Comments on: Networks Could Be 10,000 Times More Energy Efficient: Report

By: Unleash an Avalanche of Value with Precise Minimal Actions » Victus Spiritus

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:26:52 +0000

[...] Networks Could Be 10,000 Times More Energy Efficient: Report (earth2tech.com) [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:38:33 +0000

There is one group who seem to have how to make money out of energy and that is the scams market. They are rife everywhere, from DIY solar panels to who knows what with consumer power factor correction.

But when it comes to small business we are dreadful, no skills, no time and everything still left switched on.

I agree with you Katie, it is too easy to pontificate in the abstract of global vision, for in this we do not actually do anything. We sound good though!

If we each turned what we could off each day, it would make a tangible difference.

By: hahnfeld

hahnfeld — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:04:51 +0000

I'll bet Google weighs all 3 (price, reliability & efficiency) pretty equally. After all, it's operating cost (efficiency) that ultimately affects their bottom line the most.

No reason why telcom networks can't leverage all the advances in efficiency being driven by networks where its more critical.

Imagine how small a footprint a typical central office or MSC could be if deployed using current day server-based technology vs. the dinosaur switches & transmission gear still used.

By: Chris Pomeroy

Chris Pomeroy — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:09:42 +0000

Katie, Reliability and price are always going to be 100000x more important to the hardware purchaser than electrical efficiency. Reliable, Cheap, and Efficient: Pick two (or something like that)

In other words, there are reasons these are simply PR initiatives and not "actionable" items-- this market may not demand energy efficient hardware.

“today’s networks are optimized for capacity not energy.” Yes, this is exactly the way it should be, at least while you are carrying my business-critical network traffic.

I also think that you are wrong about your assumption that optimizing network power efficiency is not bleeding edge technology.

The problem with "green" thinking is the consistent shortsighted assumption that small, easy, and no-cost changes are all it takes to transform the world; or in this case, reduce our telco power consumption by One Million percent. Laughable.

By: Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie Fehrenbacher — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:31:10 +0000

Thanks @Perica. I agree I don't think it does any harm, but I think the market is a much more efficient way of getting energy efficiency technology commercialized. Unlike renewable energy, which will probably need a cap and trade system and the externality of a carbon price, to drop in price, energy efficiency technology can already use the current market (with no carbon externality) to reduce long term energy costs. Why not use it.

By: Perica

Perica — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:12:37 +0000

I definitively agree with you on the last (call for action, not research) - we definitively need more of action in any energy efficienci field - but I also disagree with you on the "philanthropic effort". I mean, why not somenthing like this? I see nothing bad in this Green Touch initiative, and it also doesn't do any harm to any other eventual initiative or action of this type, so why not?

btw. you have great articles, I enjoy reading them.