Re: [pf] Alternative energy

At 14:41 20/3/2001 -0800, Diane Fitzsimmons wrote:
>I invite pf-ers to share their thoughts on this topic. ... What do you
envision as necessary to supply your energy needs?
>

· Note the last 3 paragraphs in the Berkeley National Laboratory item here:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-05-06.html , which I found after
my last post to PF, has:

Computer-Related Electricity Use Overestimated

BERKELEY, California, February 5, 2001 (ENS) - A new study of the power
consumed by office computers and Internet equipment by a group at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that this equipment uses
about 2% of the total electricity use in the U.S. 

The finding contradicts a 1999 study by Mark Mills ... which claimed that
electricity use associated just with the Internet totaled about 8% of all
U.S. electricity use ... 

The Berkeley Environmental Energy Technologies Division's End-Use Energy
Forecasting Group ... examined the assumptions and conclusions of the Mills
report ... 
"Mills assumes, for example, that the active power of a personal computer
plus monitor is 1000 watts, when the measured data for a Pentium III PC
with a 17 inch monitor show total active power use of 135 watts." 

About 70% of U.S. computer and network power consumption comes from the
commercial sector, the researchers found. ...

Power management features found on many devices including computers,
printers and fax machines currently save about 23 TWh/year. ...

Various other researchers, including: 
  Jay Hakes, formerly of the Dept of Energy's Energy Information Admin.,
* Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and
  Joseph Romm, director of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, 
have also raised serious questions about the Mills study's methodologies
and results. 


Beyond estimating the direct energy use of office and network equipment,
Koomey's group is beginning to assess the indirect effects of the Internet
on resource use in the U.S. economy. These effects include structural
changes - where new institutional arrangements and technological
capabilities become possible because of the Internet - and substitution
effects - where the new technologies substitute for established energy uses. 

An example of a substitution effect would be the use of Internet shopping
in place of routine trips to the grocery store or the mall, which might
reduce personal transportation energy use. A structural change scenario
might involve a decline in brick and mortar retail stores in favor of
warehousing of retail goods for direct home delivery. 
The End-Use Energy Forecasting Group is currently analyzing energy use of
emerging technologies such as Web phones, handheld computers and Internet
terminals, which are not yet included in the Berkeley Lab estimates. 

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sent on by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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