that GREEN blog

A new study administered recently by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory appears to show that by pumping carbon dioxide through hot rocks two different positive effects can be realized. First, this method has the ability to generate power, which has obvious effects in regards to the current modes of producing power. In addition to this advantageous result, by propelling the carbon dioxide through the hot rock, these dangerous greenhouse gases that are produced by fossil fuel power stations may be absorbed.

Karsten Pruess, the hydro-geologist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory who carried out this studied, claims that “carbon dioxide could theoretically boost the amount of energy produced by hydrothermal plants by 50% or more….” and that “the technique could be used to dispose of the carbon dioxide produced by conventional power plants, which contributes to global warming.”

In order to take control of the geothermal power, heat must be extracted from below the surface of the Earth. This new method being studied by Pruess can extract this heat more efficiently than the current method, which involves water being pumped through the hot rocks and subsequently being extracted again.

Pruess’ hypothesis prior to utilizing the Soultz hydrothermal plant located in northwest France was that his method would be more resourceful than the plant’s method of pumping water. Though he was not completely confident in this hypothesis prior to commencing the study, he learned that it is beneficial to take risks and attempt new solutions. On top of the fact that driving carbon dioxide through the hot rocks produces more energy by up to 50 percent, it also necessitates less energy to be used in undertaking the process. This is due to the fact that the hot gas in the exit hole of the rocks is less impenetrable than the cooler gas at the entry, subsequently meaning reduced pumping would need to be done because of this density. Overall, this novel idea appears to be a win-win situation regarding the proposal of a new form of renewable energy.

Let us also look to the second aspect of absorbing the dangerous greenhouse gas that carbon dioxide is. According to Pruess’ study, it seems to be inevitable that some amount of the gas would seep into the rock, storing the carbon dioxide. Although this seems like it would be an extreme positive, Robert Pine of the Camborne School of Mines in the United Kingdom thinks there could be some adverse affects from this.

His take on it is this: “While carbon dioxide is unlikely to escape from such traps, rock fractures, which are common in regions used for hydrothermal operations, could allow gas to leak out. Using gas fields might be better, but because they aren’t very hot you would have to go very deep to get to the heat.”

So, although he still appears to, in general, advocate the idea that Pruess has proprosed, in his opinion there are precautions that should be taken to ensure the most advantageous results from the new method. For more information please visit Green Energy and Alternative Energy Source: Renewable Energy

In a world that is turning “green” everywhere you look, what other areas could possibly come more eco-friendly?  One place to look is your business.  The ability to turn your data center green is a very possible and practical step.  But first, for those who do not know, let’s define what a datacenter is.  A data center is the location owned by a website host that contains the web servers.  So how can you make this location that runs on so much energy into an environmentally friendly place?

Energy experts estimate that data centers use mean 1.5 percent and 3 percent of the electricity that is generated in the United States.  At the high end of the spectrum the whole state of Michigan can be powered for one year.  According to Uptime Institute, “more than 60 percent of the power used to cool equipment in the data center is completely wasted.”  Not only are you helping the environment by making your data center more eco-friendly, you may also get benefits through the government.

The website IT management.com has provided steps that will help you get started in your venture of making your business’s data center more environmentally friendly.  We will focus on the first 5 in this post and the last 5 in the next.

1. Evaluate your energy efficiency. Add up your energy bills, learn where your energy comes from, and how it’s being distributed in your company. Plan a road map for monitoring and reducing usage. Your initial evaluation can provide a         baseline for calculating your ROI after implementing changes.

2. Redesign your cooling system. Enclose your servers in hot aisles so you can concentrate your cooling directly onto the racks. Be sure to reduce airflow loss by sealing off holes in your walls, floors and ceilings, and make sure you have proper air ducts.

3. Reconsider your redundancy. Many companies invest in redundant cooling and heating systems that use double the  amount of power they usually need — for each kilowatt of energy needed, redundant circuits use two. This helps prepare systems for growth and times of peak performance, but the result is a maximum power flow where only a fraction of that power is put to use. This practice is inefficient and inflates your energy bills. Cut back your redundancy wherever possible, to operate based on your current needs rather than projecting your future needs.

4. Use adjustable equipment. You can also plan for growth and times of peak power needs by implementing scalable and modular systems. Scalable blade servers can concentrate more computing power in a smaller space, requiring less power to cool. Also any scalable system will let you operate at your minimum power requirements and give you the capacity to  grow into higher power consumption when you’re ready.

5. Virtualize your storage.  Most servers are underused, because they’re loaded with archaic information or software that’s only needed some of the time. With storage virtualization software or a device, you can make your applications mobile and thereby shutdown unneeded servers. The virtualization device will keep track of your server space and remap applications to different physical locations as necessary to achieve optimal efficiency. Thus, information can be made location independent and redirected across multiple I/O devices from different vendors.

For all of you who have your own blogs or website…

YAHOO and MSN Search have announced that they will support the popular format for XML-Sitemaps which was invented by Google in 2005.

In an encouraging act of collaboration, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced tonight that they will all begin using the same Sitemaps protocol to index sites around the web. Now based at Sitemaps.org, the system instructs web masters on how to install an XML file on their servers that all three engines can use to track updates to pages. This should make it easier to get your pages indexed in a simple and standardized way. People who use Google Sitemaps don’t need to change anything, those maps will now be indexed by Yahoo and Microsoft.
Source: TechCrunch

“Sitemap Creator”will create a Google Sitemap from your Blog and it’s Posts. This will help you get every page in your Blog listed in the Google

To install Plugins just copy the downloaded Plugin to your WordPress Plugins directory. Then you can access their features in the WordPress admin panel. The plugin directory is yourhost.com/yourwordpressdirectory/wp-content/plugins

Arne has updated the xml-namespace definitions in the new beta version of his XML-Sitemap Generator for WordPress Plugin to the new sitemaps.org standard.

Yahoo has already updated their Site Explorer so you can submit your sitemap to YAHOO and Google. MSN is still doing internal testing and should be on board soon.

If you’d like to read more about Sitemaps

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