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1. Forget Wave Power, Google and Others May Use Poo Power for Data Centers
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2. Affordable, High-Performance LED Bulbs Finally Hitting the Market
Forget Wave Power, Google and Others May Use Poo Power for Data...
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Google has been tinkering with the idea of a floating, wave-powered data center for a while, but it looks like a better solution could come from a more basic power source: manure. Hewlett Packard has released a research paper that states that tech companies like themselves, Google and Microsoft could benefit from a partnership with dairy farmers, using the cattle waste for fuel.
The research paper says that the dairy farmers could rent out land and power to the tech companies with a return on investment in waste-to-fuel systems in two years, making it a great arrangement for the farmers too. Farmers want to build biogas plants where manure is processed and the methane produced is used in place of natural gas or diesel, but the cost of equipment is often too expensive for them to finance on their own. This is where the tech companies come in.
As companies move their larger and larger data centers into rural areas with plenty of land, teaming up with local farms seems to be a natural fit -- farmers need a way to get rid of the vast amounts of waste and tech companies need an affordable, clean source of energy.
An average cow produces enough manure to power a 100-watt light bulb and 10,000 cows could potentially power a 1-MW data center, a small computing center. But another possible link between the farms and companies is that the biogas systems require a lot of heat to make fuel and computing equipment in data centers produce a lot of waste heat, so a loop could be created where the biogas plant powers the data center and the waste heat from the data center helps power the biogas plant.
The paper sees California and Texas as being the testing grounds in the U.S. for this partnership, while China and India could also benefit from such an arrangment.
via NY Times
Affordable, High-Performance LED Bulbs Finally Hitting the Market
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Major lighting companies are working tirelessly towards becoming the first to own the LED market. The super-effiicient light source is the future of lighting, but so far, for most consumers the available LED bulbs have been too expensive and dimmer than the incandescent bulbs we're used to.
But that seems to be changing. In the next few months, 60-watt equivalent bulbs in the $30 - $40 price range will be hitting the shelves. In comparison, just two years ago, a 60-watt equivalent cost $90 and a 100-watt dimmable bulb went for $360.
Osram Sylvania is releasing an LED bulb in August that emits 810 lumens (similar to a 60-watt incandescent) that only consumes 12 watts and should last 12 times longer than an incandescent bulb. That bulb should cost around $40. The company is also releasing a 75-watt equivalent next year.
Lighting Science will soon start selling a 770 lumen, 9 watt LED bulb at Home Depot with a price in the low $30 range. Other lighting companies like GE, Panasonic, Lemnis Lighting and Philips are all scrambling to hit a similar lumen-per-price ratio.
Why is $30 for a 60-watt equivalent an important milestone? Well, first-off, the 60-watt bulb is the best-selling incandescent, so being able to an equivalent consumer LED bulb into an affordable price range is key. Secondly, industry experts say that once LEDs hit $20, utilities could give them away to customers because the energy saved would cover the cost of the bulbs and would allow them to postpone bringing on new power plants. So, getting the cost of these bulbs into the $30 range means that a $20 bulb is right around the corner.
via Greentech Media
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