Green IT

Green IT news and analysis for IT professionals, covering electronics recycling and ewaste, energy efficiency and alternative energy

Solar-powered plane takes off on flight across US

Posted May 3, 2013 - 11:37 am

A one-of-a-kind aircraft powered solely by solar energy took to the skies above Silicon Valley early Friday morning on the first leg of a planned trip across the U.S.
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Should you build and host your own server using a co-location?

Posted May 3, 2013 - 12:00 am

If you’re leasing server equipment in a hosting provider’s data center, you’re likely paying through the nose for antiquated technology. There is peace of mind that comes with that service in the form of care free hardware maintenance, but is that really enough to keep you paying for that same 4GB of RAM every month for life?
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Folding USB Solar Cell will power your devices on the go

Posted April 29, 2013 - 1:11 pm

The simple, folding solar charger from Brown Dog Gadgets can be paired with a battery pack to store a charge for those dark times.
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Kickstarter: Using personal power to charge your smartphone

Posted April 24, 2013 - 8:30 am

A pair of Kickstarter projects turn the kinetic energy you generate into a source for charging your smartphone, whether you get around by bike or on foot.
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Slideshow

Sustainable IT: The 2013 Green IT Awards

Posted April 23, 2013 - 2:40 pm

These organizations have implemented innovative ways to slash waste, save energy, boost data center efficiency, and reduce CO2 emissions
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IBM 'overclocks' solar energy collector tech with supercomputer cooling

Posted April 22, 2013 - 9:06 pm

IBM improves solar energy tech with a new solar collector captures the power of 2,000 suns.
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Recycle your old tech gear

Posted April 22, 2013 - 4:54 pm

What to do with your old tech gear when it no longer works? Recycle it. We show you how and where to be responsible with outdated stuff.
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Fact or fiction: Eight Mac energy-saving techniques tested

Posted April 22, 2013 - 3:23 pm

What if the daily computing practices you follow to save energy end up wasting it instead? What if your assumptions about Mac power usage are wrong? To investigate this possibility, we compiled a list of eight widely held opinions about energy conservation, grabbed our trusty power meters, and started logging power usage.
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Being green and the madness of crowds

Posted April 16, 2013 - 4:03 pm

Being green isn't easy and irrational beliefs about the health effects of wind farms just makes it that much harder.
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Question

Why can't I get lithium ion batteries in standard battery sizes?

Posted April 15, 2013 - 1:18 pm

Why are Lithium Ion batteries not available in standard sizes (AAA, AA , C, etc.)? If they are the best choice for things like cell phones and laptops, wouldn't they also be suitable for use in other "normal" devices?
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A cicada invasion is coming to New York (and other stuff you missed)

Posted April 10, 2013 - 2:39 pm

A year of NASA photos of Earth, a Tetris game on the side of a building, and other stuff you missed.
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Vodafone, Ericsson test feature to make rural mobile coverage cheaper

Posted April 8, 2013 - 12:58 pm

Ericsson and Vodafone in Egypt have successfully tested a new way to build more energy-efficient networks in rural areas, and make it possible to build networks where they previously could not be built, according to the vendor.
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Nanowires could boost energy in solar cells by 15x

Posted April 8, 2013 - 6:09 am

Building solar voltaic cells from nanowires instead of standard metal conductors can increase the amount of energy that can be captured by a factor of 15, according to a new study by scientists from the Nano-Science Center in Denmark.
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Trade groups look for uses for recycled CRT glass

Posted April 1, 2013 - 3:16 pm

An electronics and a recycling trade group are looking for ways to reuse recycled cathode ray tube (CRT) glass from computer monitors and television sets, with a US$10,000 prize for the best proposal.
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Solar panel-cleaning robot means one less chore for you

Posted March 28, 2013 - 3:49 pm

Installing solar panels on your roof can be a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, and they can save you money in the long run. Of course, they can also build up dirt and dust, which can negatively impact their efficiency and power-generating capabilities. What's a homeowner to do? Let a robot do the dirty work, of course.
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Apple issues annual environmental report, touts renewable energy use

Posted March 21, 2013 - 8:43 pm

Apple's data centers are now powered entirely by renewable energy sources -- specifically, solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal.
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Question

How to dispose of CRTs?

Posted March 21, 2013 - 2:14 pm

We still had a few CRTs that we just replaced with flat screen LCD monitors , and I thought that I would just store them away for backups, since they all still work (and I wouldn't have to do anything else with them, to be honest).
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Heat Meter measures energy use in real time

Posted March 12, 2013 - 1:07 pm

A new, Wi-Fi connected device called the Heat Meter allows homeowners to track propane, natural gas or oil use in real time and compare their home's efficiency with others in the area.
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Smartphone usage driving up greenhouse gas emissions: report

Posted March 12, 2013 - 11:45 am

Public policy makers need to support the deployment of smart infrastructure.
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Toothpaste inspires better solar panels, batteries at PARC

Posted March 8, 2013 - 12:29 pm

Engineers are making energy devices more efficient thanks to printing technology.
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EBay develops 'miles per gallon' metric for data centers

Posted March 5, 2013 - 8:19 pm

There's a maxim in the data center business that you can't manage what you can't measure, and eBay has come up with the mother of all measurement systems for calculating data center efficiency.
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Fujitsu names UniCredit as first European customer for palm-scan authentication

Posted March 4, 2013 - 7:01 pm

Fujitsu Technology Solutions has named European bank UniCredit as the first major customer for its PalmSecure authentication system, which is on display at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, this week.
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Top tech companies plug into renewable power

Posted March 4, 2013 - 7:14 am

Leading tech companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple are making huge inroads in the use of renewable energy for corporate facilities and data centers, but cost and delivery challenges remain.
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New SPEC tool to ID most energy-efficient servers

Posted March 1, 2013 - 4:04 pm

SPEC, the standards body for performance benchmarks, has released a new toolkit that should help customers choose the most energy-efficient server for the workloads they need to run.
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Samsung denies charges of underage labor in China following complaint in France

Posted February 28, 2013 - 6:11 am

Samsung Electronics has rejected allegations that underage workers are assembling its products after three NGOs filed a complaint with a French prosecutor's office claiming that the tech company was violating labor regulations in China.
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