Green Bull

According to the world energy report, a third of the worlds global energy
use, is based on electricity. Thats both good news and bad. Bad, because the
share is only going to increase, and good because, electricity is one area which
holds huge potential for greening this world. While we cant control
consumption, what we really can control is losses.

No wonder then, that green is riding on the electricity tide. A look at the
various technologies that claim to be green will prove the point. From anything
as simple as a plasma TV to the complex semiconductor design, everything
attempts to reduce your energy consumption.

And thats the lure of green. And its mostly because of this temptation that
green is still afloat amid the slowdown waters.

Power Guzzlers

Lets have a look at the energy consumption patternsclose to 55% of energy
is consumed by motors, 20% by lighting appliances, 10% by ICT, and the rest by
others. The IT industry, however, is more concerned about the single-headed
monsterdata center.

As per Gartner, data centers account for close to 3% of the total global
electricity consumption right now. In fact, in the next couple of years, CO2
emission from data centers is expected to equal those of countries like
Argentina! No wonder then, that data center is suddenly the focus of all green
initiatives.

Data centers account for 1-2% of global electricity consumption

Sources: Advanced Micro Devices; Financial Times; Gartner; Stanford University; Uptime Institute; McKinsey analysis, 2008;IDC India; MAIT, IMRB International, 2009

While players like Raritan want to do it through energy solutions, the likes
of Infineon are looking to cool it down. According to Arunjai Mittal, president,
industrial and multi-market division, Infineon Technologies, The maximum amount
of electricity is consumed in cooling the servers, so we are addressing the
problem using this root and bringing heat control technologies. The mantra is
simpleif the boxes dont heat much, they wont require much cooling.

And this healthy gain on the power front is whats keeping the registers of
the vendors ticking. As per some estimates, close to 65% of all new data centers
have deployed some solution for power management. And this number is expected to
read 95% by 2012.

So yes, green is happeningits just that the peg of the story has been
altered a bit. From going green, it has shifted to cost-cutting!

Inside Thy Living Room!

If you think that only your organization is saving up on electricity bills,
look beyond. Its happening at many other places, including your neighborhood
and hopefully, your home too. Everythingfrom that LCD, to mobile chargers, to
the toaster, washing machine and air conditioneris coming with energy ratings,
and promises to make your electricity bill more presentable.

And its heartening to see that so many people are becoming aware of the need
to preserve energy. And if they are allowed to say thisto reduce their carbon
footprint. As Siddhart Juneja, manager with Jumbo Electronics comments, The
four and five star rated products are in-demand more than ever now. On Diwali,
most of the products that did well had high energy ratings.

Now, thats certainly a bright way of celebrating the festival!

Mehak Chawla

mehakc@cybermedia.co.in