By 2020, we will use more energy storing all of our virtual lives “on the cloud” than we will by flying in airplanes. As we all add more and more of all of our all-too-easily-uploaded data to humanity’s ever growing attic where all our virtual stuff is stored, the need to add more data storage in an environmentally friendly way becomes crucial, because data servers use more and more energy.

But a data center or server farm doesn’t just use energy. It also can actually generate electricity. Data centers generate heat. Heat can be harnessed to create two forms of energy we need; both electricity, and district heat as well (co-generation, or combined heat and power or CHP).

A data center can actually be a source of both valuable heating and create actual megawatts of electricity, just from doing its thing, and storing our virtual stuff.

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

One of the “greenest hotels” in the world, the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, has an interesting new option. If you ride one of its new electricity-generating exercise bikes long enough to generate 10 watt hours or more of electricity (not long), you get a free meal worth about $45.

The bikes have iPhones on the handlebars that can tell you how much power is being produced and fed into the hotel. Fun!

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

The Economist is running a 6-day poll on whether or not governments should support and try to create green jobs. It pits Van Jones (see: Van Jones is Back; NAACP: Van Jones is an American Treasure; Van Jones rejoins American Progress to lead Green Opportunity initiative; Van Jones: “Will all Americans have a fair shot at America’s fair share?”) as a proponent of green jobs against Andrew P. Morriss who thinks the federal government should not be so involved in stimulating green jobs or proactively engaging in a clean energy future.

The main quote for Van Jones: “In a world of precarious energy supplies, mounting climate concerns and a global race for clean-energy jobs, Andy Morriss suggests that Americans should sit back and leave our energy security solely to the magic of the marketplace.”

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

Well, telling us something we should have learned in high school, a new study by researchers from the University of California shows why it is so difficult for the US to move forward on critical environmental issues.

The basics of it is that there is a severe misrepresentation of rural interests in the US political system. When you get into the details, you see how unbalanced this actually is and how this results in the US being an environmental laggard in the global community.

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

Google is doing a lot these days to help the environment. Now, they have just filed to buy and sale wholesale electricity. Are they looking to enter the utility market?

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

Lanner, a business software specialist, just launched a new version of its WITNESS software suite in order to help companies evaluate how their decisions will affect the environment.

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

In the midst of the Copenhagen negotiations last week, the White House announced a proposal to give a huge increase in tax breaks to manufacturers who produce wind, solar, geothermal, or other clean energy technologies. The goal of the tax breaks is to stimulate more job growth and promote clean energy technology more in the US.

With clean energy technology poised to become the third largest sales sector in the world, Obama and Biden realize that they must stimulate this field in the US a bit more to get the jobs that go with that growth.

In the proposal set forth by the White House on Thursday, new or expanded factories making clean energy technology (i.e. electric vehicles, solar panels, high-speed trains, and wind turbines) can get a 30% tax credit. This raises the current cap on these tax credits from $2.3 billion to $7.3 billion.

In addition to the tax credit, Obama’s proposed ‘jobs plan’ includes “increased investment in public works, small business tax cuts and incentives for homeowners who retrofit their houses to be more energy efficient.”

Congress will need to approve this jobs plan for it to go through.

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

A major new survey has revealed that nearly 50% of all US consumers would consider buying a ‘green’ cell phone, but only if key factors such as the price, features, and performance were equivalent to other phones.

According to the poll of 1,000 American adults carried out by ABI Research, just 7% would be willing to pay a premium to go green, a figure that may cause cell phone companies to think deeply before investing heavily in environmentally friendlier models.

Speaking about the findings, industry analyst Michael Morgan said, “These survey results mean that almost half of those surveyed were at least committed in principle to use of a green handset. However the public is largely uninformed about their availability: only 4% said they were ‘very familiar’ with green handsets.”

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

Aug. 29 is the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and Kanye West’s “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” comment on live TV.

The rebuilding of New Orleans continues. And it’s being rebuilt in shades of green.

According to a “New Orleans Green Building Assessment” released by the Sierra Club, the devastation of 2005 has provided the city with a unique opportunity to develop a national model for rebuilding with sustainability in mind.

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....

Image credit: KYZ at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

In the “green” space, credibility is crucial, and things are changing rapidly as investment washes in and out of the sector, companies make big eco-commitments, or they slink away from their environmental goals. A great way to stay up to date is to sign yourself up for a few newsletters in the space you’re interested in moving into. Being well-read is also a networking tool — you can know who’s growing, who’s been bought out, who’s making  headlines. Use these developments as opportunities to reach out to the companies or people involved and start a meaningful dialogue.

Read more of this story »

read more from this topic.....