Green Tech

A new breakthrough may change the attitude that the incandescent lightbulb has had its day.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) have unquestionably gained popularity for their energy efficiency when compared to the traditional incandescent bulb. Millions of people around the world have been encouraged by politicians, governments, energy utilities, and even lightbulb companies themselves to phase out traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of CFLs (or even LEDs) to save electricity in the home.

But now researchers at the University of Rochester in New York say they've found a way to make an incandescent lightbulb more efficient.

Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester.

(Credit: University of Rochester)

A group led by Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester, has been testing the effects of ultra-fast lasers on the properties of metals and decided to try a tungsten filament (the tiny wire in the typical lightbulb).

The group blasted the tungsten filament with an ultra-fast short-pulse laser for a femtosecond. A femtosecond is to a second "what a second is to about 32 million years," according to the researchers.

The blast changed the properties of the surface metal on the filament so that it formed nanostructures and microstructures that enabled it to shine significantly more brightly while still using the same amount of electricity.

"We fired the laser beam right through the glass of the bulb and altered a small area on the filament. When we lit the bulb, we could actually see this one patch was clearly brighter than the rest of the filament, but there was no change in the bulb's energy usage," Guo said in a statement.

The change in the filament has enabled the incandescent light bulb to shine as bright as an average 100-watt bulb, but consume less electricity than the average 60-watt bulb.

Full details of the project, which was sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, will be published in the next issue of "Physical Review Letters."

Within the Department of Defense's announcement detailing further plans for facility improvements, under money allocated to it through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), there are some little green gems that may have gone unnoticed.

In its March Expenditure Plan, the Defense Department had said it planned to spend $300 million on "near-term energy technology research."

Now it plans to spend an additional $346 million on "energy-related projects, enabling the DOD to lead the way in the national effort to achieve greater energy independence," according to the Department of Defense April 28, 2009, Expenditure Plan (PDF).

As we've reported, even before ARRA was approved, the Defense Department began to move toward renovating its facilities to make them more energy-efficient.

In January, it awarded LED manufacturer Cree a contract to supply over 4,200 recessed LED lights for the Pentagon.

That same month the U.S. Army announced an initiative that could eventually replace 28,000 gas-powered vehicles at over 155 Army installations with neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs).

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 important as their passage. Moving forward, policymakers must adopt reforms and take advantage of the stimulus funds to make government IT operations more energy-efficient. They also should set policies that encourage and incentivize the private sector to do the same.

To start, they should spotlight the significant stimulus funds aimed at upgrading information technology in federal facilities. Newer, more energy-efficient IT will drive long-term cost savings and environmental sustainability, while boosting government productivity and reducing energy consumption.

The federal government is a major IT user and, as such, a major energy consumer. The most recent Environmental Protection Agency report on federal energy consumption indicates that federal servers and data centers accounted for approximately 6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity use, for a total electricity cost of about $450 million annually (PDF). And energy use is slated to double by 2011.

The federal government can lead by example by pursuing two interlocking--but equally important--objectives:

First, the Obama administration should challenge federal agencies to freeze IT-related energy consumption at current levels while boosting computing output. This will be faster and potentially more effective than legislation.

And it's not as difficult as it sounds, but depends on successful implementation of three measures: New federal data centers must use the best available energy-efficient IT; existing federal data centers must be converted to "green" data centers within three years; and federal data centers must be connected to intelligent utility networks or smart grids, where possible. This will reduce energy consumption and drive significant cost savings for consumers, small businesses, large enterprises, and public-sector organizations, while enhancing U.S. competitiveness.

At Dell, we've learned that going green doesn't have to involve building costly new data centers. By applying a green approach to our own data centers, we are on track to save $52 million in related costs by the end of this year, and we've avoided the need to build a new data center altogether. We're able to compute more while consuming less.

The federal government must modernize data centers to improve energy efficiency. Most government--and private-sector--data centers have significant unused capacity due to servers consuming power but not always doing a lot of work. That can change by embracing technologies, such as virtualization, that optimize server productivity.

Virtualization is a technology that allows one server to do the work of many. Using software to create multiple virtual machines inside each physical system, virtualization reduces the number of servers required to run a data center. Combined with other technologies, a data center can do as much as three times more work using the same power and space. This unlocks unused capacity, increases computing power, and avoids the expense associated with overprovisioning and buying additional servers.

Second, government should establish policies that encourage greater IT energy efficiency in the private sector. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy found that for every extra kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed by information and communications technologies, the U.S. economy increases its overall energy savings by a factor of 10. In essence, efficient IT saves more energy than it uses.

Congress, regulators, and the Obama administration should start with a comprehensive assessment of government servers by class and power use. They also should develop a national strategy for deploying IT that drives energy efficiency. A senior White House representative, perhaps federal CIO Vivek Kundra, should coordinate federal efforts on energy-efficient IT, working with Congress to advance this agenda.

Policymakers also should develop a framework to support private-sector energy efficiency, including:

• Tax credits to invest in projects that reduce energy demand.
• Immediate expensing, or accelerated depreciation, for retrofitting or replacing IT that improves energy efficiency by at least 25 percent. Similar benefits should be considered for investment in broadband or related IT that supports flexible work or virtual-meeting programs.
• Energy efficiency investments for small-business administration loan programs.

In an era of tight budgets, Washington can invest in greater energy efficiency--an investment that will show a strong, timely return. While this is an investment for the long-term, it's imperative that desired efficiencies can be realized immediately.

Technology is the great catalyst for human progress, and now there is a valuable opportunity for government to help the sector realize vast new efficiencies, reduce costs, and simplify IT management.

BOSTON--The cutting edge of building science these days seems to be more about expanding foam than solar power research.

Last Wednesday, I stopped by the Building Energy Conference put on by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA). If there was one theme that jumped out, it was energy efficiency.

Insulating and air sealing a building, with stuff like expanding foam, has always been a sensible way to lower utility bills. But weatherizing homes is increasingly seen as the first and vital step to perhaps more exciting technologies like solar and wind.

Needed: more green-tech gear like solar hot water tubes to make existing homes energy-efficient.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

At the morning keynote discussion, Mark Rosenbaum of building firm Energysmiths, which specializes in energy-efficiency retrofits, argued that "fixing" the millions of existing homes through efficiency will have a far bigger impact on lowering greenhouse gas emissions than any new constructions.

"The majority of the potential is in retrofits," he said. "If you're increasing the building stock one percent a year, it's not going to get you anywhere. You have to fix the existing building stock."

Installing solar panels on an efficient home will have a bigger impact than on a home that isn't well insulated or doesn't use efficient appliances, he noted.

Rosenbaum pointed to several examples of retrofit homes in the New England area that were able to reduce their energy consumption significantly--some over 50 percent. Many steps are relatively easy, such as reducing the parasitic load from appliances, while others require bigger investments and changes to behavior.

Realistically, a 70 percent improvement--a goal set in an initiative called the Thousand Home Challenge--is challenging but doable in many cases. Some super-insulated homes--well-sealed homes with insulation on the outside of the structure--with renewable energy systems like solar panels have shown that they can be net producers of energy.

At this point, there isn't a standardized way in the U.S. of reporting a building's energy performance. In Germany, the Passivhaus standard for air-tight homes that use efficient energy technologies such as ground-source heat pumps have set the benchmark around the world.

Because of the wide variety of climates, there need to be different techniques for making homes efficient, said Rosenbaum. He sees a very high demand for green technology home products and much more skilled labor in this field.

"Where are we going to find enough people who know what they're doing?" Rosenbaum said. "We need a lot of people to get trained. Otherwise, we're going to create a lot of disasters."

Photo quiz: Gear for green buildings

When turned off, the glass looks like any other.

(Credit: Sage Electrochromics)

Sage Electrochromics, which makes energy-saving glass, has received $20 million in funding from Good Energies, Bekaert, and Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials.

The three also financed Sage in 2007. The company, based near Minneapolis, Minn., will use the new round of funding to expand into international markets, CEO John Van Dine said in a statement Tuesday.

For those unfamiliar with electrochromic glass, the dual-pane glass works literally with the flip of a switch.

When an electrical current is applied to the internal glass pane of the window, which is coated in microscopic layers of ceramic material, ions from within the layers migrate from one layer to another causing the coating to tint. Turning off the current reverses the polarity of the voltage, causing the ions to move back to their respective layers and returning the glass to clear.

In its tinted state, the glass reduces the light and heat entering a room. It can also block 98 percent of the solar radiation that causes fading, according to the company. Sage's glass tints include green, blue, and gray.

When turned on, its tints reduces heat and light.

(Credit: Sage Electrochromics)

The process takes a minimal amount of electricity. Roughly, the same amount of electricity it takes to power a 60-watt light bulb can power 1,500 square feet of Sage windows, according to the company.

While the windows work with a standard wall switch, for commercial buildings they can be controlled wirelessly and integrated with large systems to work in conjunction with thermostats, security systems, and motion sensors.

While Sage manufactures for commercial projects, the company is not actually a windows retailer. For residential customers, it supplies its specialty glass and control systems to Marvin Windows and Doors, Velux, and Weather-Tek.

Sage has applied its technology beyond windows, most recently for a commercial building that integrated solar panels into skylights.

Sentilla's sensor and software system directly connected to monitor SunFire X4100 and T2000 servers.

(Credit: Sentilla)

Sentilla, a company that makes energy management technology, announced Wednesday it's also getting into management for data centers.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company makes a software and microsensor system for detecting and managing the environments and energy consumption of commercial and industrial facilities.

Sentilla's new product announcement on Wednesday expands their reach to include analyzing the energy consumption of computers, servers, and their accoutrements in data centers.

Simply named the Sentilla Energy Manager, the system uses Sentilla's sensors with microcomputers to measure the change in activity levels and electricity consumption of servers. The devices are basically microcontrollers with built-in low-power wireless radios that run on two AAA batteries, according to the company. The computer is roughly the size of a dime and is loaded with Sentilla's Java-compliant software.

The microcomputers' data is sent wirelessly every couple of minutes to a computer so a human monitor can determine in real time a facility's energy patterns. Sentilla's sensors can also be used to monitor room temperature.

Sentilla received $7.5 million in Series B funding in early January from Onset Ventures and Claremont Creek Ventures. Prior to that, the company tested its technology on the Moscone Center in San Francisco during the JavaOne 2008 conference.

A thermal imaging camera. That blue spot in the corner means there's a gap in the wall insulation.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

It's not the sort of thing that excites your typical Silicon Valley venture capitalist, but companies that weatherize homes could be the sleeper green-business success stories this year.

Many people would like to lower their household energy bills but need an expert to recommend what steps to take as part of a long-term plan.

There's also a substantial amount of government support for energy-efficient retrofits, including from President Obama who has set a target of lowering utility bills at 2 million homes. The federal stimulus plan now being debated in Washington, D.C., sets aside $6 billion to weatherize low-income homes.

At the local level, too, municipal governments and nonprofits see home energy use as one the most important ways to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, said Geoff Chapin, CEO of Boston-based Next Step Living, which provides energy auditing services.

"This is a tremendous time to be in the field," he said. "Cities and towns care about creating jobs that can't be outsourced and reducing their carbon footprint and saving people's money, so it has a lot of support."

Chapin founded the energy-services company last year and has weatherized more than 100 homes. A former consultant for cities and nonprofits, he founded the business in an effort to cut residential energy bills, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and create jobs.

A blower door is a removable door with fan and computer to measure air flow.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

There are already free home energy efficiency services. Paid services from companies like Next Step Living typically use diagnostic equipment, notably a blower door, to spot holes where heated or cooled air slips outside. (Full disclosure: I've signed on as a customer and am expecting my first visit soon.)

A blower door is essentially a cloth door equipped with a fan and a computer that measures air pressure and how fast air flows. By blowing air through a building, auditors can spot the biggest holes where heated (or cooled) air is escaping outside. With a thermal imaging camera, auditors can, for example, see if an area on a wall is not as well as insulated as others.

Next Step Living tries to set itself apart from free energy audits by actually doing work and being available after the first visit for advice on devising a long-term plan.

On a three-hour visit, Chapin said that auditors can reduce a home's energy usage, combining electricity and heating, by 10 to 20 percent. They can come back to take on larger projects, like air sealing an attic, or recommend partners.

"Energy efficiency is the biggest low-hanging fruit. It's the bridge to get us to a renewable energy future," he said. "It's the lowest-cost way to reduce greenhouse gases and has the highest pay off."

WASHINGTON--Congress may be looking for some quick ways to prop up a stumbling economy as it heads into a lame-duck session this week, but members of the information technology sector are urging lawmakers to keep the bigger picture in mind as they craft economic and energy legislation.

As staffers on Capitol Hill know all too well, the growth of technology has created an economy increasingly reliant on energy consumption, as BlackBerrys, laptops, and other devices become everyday necessities. The right policies, however, can make IT growth a part of the energy solution rather than the problem, IT representatives said Monday at a forum, in a congressional office, hosted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Information technology could reduce the expected growth in carbon emissions by one third over 10 years, said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst with the ITIF.

Link Hoewing, assistant vice president of Internet and technology issues for Verizon, tells an audience on Capitol Hill on Monday about the ways IT can reduce energy consumption.

(Credit: Stephanie Condon/CNET News)

Information and communication technology has "great promise in driving economic growth as well as reducing emissions," added David Isaacs, director of government affairs for Hewlett-Packard, but "policy should drive these results."

The ITIF laid out policy proposals to spur short-term economic growth as well as long-term IT innovation in its October report, "Timely, Targeted, Temporary and Transformative: Crafting an Innovation-Economics Based Stimulus Package." The proposals include providing a tax credit for investments in health IT, a tax credit of 50 percent for investments in energy efficient equipment, and providing $735 million for computers and broadband for low-income families with children.

Congress can also encourage businesses to include IT solutions in their green energy policies by incorporating IT policies into cap and trade legislation, which is sure to be drafted next year, said Link Hoewing, assistant vice president of Internet and technology issues for Verizon.

Industry representatives at the forum also encouraged legislation creating more tax incentives for ICT, broadband deployment, and utility decoupling, among other things.

The government can encourage efficient energy use across the economy by leading by example, they said. The General Services Administration, Castro pointed out, set a goal of getting 50 percent of its eligible workforce to telework at least one day a week, thereby reducing the energy consumed commuting and at the office.

Cisco has already been working with governments at the municipal level to integrate smart technologies into the cities' infrastructure, said Jennifer Sanford, senior manager of international trade and environment, global policy, and government affairs for Cisco. She said the company has so far worked with Amsterdam, Seoul, and San Francisco city governments.

In San Francisco, for instance, Cisco worked with city officials to enable the bus system to wirelessly send out information about bus locations.

"One of the main reasons people don't use public transportation is they find it unreliable," Sanford said. "Now people can find out if a bus is near them and if public transportation is a viable option."

While President-elect Barack Obama has said he intends to include investments in clean-energy technologies within an economic stimulus package, there are policy pitfalls lawmakers will need to avoid, speakers on Monday said.

Green technology procurement standards should not focus on creating component efficiency that could possibly cause holistic inefficiency, warned Matt Krupnick, government affairs policy counsel for Dell. Additionally, policies that do not harmonize with policies elsewhere in the world may lead to less-than-optimal results.

"We're a global company with global sales," Krupnick said. "When we're designing to standards like Energy Star, if those are different than what Australia does, then we need to design to the lowest common denominator."

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Energy efficiency has always been a serious consideration of the tech industry. But executives from Cisco Systems and IBM here Tuesday said it's become crucial as their customers are aware of rising energy costs.

One of their key areas of focus is the data center, or the room where a company houses its computer servers and data-storage hardware. Power usage related to data centers doubled from 2000 to 2006 to comprise about 1.5 percent of the energy Americans use annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Silicon Valley Leadership Group President Carl Guardino said that if the growth continues as expected, then U.S. companies will need 10 more power plants to generate their added electricity by 2012.

That's why tech executives are examining new ways to design data centers and improve existing ones.

"Energy costs rank right after labor costs for our customers who run large data centers," Nikhil Jayaram, Cisco's director of engineering in the mid-range router group, said while speaking on a panel about green IT.

"Cisco's now moved to a new era where we're really focusing on power. Before it was performance, performance, performance, and cost was the fourth (concern)," he said.

J. Antonio Carballo, a partner in IBM's venture capital group, said on the panel his investment focus is "all about energy efficiency," especially in data centers. His group teams with external investors and start-ups to focus on power and efficiency in the United States and China. He said that in China he's seeing power at the center of 100 percent of designs.

Still, he said, there are gaps in the energy system design in tech and semiconductor conductor industries as a whole. He said he would like to see adaptive systems that can monitor and shift energy distribution as needed. "It is the case where we have to develop internally some system monitoring tools," Carballo said.

Cisco's Jayaram said his company is also teaming with coalitions like the Green Grid to advance energy efficiency in data centers. Cisco is particularly concerned with improving the energy usage of existing data centers that will be in operation for years to come. But for future tech, it is examining uses of virtualization software, or software to run multiple applications on a single computer instead of two parallel systems, he said.

Power has long been an element of the electronic design industry, but what's new in the last 10 years is a need "for power and energy to be looked at from a more holistic perspective," said Ted Vucurevich, chief technology officer at Cadence.

To that end, he talked about a so-called grid 2.0, or a system to distribute energy generation in a way that would be adaptive and efficient. Google CEO Eric Schmidt touched on a similar idea Monday night in a talk about his company's energy plan.

Jan Rabaey, a professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, said that he's been in power design since the late 1980s. The good news, he said, is that the industry has made much progress; the bad news is that it's still a problem. He said the low-hanging fruit of this issue is to make more information available to companies and consumers about their energy usage, and that will change consumption.

"Most consumers don't know what their primary source of energy consumption is. Once you have information, then you have room to start addressing things as inefficiencies," Rabaey.