Green IT

What if your refrigerator got its own electricity bill?

I talked this week with Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril, about interesting ways the U.S. power delivery grid could be modernized. Tendril, it needs to be said, could gain a lot from the nationwide adoption of smart grid technologies, since it makes software and designs hardware that collects electricity use data from appliances and then processes that data for utility companies and consumers.

The big idea that Tuck and I discussed is a concept that's only now boring its way through the thick bureaucracies of the utility companies: what if, instead of power companies charging for electricity at … Read more

Grading Google's carbon neutral claims

Google reached its goal of becoming carbon neutral for 2007 and is almost entirely neutral for 2008, Google's Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl announced on the official Google blog Wednesday evening.

In June 2007, Google had announced it was going to try to become carbon neutral by the end of that year by working to maximize its efficiency, investing in renewable energy resources, and as a last resort and interim solution buying carbon offsets.

In Wednesday evening's post announcing the company had finally achieved that goal, Weihl reiterated the company's 2007 promise of using carbon offsets was … Read more

Just how much tech junk is getting recycled?

Correction at 9:20 a.m. PDT: The time span for Office Depot's figures is one year.

Last year, Office Depot recycled almost 1.5 million pounds of old tech equipment through its service for consumers, the company said Wednesday.

That sounds like a lot. It makes you realize how quickly all those landfills must be filling up since that figure represents only the junk from people who 1) actually bother to recycle, and 2) chose to go with Office Depot's recycling program.

For a comparison, I decided to check how other company-sponsored recycling programs are doing. Unfortunately, … Read more

Washington's role in a green recovery

Editors' note: This is a guest post. See Paul Bell's bio below.

When President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress in February, he spoke to the need for the United States to become more energy-efficient. To that end, the stimulus bill he recently signed into law provides more than $30 billion for energy efficiency projects, innovative technology loan guarantees, the retrofitting of federal facilities, and the development of the initial framework for a "smart" electrical grid.

These measures put the country on a long-term path toward so-called green-led growth. But how they are implemented is as … Read more

Seagate's desktop hard drive gets extra green

To celebrate Earth day, Seagate announced Wednesday the availability of its new, extra-low-power desktop hard drive, the Barracuda LP (LP stands for low power).

If Western Digital's new WD RE4-GP desktop hard drive has no spinning rpm specification, Seagate's Barracuda LP has a rather unconventional spinning speed of 5,900rpm.

Generally, the spinning speed is associated with the performance of hard drives. For example, drives with 5,400rpm tend to have a lower performance than those with 7,200rpm, which is the current spinning speed of most desktop hard drives.

However, the faster the hard drive spins, the … Read more

Monitors get the green treatment

Earth Day brings with it many things: temporary environmental consciousness, plenty of green and white design motifs, and sometimes a new green-focused section of a Web site.

This year, the Web site in question is ours. Today CNET launches its new Green Electronics Guide. There you can check out our top green products, from cars to desktops, as well as power efficiency guides on laptops, desktops, TVs, and monitors.

In the monitor guide you'll see the power efficiency of 21 different monitors compared, and you'll discover ways to cut down on your current power consumption. Today also marks … Read more

Go green: Energy-cutting apps for your PC

Earth Day may or may not appeal to your eco-conscience, but keeping the reins steady on your computer's carbon footprint and energy consumption makes good technological and financial sense. Reducing your energy output can prolong the life of your hardware--especially a laptop or Netbook--and can help save cash, which we all know is the 'greenest' motivation around.

This collection of environmentally friendly software lassos together these apps, plus a few others to help understand and appreciate our planet's cities, flora, and outer space neighbors.

ENERGY-SAVERS

Edison

Edison for XP and Windows Vista is the newest one-stop app for monitoring how much energy and money you save when you tighten up your computer's sleep and shutdown schedules. A slider lets you decide after how many minutes you want to shut down your computer's display and hard drive during the peak work day. You can program differing criteria for off hours. Manual customization is also possible if you need to ease into greener computing.… Read more

London data center to power local community

Waste heat from a new data center being built in London Docklands will power nearby homes and businesses, the company behind the project says.

The Telehouse West facility, which is due for completion in 2010, is being built by Telehouse Europe alongside the WSP Group, a sustainability consultancy. Work has started on the new data center, which will be nine stories high and provide 19,000 square meters of floor space.

In its announcement on Wednesday, Telehouse Europe said the $91 million data center would provide up to 9 megawatts of power for the local community by exporting the heat … Read more

A123Systems receives $69 million from GE, others

Lithium ion battery company A123Systems has received a $69 million investment round from General Electric and others, the company announced Monday.

With its latest funding, A123Systems plans to expand its facilities in Massachusetts and Michigan, as well as build new facilities in Michigan. A portion of the proceeds will also be used to develop applications for the smart grid, such as utility-scale storage. The company has its headquarters in Watertown, Mass.

GE invested $15 million toward this latest round, bringing its total investment stake to 10 percent in the company. A123Systems also announced GE will receive a seat on its … Read more

Planned Florida city aims for solar self-sufficiency

One of the world's biggest photovoltaic projects is planned for southwest Florida. Florida Power & Light will spend $350 million to build a 75-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant at a planned city, Babcock Ranch, near Fort Myers, the company announced Thursday.

Construction could begin late this year, subject to state regulatory approvals.

Eric Silagy, the ultility's chief development officer, said at a press conference that the company's photovoltaic project is larger than any previously announced.

"We are extremely excited to be building one of the world's largest solar photovoltaic projects, once the state legislative and regulatory … Read more