil-close
http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by_technology/energy_efficiency/renewable-energy-utility-good-energy-criticises-uk%E2%80%99s-feed-in-tariff-rate.html
http://twitter.com/vkhosla/status/8781076971

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:45
jonerp :

oil energy scarcity is one of the big looming clouds blocking the view of any true long term economic recovery – without more progress on renewable economic and energy models that is.

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:48
Tom Raftery :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:49
jonerp :

oh, and anyone who thinks that “coal is clean” has never held the stuff in their hands.

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:49
Tom Raftery :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/4340528102/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/4339782517/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/4339781747/
http://www.abengoasolar.com/corp/web/en/our_projects/solucar/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM&feature=channel
http://climateprogress.org/2010/02/07/audi-green-police-worst-green-superbowl-commercial/
http://www.audiusa.com/us/brand/en/models/a3.html
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/quebecs-new-vehicle-emission-law-in-dispute/

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:53
Joe Garde :

tar sands on google maps – http://bit.ly/dsExVN zoom in

Mon, 8 Feb, 16:54
Tom Raftery :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/7182811/BP-faces-investor-revolt-over-Canadian-oil-sands-project.html
http://news.techworld.com/green-it/3212190/energy-star-rating-for-green-data-centres-to-launch/?cmpid=TD1N5&no1x1
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2257160/top-brands-usher-era-green
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/411050/uk_joins_calls_for_ban_on_atlantic_bluefin_tuna_trade.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/cites-supports-international-trade-ban-bluefin-tuna.php
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/uhaul-creates-reuse-center.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/los-angeles-may-get-mandatory-rainwater-harvesting-law.php
http://www.csrinternational.org/?p=6340
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i51zo3LA70U&feature=player_embedded
http://www.symphonyofscience.com/index.html

Mon, 8 Feb, 17:07
jonerp :

Thanks Tom.

Mon, 8 Feb, 17:07
divydovy :

great show Tom, thanks

Mon, 8 Feb, 17:07
Joe Garde :

great Tom.. thanks

Mon, 8 Feb, 17:08
Tom Raftery :

Thanks everyone for your time, interest and contributions

Mon, 8 Feb, 17:08
MikeTheBee :

Well done, I was a bit limited in bandwidth today, so will watch back l8r. Thx

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Greenpeace score big wins against illegal deforestation in Brazil

Deforestation in the Amazon to make way for cattle

Photo credit leoffreitas

GreenPeace released a damning report last month called Slaughtering the Amazon in which it detailed how the Brazilian cattle sector is the largest driver of deforestation in the world.

In this shocking exposé Greenpeace detailed how:

  • Cattle are responsible for about 80% of all deforestation’ in the Amazon region. In recent years, on average one hectare of Amazon rainforest has been lost to cattle ranchers every 18 seconds.
  • Analysis by Greenpeace of 2006–2007 satellite data and forest clearance permits reveals that more than 90% of current Amazon deforestation was illegal.
  • The Brazilian government has invested in many of the large beef producing companies.
  • Greenpeace identified hundreds of ranches within the Amazon rainforest supplying cattle to slaughterhouses in the Amazon region belonging to Bertin, JBS and Marfrig

The report goes on to name many well known brands who are buying the products of this illegal deforestation (often unwittingly) – names such as Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Reebok, Addidas, Boss, Geox, Gucci, Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton and Prada, amongst a long list of other extremely recognisable names.

Then comes news this week that:

Responding to allegations that major Brazilian cattle producers are responsible for illegal forest clearing in the Amazon, Brazil’s development bank BNDES will soon require processors to trace the origin of beef back to the ranch where it was produced in order to qualify for loans

Furthermore, as a result of the report:

Brazil’s three largest supermarket chains, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar, last week announced they would suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved in Amazon deforestation, while Bertin, the world’s largest beef processor, saw its $90 million loan from the International Finance Corporation withdrawn. Marfrig, the world’s fourth largest beef trader and one of the firms named in the report, said last week it will no longer buy cattle raised in newly deforested areas within the Brazilian Amazon. Meanwhile a Brazilian federal prosecutor has filed a billion dollar law suit against the cattle industry for environmental damage. Firms that market tainted meat may be subject to fines of 500 reais ($260) per kilo.

This is a spectacular win for Greenpeace, the Amazonian Rainforest, and all of us who depend on it for life on our planet.

It is not over yet. The traceability program depends on ear tags which are removable and so can be gamed. True traceability would use chips and would be independently verified. Still, this is a big step in the right direction and massive kudos are due to Greenpeace for this win.

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July 6th Energy and Sustainability show

Yesterday’s GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show went off without the technical hitches which plagued the previous week’s show. I fixed the chat app and the Google Calendar button so you can now add the show to your calendar (and be notified of any changes to the schedule).

Consequently with the chat app now working in Firefox, there was far greater audience participation in the show – something which was sorely missing from the previous week’s show!

Here is this week’s chatstream:

03:31 Tom Raftery: Hows is the audio, video & chat?
03:31 MikeTheBee: stopped
03:31 MikeTheBee: no audio or vid 4 me
03:32 MikeTheBee: back now
03:32 MikeTheBee: did a refresh
03:33 liveireland: all you need now is greenscreen
03:33 MikeTheBee: lol
03:33 MikeTheBee: oooh
03:34 Tom Raftery: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6620438.ece
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/29/rising-sea-level-new-orleans
03:36 MikeTheBee: google calendar link is now working for me.
03:36 PaulMWatson: I hope that water is sustainable…
03:36 MikeTheBee: that is why they are not really rebuilding then
03:37 monkchips: canada??? whats up with that?
03:37 monkchips: tom – the new setup is awesome! you look so much better
03:37 Tom Raftery: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/detail?blogid=104&entry_id=42949
03:37 monkchips: no need for american panstick makeup
03:38 monkchips: hello mikethebee
03:38 Roland: Calendar link works fine for me too!
03:38 MikeTheBee: hi mc
03:40 Tom Raftery: http://blog.taragana.com/n/58-percent-of-worlds-seagrass-meadows-on-the-decline-95347/
03:40 cgarvey: Re: Canada; Read up on Steve Harper and you’ll see he’s not to far removed from George Bush at all at all.
03:41 monkchips: as i understand it
03:41 MikeTheBee: And we were going to harvest that sea grass for fuel.
03:41 monkchips: coastal syndrome is often reversible
03:41 monkchips: *if* we get well off it.
03:42 Tom Raftery: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/us/04scotus.html?_r=2
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/01/exxon-mobil-climate-change-sceptics-funding
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecosalon.com/a-solar-powered-crime-wave-in-napa-valley/
03:45 MikeTheBee: sarcasm does not become you 🙂
03:46 Tom Raftery: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/01/2613841.htm
03:47 Tom Raftery: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2009-06/30/content_8335844.htm
03:47 MikeTheBee: You must need it for all your flights
03:48 monkchips: you love it you dirty carbon *****
03:50 Tom Raftery: http://www.3news.co.nz/Environment-commissioner-calls-for-smarter-smart-meters/tabid/419/articleID/110073/cat/68/Default.aspx
03:51 liveireland: me too.. i work in electrical engineering
03:51 MikeTheBee: Can we enhance the smart meter using CurrentCost type controllers
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://www.survival-international.org/news/4706
03:53 Tom Raftery: http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0701-amazon.html
03:53 monkchips: i would happily pay directly for that
03:55 monkchips: holy ****
03:55 monkchips: we have to write that up
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/waterboxx_grows_forests_desert
03:56 cgarvey: “The WaterBoxx gives them a head start, Hoff explains” .. g’wan The Hoff! Omni-present!
03:57 Tom Raftery: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/07/01/virtually-waterless-washing-machine-cuts-water-use-by-90/
03:58 PaulMWatson: Good for water treatment and run-off problems too
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/06/28/green.walls/index.html?iref=intlOnlyonCNN
03:59 Tom Raftery: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/06/29/no-fluke-new-survey-finds-4-gas-is-the-tipping-point
03:59 PaulMWatson: Water usage of vegitecture? Maybe use WaterBox condensation techniques
04:01 SukiFuller: Better late than never – howdy folks!
04:01 PaulMWatson: Could filter greywater through the walls? Like some green-homes
04:02 monkchips: they always overwhelm the sewers too
04:02 monkchips: so you get a LOT of pollution hits
04:02 PaulMWatson: Good point about storm drain problems. e.g. Dublin.
04:02 monkchips: the water supply
04:02 monkchips: thus for example the awesoem progress we made in thames
04:02 monkchips: really threw us back
04:02 Tom Raftery: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090706/bs_nm/us_autos_japan
04:03 Tom Raftery: http://environment.uk.msn.com/news/headlines/article.aspx?cp-documentid=148278848
04:05 Tom Raftery: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05friedman.html?th
04:05 MikeTheBee: I’m still seeing people hard cover their gardens when they have the money, rather than using ‘old hat’ lime chippings
04:05 monkchips: where does that monkchips find the time?
04:06 SukiFuller: Who is that monkchips dude?
04:06 MikeTheBee: one cool dude, that guy
04:07 PaulMWatson: @MikeTheBee I’ll bet the builders-rubbish 1 foot down in most Irish gardens doesn’t help either.
04:07 MikeTheBee: Dublin is built on marsh like London is it not?
04:07 SukiFuller: Oh @mikethebee you are such a sucker – he’s a ponce!
04:08 MikeTheBee: <8 04:08 MikeTheBee: good news http://www.web4water.com/news/news_story.asp?id=16501&channel=4 04:08 liveireland: great show thanks 04:08 cgarvey: Cheers for the show again Tom 04:08 SukiFuller: BTW - I am going to China next month for 1 year 04:08 monkchips: well done tom 04:08 monkchips: loving the show 04:08 monkchips: and the new room is so much better 04:09 monkchips: 😉 04:09 MikeTheBee: good show, good luck suki, report back via greemonk 04:09 MikeTheBee: cherrs TOm 04:09 SukiFuller: Cheers Tom 04:09 PaulMWatson: Cheers Tom 04:09 SukiFuller: Mike I shall - that monkchips gets all my news first 04:10 Tom Raftery: Thanks everyone for your contributions - made all the difference to the show

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Tata versus the Turtle

If TATA builds its port at Dhamra, Olive Ridley turtles will pay the ultimate price

Tata Motors is a subsidiary of the Tata Group and has become one of the largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles in the world – from Wikipedia:

Tata Motors was listed on the NYSE in 2004, and in 2005 it was ranked among the top 10 corporations in India with an annual revenue exceeding INR 320 billion. In 2004, it bought Daewoo’s truck manufacturing unit, now known as Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle, in South Korea. It also, acquired a 21% stake in Hispano Carrocera SA, giving it controlling rights in the company. Tata Motors launched the Tata Nano, noted for its Rs 100,000 price-tag, in January 2008.

In March 2008, it finalised a deal with Ford Motor Company to acquire their British Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) business, which also includes the Rover, Daimler and Lanchester brand names.

Tata’s launch of the low-cost Nano caused led to concerns over the pollution which would ensue from mass motorisation of India. To counter this Tata announced plans to produce an electric version of the Nano, named the E-Nano – whether that will come to market remains to be seen as the rumours about its production all seem to come from a single article in last year’s Auto Bild magazine.

More environmental controversy has arisen recently because Tata Group has decided to build what would be one of India’s largest ports at Dhamra less than 15 km from the turtle mass nesting beaches at Gahirmatha, and five kilometers from the Bhitarkanika National Park, India’s second largest mangrove forest and home to the saltwater crocodile.

Greenpeace India has been spearheading attempts to stop the development of the port and Greenpeace include a comprehensive backgrounder to the story of the port’s development to-date which includes what would appear to be a dirty tricks campaign by Tata against Greenpeace.

Greenpeace aren’t the only ones opposing the port’s development – the Orissa Traditional Fishworker’s Union, who represent the concerns and interests of over 100,000 fishermen, vocally and publicly opposed the construction of the port. The project has also invited criticism from over 200 national and international scientists, including over 30 experts of the IUCN’s marine turtle specialist group. And Global Response also has a campaign to stop the port construction.

The Greenpeace campaign with their Cheap car, Priceless turtle line is very effective though a little mis-directed seeing as it is parent company Tata Group, not Tata Motors which is involved in the project to develop the port.

Greenpeace has had a lot of success with online campaigns like this – witness the recent success of their campaign to get electronics giant Philips to take responsibility for the cost of recycling its own products.

It will be fascinating to watch how this plays out – will Tata simply ignore the opposition and steam ahead with their plans to build the giant port or will they take account of the environmental concerns and at the very least halt the construction to allow an independent Environment Impact Analysis take place. Frankly, I’m not hugely optimistic for the turtles.

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Games consoles really are gas guzzlers and the PS3 is an SUV!

PS3 Controller
Creative Commons License photo credit: DeclanTM

James had a post here a couple of weeks back asking “Are Games Consoles Really Gas Guzzlers?“. This was in response to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald where Greenpeace accused games console vendors of ignoring environmental concerns.

James correctly pointed out that the story was light on specifics – there was no data to support the assertion that the games consoles were power hungry.

Yesterday I spotted a Tweet from April Dunford where she said:

Sony Playstation 3 consumes five times more energy than a medium sized refrigerator – 10 times as much as the Wii. http://tinyurl.com/6ft8l5

Intrigued, I followed the link and sure enough the story seems to back GreenPeace’s assertion:

They found out that a medium sized refrigerator of about 12 cu. ft. volume (60 inches in height) will cost $50 a year while Sony Playstation 3 will cost $250 a year even if it is not in use and only turned on. Microsoft XBox came second behind Playstation 3.

The original research was carried out by Australian consumer group Choice. Choice is the largest consumer organization in Australia with over 200,000 subscribers.

Ouch! The PS3 consumes five times more power than a fridge even if not in use? Interestingly the Nintendo Wii only consumes one tenth the power of a PS3. Yet another reason to love the Wii!!!

The target demographic for games consoles are typically the younger generation who are idealistic and really clued into Green. If the console manufacturers really want to differentiate themselves they should get Energy Star certified. The first one who does will reap the rewards.

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Are Games Consoles Really Gas Guzzlers?

I found this story Interesting.

Apparently after the first “green” CebIT Greenpeace accused games console vendors of ignoring environmental concerns. some of the language and framing in the story is pretty darned strident.

Worldwide computer use requires 14 power stations for the necessary electricity, producing more harmful carbon dioxide emissions than the entire airline industry – not including the emissions created and manufacturing and shipping around the products in the first place.

And games consoles – of which 62 million were sold in last year – are the gas guzzlers of this industry, using huge amounts of energy to generate the necessary mindblowing graphics and sounds.

When played online, they are linked up to huge server farms which use even more energy.

And with each generation of console – we are currently on the seventh – repeatedly made obsolete by the newest technology, millions of machines, games and other accessories are thrown away, destined often for the developing world.

The gas guzzler comment gives me pause for thought because its so clearly rhetorical. I don’t actually know the wattage of these consoles (more homework!) but the story doesn’t appear to either. Its true though that hardcore gamers don’t tend to use a low wattage laptop. But what would a 17 year old be doing if not gaming? Driving around in a car their parents just bought them? Taking off to go travelling. Or maybe something carbon light.

Where the vendors have fallen down is in not responding to Greenpeace assertions. Microsoft, Nintendo, and SONY, and not one could muster a response. Not even IBM, which supplies the chips for the consoles, had anything to say. Note to the gaming industry: you may not be environmentally unsound, but you need a better story to tell. If I were you I would be talking about Bit Miles – how you’re encouraging the move to digital everything. Electrons are cheaper to ship that atoms.

That 50 inch plasma though… that’s a lot of electrons.

 

 

picture courtesy of blakespot on Flickr, with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.