Computers heat the planet

2008/02/17 Álvarez Busca, Lucía - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Telekomunikazioak
• Internet
• Softwarea
• Energia

2% of global energy consumption is due to information and communication technologies.

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According to a study published last year, between 2000 and 2005 the energy demand of Internet servers has doubled worldwide. The methods used to obtain this energy generate carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Since then, research has focused on how much energy computers use. The data obtained are significant: carbon dioxide emissions from information and communications technologies account for 2% of global emissions, as well as those due to the air industry.

This data has had a huge impact on the technology industry. A week after the study was published, the big names in the industry agreed to a collaboration called Green Grid. Among them are Microsoft, Dell, Intel and IBM, among others.

It aims to improve the energy efficiency of hardware and software. The study of these technologies has shown that in many cases much unnecessary energy is used by the way the program or devices work.

One of them, even if it seems a lie, is the software used to save energy. These programs control the activity level of the processing unit (CPU). In this way, when the activity is low, they reduce the use of energy. To do this, the program checks hundreds of times per second the CPU activity, which keeps the CPU active. Less CPU activity has been detected without using this energy saving program.

Building green network

Eliminating such paradoxes and contradictions is the work of the Green Grid agreement and the companies that make up it. Its main objective is to optimize the energy consumption of data centers. Data centers are server networks that store and retrieve the information contained in the network. Whenever music is downloaded on the Internet, email is sent or a credit card operation is performed, all this data is processed in a data center.

Data centers are required for postal or credit card operations.

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These operations have increased considerably in recent times, such as YouTube or email services. Three years ago the first did not exist and now has millions of videos and users. The latter had an initially limited volume of messages, but now offer unlimited space to store messages. Can you imagine how many servers are needed to store messages from all users in the world?

Energy saving routes

The balance between the size of data centers and the energy requirement is now being sought. This results in economic savings, greater data storage space and less environmental impact.

Improved technology allows greater storage space and less environmental impact.

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This issue becomes more important considering that many citizens of the world still do not use these technologies. But they will be used in the future, which will mean a huge increase in users. Therefore, reducing the environmental impact of the energy needs of these technologies is an important challenge for everyone: for the developers of technology, of course, and for those who live on this planet.

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