Category: Smart grids

Cloud software could increase building efficiency, save millions of dollars

| October 16, 2011 | 0 Comments

First published in Communications Day
A pilot program conducted at Microsoft’s Seattle campus has shown that intelligent building solutions using cloud-based software can be achieved with 10% of a building’s annual energy expenditure, offering a ROI period of 18 months.
The program was implemented in 13 of Microsoft’s 118 buildings on its campus, and carried out by [...]

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Verne Global’s Iceland facility goes live, signs first customer

| October 9, 2011 | 0 Comments
Verne Global’s Iceland facility goes live, signs first customer

Verne Global, the UK-based firm building a wholesale data centre facility in Iceland, says it is now officially open for business.
Services are available from the company’s 18-hectacre campus in Kelfavik, Iceland, a location with key operating advantages that providers well over 50% cost savings over traditional data centres in Europe or New York, the company [...]

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Google enters power utility sector

| October 3, 2011 | 0 Comments

Google announced this week it will set up a company with a partner and offer solar power to residential customers. As part of the plan, Google will set up a US$75 million fund with San Francisco firm, Clean Power Finance, which solar power integrators will be able to tap into to finance potential customer purchases.
Basically, [...]

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NBN Co to trial energy efficiency techs

| September 18, 2011 | 0 Comments

Communications Day, a subscription based newsletter for the telecoms industry in Australia, reports that energy efficiency will be a major focus of the country’s National Broadband Network initiative.
According to the report, NBN Co., the company rolling out the NBN, is working closely with its supplier of wireless technologies, Ericsson, on energy efficient sites, including a [...]

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Intel to reduce computer idle power by 20 times in 2013

| September 14, 2011 | 0 Comments

From 2013, you’ll be able to enjoy 10 days of connected standby battery life with new Intel chips, the company said at its annual developer’s event.
In his keynote, Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini said that the company’s “Haswell” products, scheduled for 2013 release, will enable Ultrabooks, not only to have an extended battery life, [...]

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Google’s environmental performance and the CO2 we all spend on web searches

| September 9, 2011 | 0 Comments
Google’s environmental performance and the CO2 we all spend on web searches

In the same week Google revealed the environmental profile of its Gmail service, the search engine giant also released details of its overall corporate environmental performance the year 2010.
According to Google, it recorded a total of 1,457,982 metric tons of CO2 equivalent for the year 2010. This includes 11,126 metric tons of CO2e for direct [...]

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SAIC taps On-Ramp Wireless for Smart Grid as a Service component

| August 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC, has signed up as a value-added reseller of On-Ramp Wireless’s Ultra-Link Processing wireless systems in North America and the UK.
As SAIC deploys Smart Grid as a Service (SGS) for utility customers, this agreement will enable the companies to offer complete system solutions to address all aspects of the Grid, [...]

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Logitech releases solar-powered keyboard for Macs

| August 28, 2011 | 0 Comments
Logitech releases solar-powered keyboard for Macs

Computer peripheral giant, Logitech, has released a solar-powered wireless keyboard for Apple Mac users. The new gear has a strip of solar panels along the top, which will work inside office lighting, and of course, in the sun.
The keyboard will also operate for up to 3 months on a full charge without any light, the [...]

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Mitsubishi wants to use electric vehicles as mobile battery banks

| August 21, 2011 | 0 Comments
Mitsubishi wants to use electric vehicles as mobile battery banks

Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Electric, and Mitsubishi Corp., is set to trial a new energy storage system that will use electric vehicles as battery banks when they are parked.
The project, dubbed “V2X,” will be rolled out in a trial deployment at the parking facility of Mitsubishi Motors’ Nagoya plant by March 2012, and will use the [...]

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Could the industry design data centres that can be powered by solar and wind?

| August 21, 2011 | 0 Comments

Data centres are notorious energy hogs that put them beyond the reach of most renewable energy sources. Today, the only way that a data centre can be powered by renewable energy is when it is built next to a hydro electric dam, or in a market where the utility power is from a renewable source [...]

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