Energy efficiency

IBM software 'greens' corporate supply chain

IBM is looking to clean up companies' supply chains, part of a larger effort to make money from environmental concerns.

The company on Thursday detailed a software and service offering called Carbon Tradeoff Modeler that is designed to give businesses an idea how to lower the carbon footprint of their network of suppliers.

The need for carbon-modeling supply chain software is driven by regulations to lower greenhouse gas emissions, IBM said. Even in the absence of mandatory measurements and cuts, many companies are already undergoing voluntary efforts.

Large corporations hold significant sway over their supply chain partners in pushing them … Read more

Green-tech news harvest: Data centers sensors, oil supply worries

A sampling of green-tech news:

Saving Energy in Data Centers with Smart Sensors and Algorithms - TreeHuggerMicrosoft Research is looking to use sensors in power-gobbling data centers to make them more energy-efficient.

SunEdison to Build Largest U.S. PV Farm - Greentech MediaDuke Energy will buy the electricity from SunEdison from this plant, which, at 16 megawatts, is expected to be the biggest photovoltaic-solar farm.

Hydrogen-powered phones on the horizon - AFPFrench researchers at STMicroelectronics say they are making a hydrogen fuel cell to charge cell phone batteries.

Fungus That Produces Biofuels From Plants - ScienceDaily A … Read more

Riding the wireless network to the smart grid

If SmartSynch gets its way, your utility meter will have its own address on the Internet.

The smart-grid company on Thursday announced that it has raised $20 million, led by Credit Suisse, to invest in development and sales of its networked utility meter technology. To date, the 8-year-old company, based on Jackson, Miss., has raised $80 million.

Technologies to upgrade the electricity grid is one of the most active of the clean-tech area. A number of smart-grid companies are building software to better operate the power grid or build "smart meters" that can communicate usage information between customers … Read more

Greener One: A crowdsourced 'green stamp'

Greener One, now in early beta, is a very interesting and timely idea. The CEO, Zoli Piroska, wants to build a "crowdsourced database of green attributes for consumer products." The benefit for consumers is that they'll be able to tell what the environmental impacts are of products they are considering, from TVs to laundry detergents--and users will be the ones to build the database of attributes.

On the input side, Greener One is a structured wiki. Consumers who want to add information to the database are directed to look up certain info on products, and there's … Read more

Will people pay more for cleaner energy? You decide

It's funny how the same study can spark slightly different, even contradictory reactions. Consulting firm Deloitte released a report Monday of consumers' attitudes about household energy costs and climate change. Here's how two publications interpreted the results.

Greenwire: Most would accept higher electric bills to battle warming -- survey

A majority of Americans say they are willing to pay slightly higher electricity bills to help curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants...More than 36 percent of respondents said they would accept a 5 percent increase, and 17 percent of respondents would accept a 10 percent annual boost … Read more

Dow Chemical's green-meets-green vision

SAN MATEO, Calif.--How does Dow Chemical, the world's second-largest chemical producer, turn itself into a sustainable business?

"It's where green meets green," Neil Hawkins, vice president of sustainability at the company, said here Tuesday at the opening of the two-day Dow Jones Environmental Ventures conference.

Hawkins, who was interviewed in a morning keynote address, was referring to the 110-year-old company's efforts to make money by being more energy-efficient, investing in new clean-tech technologies, and working with manufacturers on new green chemistry.

For example, from 1994 to 2005, Dow spent roughly $1 billion on refining … Read more

Optimal gives electricity grid a better 'brain'

Electricity grids would be a lot smarter if they just knew themselves better, says Roland Schoettle, the CEO of smart-grid start-up Optimal Technologies.

The 8-year-old company on Tuesday released its first commercial product, an application called Aempfast that gathers and crunches data on power grid operations.

The problem with today's creaky electricity system is not a lack of power generation. The problem is traffic jams, Schoettle said.

"We have a glut of generation in the U.S. The problem is that the network can't get the generation to the right loads. It gets stuck in congestion in … Read more

Green IT at the plant: Web app remotely tracks energy usage

EPS, an energy management company founded by former Enron employees, has developed a system for remotely tracking energy usage at manufacturing facilities with a high level of detail.

The company on Thursday intends to introduce the system, called xChange Point, a hosted application that monitors energy usage at manufacturing facilities and provides Web-based reports to energy managers.

Comparing data from different locations allows companies to get an idea on how to lower their usage, said company CEO Jay Zoellner.

The company, founded in late 2001, has done business running energy efficiency programs and operating alternative energy generators, including co-generation plants. … Read more

Dell to cut PC energy use by 25 percent

Bragging rights in the PC industry have shifted from being cheap on price to efficient with energy.

Dell on Wednesday announced energy efficiency targets for its laptops and desktop PCs: a 25 percent reduction by 2010 based on the efficiency rating of today's models.

In about a month, it will set out an efficiency target for its server line as well, according to Albert Esser, vice president of power and infrastructure solutions at Dell.

For a sign of what more energy-efficient PCs from Dell may look like, Esser pointed to the ultrasmall PC which CEO Michael Dell showed off … Read more