Alasdair Anderson:

One other comment to worry about is the idea that the IoT should be expanded. There is a report on the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-51742336/dirty-streaming-the-internet-s-big-secret) stating that the internet produces more emissions than flying, so have the IoT related emissions been accounted for?

The answer to that is of course not


It's a well known fact that the combined wishful thinking of a dozen hipsters in Shoreditch can charge an iPhone, but they have no concept of the background energy consumption required by their tech


The real facts are that datacenters in the 100MW capacity bracket are being built at an ever increasing rate  - whilst companies like mine attempt to get the PUE under control, the reality is that on chip cooling etc will probably double that 100MW to 200MW in terms of grid connection - we are looking at yet another one as I write this


Consider when all the hamsters are turning the wheels at Hinckley C it can crank out about 3200MW - or about 16 Data centers worth - that's about 7% of UK consumption.


It's exacerbated that we also want the data centers to be reasonably accessible but not too vulnerable so opportunity for energy recovery etc is limited and also energy reduction opportunity is limited as we usually don't want to be build them in cold (and hence remote) locations.


To get an idea of the picture then take a look http://worldstopdatacenters.com/power/


It never ceases to amaze me how the hard of thinking are all suddenly outraged  - where does Greta think the internet is powered from - ahh yes, unicorns. An idea that also seems to be in favour with the political class at the moment.


Quite aside from a climate debate, what we first need is an energy debate to decide what is it that society actually needs - from there we can work out what security, carbon intensity etc actually look like in terms of technical solutions in order to frame an energy policy for the next few decades and beyond


OMS

Alasdair Anderson:

One other comment to worry about is the idea that the IoT should be expanded. There is a report on the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-51742336/dirty-streaming-the-internet-s-big-secret) stating that the internet produces more emissions than flying, so have the IoT related emissions been accounted for?

The answer to that is of course not


It's a well known fact that the combined wishful thinking of a dozen hipsters in Shoreditch can charge an iPhone, but they have no concept of the background energy consumption required by their tech


The real facts are that datacenters in the 100MW capacity bracket are being built at an ever increasing rate  - whilst companies like mine attempt to get the PUE under control, the reality is that on chip cooling etc will probably double that 100MW to 200MW in terms of grid connection - we are looking at yet another one as I write this


Consider when all the hamsters are turning the wheels at Hinckley C it can crank out about 3200MW - or about 16 Data centers worth - that's about 7% of UK consumption.


It's exacerbated that we also want the data centers to be reasonably accessible but not too vulnerable so opportunity for energy recovery etc is limited and also energy reduction opportunity is limited as we usually don't want to be build them in cold (and hence remote) locations.


To get an idea of the picture then take a look http://worldstopdatacenters.com/power/


It never ceases to amaze me how the hard of thinking are all suddenly outraged  - where does Greta think the internet is powered from - ahh yes, unicorns. An idea that also seems to be in favour with the political class at the moment.


Quite aside from a climate debate, what we first need is an energy debate to decide what is it that society actually needs - from there we can work out what security, carbon intensity etc actually look like in terms of technical solutions in order to frame an energy policy for the next few decades and beyond


OMS