GREEN COMPUTING

GREEN COMPUTING

By

B.OBULIRAJ

                                             Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Muthayammal Engineering College

 

Introduction:

Green Computing Definition defines Eco-Friendly Green Computing as the study and practice of the design, development, implementation, utilization and disposal of IT infrastructure efficiently and effectively with low or zero impact on the environment whilst reducing operating costs.

Organizations use the Green Computing Lifecycle when designing and implementing green computing technologies. The stages in the Lifecycle include Strategy, Design, Implementation, Operations and Continual Improvements.

The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry; reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste. Research continues into key areas such as making the use of computers as energy-efficient as possible, and designing algorithms and systems for efficiency-related computer technologies.

The various aspects of green computing to be discussed are

·         Resource allocation

• Virtualization
• Algorithmic efficiency
• Power management
• Recycling e-wastes
• Procedure of recycling
• Applications

Need for Green Computing:

Now a days, green computing is becoming hot topic. Not only because of rising energy costs, but also due to the impact on the environment.

There are following some reason for green computing,

• Climate Change:As per Researches, the CO2 and other emissions are causing the global climate change and environmental damage.
• Savings:Green computing can lead to serious cost savings over time.
• Reliability of Power:The demand of energy in the world is increasing daily. The energy efficient systems can help to solve this problem.
• Power Consumption: Many Data centers have run out of usable power due to high density.

Energy Use of PC’s:

PC is an electrical device which needs current to run. Most of the Peripheral devices such as motherboard, keyboard and memory, are need current to run. And also current is necessary for to run the cooling fan and to spinning the disks.

A Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors uses upto 120 watts. The CPU uses upto 150 watts. If the computer is used for 8 hours per day for 5 days in a week, it will consume the power upto 562 KW.If the computer is kept on for all the time without proper power saver mode, itwill consume upto 1600 KW.

A Typical desktop PC with a 17- inch flat Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitor requires about 100 watts. (65 watts for computer and 35 watts for monitor).If it left on 24*7 for one year, it will consume 874 KW and emits 750 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere which is equivalent of driving 820 miles in an average car.

Elements Used in PC’s:

Usually, some chemical elements are involving in manufacturing of PC’s. These elements are mostly used for manufacturing the hardware component of PC.

There are some following elements which are used for PC component manufacturing.

• Lead: It is used in soldering of printed circuit boards like motherboard and other control boards. There is some estimation is calculated that between 1997 and 2004, 1.2 billion tons of lead was used in computer components.It is used in glass in TV and PC cathode ray tubes as well as solder and interconnects; older CRTs typically contain on average 4 lbs of lead (sometimes as much as 7 lbs in older CRTs), while newer CRTs contain closer to 2 lbs of lead.
• Mercury: It is used in batteries, switches and printed circuit boards. It is used in bulbs to light flat panel computer monitors and notebooks. It is also used in data transmission equipment, telecommunication equipment and cell phones. It is estimated that nearly 22% of the yearly use of mercury is in electrical and electronic equipments. And also between 1997 and 2004, 400,000 pounds of mercury used for computer construction.
• Cadmium: It is used in resistors for chips, ni-cad rechargeable batteries for laptops, infrared detectors, semiconductors and older CRTs. It is estimated that, between 1997 and 2004, 2 million pounds of cadmium was used in computer components.
• Chromium:The Hexavalent Chromium called Chromium VI, is used to treat steel plates (an anti-corrosive).It is estimated that, between 1997 and 2004, 1.2 million pounds were used in computer components.
• Plastics:Plastics are found throughout the computer, largely from casing. But also internally to hold components together. Nearly 4 billion pounds of plastic were used to build computers and components between 1997 and 2004.
• PVC:Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) is one of plastic type. It is used in cabling and housings. It is difficult to recycle and production and burning of PVC generates dioxins and furans.

E-Waste:

There's no question that electronics are both useful and fun, and are an indispensible part of many of our lives. The Unused electric and electronic components wastesare called “E-Waste”. E-Waste is dangerous due to the many heavy metals and hazardous chemicals which made the electronic devices.

Nearly 20-50 million tonnes of E- wastes are generated. Less than 20% of e-waste is currently recycled. And even electronics that are recycled still pose a risk: many recyclers sell e-waste to brokers who ship it to the developing world where environmental enforcement is weak and where cheap labours pick through mountains of electronics waste to melt it down for sailable materials.

These wastes are filled in land areas and make those lands as uncultivatable. In US and Europe export a lot of E-Waste to Asian landfills. Especially China has outlawed the importing of E-Waste. This incineration of computer components leads to air pollution and airborne toxins.Approximately 2 million tons of old electronics wind up in landfills in the United States every year and around 50 million tons are discarded worldwide.

  
Effects:
E-waste has a serious impact on both human health and the environment due to the heavy metals and substances commonly contained in electronics.
These materials include:

• Lead: It can cause permanent brain damage and central and peripheral nervous systems, kidney, reproductive and developmental problems, and cancer. The electronic contribute 40% of the total amount of lead found in landfills and can make its way from landfills into water supplies.
• Mercury: It is a neurotoxin. Mercury spreads out in water transforming into methylated mercury which easily accumulates in living organisms. Methylated mercury can cause chronic brain damage.
• Cadmium is a known carcinogen that can also cause kidney and liver damage. Itcan be slow poison for humans. Newer batteries (nickel-metal hydride and lithium ion) do not contain cadmium.
• Plastics:Plastics in the computers are often treated with flame retardant chemicals, particularly brominated flame retardant. These chemicals can act as endocrine disrupters and increase risk of several forms of cancers.
• Brominated and chlorinated fire retardantshave been found in increasing levels in humans and in fish. They are released into the environment through use and disposal (such as incineration), and do not break down over time. They do, however, accumulate in the body over time and include such health effects as cancer, birth defects, autism, hyperactivity, learning disorders and reproductive and neurological problems. These materials are widely used in plastic cases and cables for fire retardancy.

Designing for Data Centre:

Data centres are heavy consumers of energy, accounting for between 1.1% and 1.5% of the world’s total energy us in 2010.It is estimated that data centre facilities consume upto 100 to 200 times more energy than standard office buildings.

Energy efficient data centre design should address all of the energy use. The Designing of data centre focuses on following 5 areas.

• Information Technology Systems
• Environmental Conditions
• Air Management
• Cooling Systems
• Electrical Systems

Energy efficient data centre design should help to better utilize a data centre space and increase its performance and efficiency.

Designing for Low-Power Systems:

Using low-powered systems are an excellent way to reduce overall energy needs. The trick to doing this successfully is to properly design your system with performance metrics in mind. If you need a special purpose computing system, why not design it with the least energy in mind? Investing in low-power systems will save you many times the cost of design in terms of energy savings.

Energy Efficient Processors:

New low energy processors can really save a lot of energy. That is because processor power is one of the largest consumers of a computer’s power. Many new energy efficient cpu models enter the market each year by Via, AMD, Intel, and others. Design around the best performance/watt system you can.

Virtualization:

Instead of having one computer for each service or set of services, you can instead consolidate eachserver onto a larger virtualized system that uses its resources to the fullest, and has a much smallerenergy footprint. This benefits in several ways:

1. It reduces the total amount of hardware used in your environment

2. Idle Virtual servers can be powered off

3. The virtualized server will have much less idle time and waste less

4. The total volume of space, air, and rent will be reduced. Data centers can use up to 100 timesthe energy per square foot of typical office space.

5. Some power companies pay rebates for conversion to virtualized systems.

There is a strong connection between virtualization, capacity planning, and performance management

because of the extreme performance requirements that are placed on virtual servers.

Once in place, virtual systems have a unique power flexibility that allows for power consolidation, efficiency, and ability to power-off unused systems.

Virtualized Servers:

In fact, virtual servers are the simplest instance of a virtualized system. You can take several

Systems and consolidate them on a single server that runs virtualization software such as:

? VMware

? Xen

? Parallels

? Linux Virtual Server

Recycling:

Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from land filling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" waste hierarchy.

Recycling lead from batteries.

Need For Recycling:

Computers or other electronics are a valuable source for secondary raw materials, if treated properly; if not treated properly, they are a source of toxins and carcinogens. To avoid this, computers and other electronic devices are reused.

Computer recycling:
Computer recycling or electronic recycling is the recycling or reuse of computers or other electronics. It includes both finding another use for materials (such as donation to charity), and having systems dismantled in a manner that allows for the safe extraction of the constituent materials for reuse in other products.

Tips for Recycle:

There are some tips to manage and handle the older electronic devices for reuse.

·         Resale the computer to other users.

·         Donating computers to school, charities, organizations, etc.

·         Always ensure that the manufacturer offers to recycle.

·         Exchange the older computer to their manufacturer.

·         Avoid throwing of waste and unusable electronic device directly to the environment.

E-Cycling:

The term E-cycling is rather new, appearing on the USA EPA website which refers to donations, reuse, shredding and general collection of used electronics. Generically, the term refers to the process of collecting, brokering, disassembling, repairing or recycling the components or metals contained in used or discarded electronic equipment, otherwise known as electronic waste (e-waste). "E-cyclable" items include, but are not limited to: televisions, computers, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, telephones and cellular phones, stereos, and VCRs and DVDs. Investment in e-cycling facilities has been increasing recently due to technology’s rapid rate of obsolescence, concern over improper methods, and opportunities for manufacturers to influence the secondary market (used and reused products). The controversy around methods stems from a lack of agreement over preferred outcomes. World markets with lower disposable incomes, for example, consider 75% repair and reuse to be valuable enough to justify 25% disposal. Regulated recyclers prefer 0% disposal, even if it means dramatically lower rates of reuse. Debate and certification standards may be leading to better definitions, though civil law contracts governing the expected process are still vital to any contracted process as poorly defined as "e-cycling".

Pros of e-cycling:

Some people believe that any net disposal of e-waste following repair or metals recovery is unethical or illegal if it occurs in developing countries. Other people believe that the net environmental cost must include the mining, refining and extraction pollution costs of new product manufactured to replace secondary products which are destroyed in wealthy nations which cannot economically repair older product. As an example, groundwater has become so polluted in areas surrounding China’s landfills that water must be shipped in from 18 miles away.However, mining of new metals has even broader impacts on groundwater. Either e-cycling process, domestic processing or overseas repair, helps the environment by avoiding pollution and being a sustainable alternative to disposing of e-waste in landfills. Either domestic metals processing or overseas manual repair and e-cycling retrieved valuable raw materials from e-waste. Supporters of one form of "required e-cycling" legislation argue that e-cycling saves taxpayers money,as the financial responsibility would be shifted from the taxpayer to the manufacturers. Advocates of more simple legislation (such as landfill bans) argue that involving manufacturers does not reduce the cost to consumers, as reuse value is lost, and the resulting costs are passed on to consumers in new products (particularly affecting markets which cannot even afford those new products. It is theorized that manufacturers who take part in e-cycling will be motivated to use fewer materials in the production process, create longer lasting products, and implement safer, more efficient recycling systems. This theory is sharply disputed and has never been demonstrated.

Data Security:

Data Security is an important part of computer recycling.Federal regulations mandate that there are no information security leaks in the lifecycle of secure data; this includes its destruction and recycling. Recycling computers can be dangerous when handling sensitive data, specifically to businesses storing tax records or employee information. In a survey, there are only 5% of people clean their hard disk before recycle them.A hard drive must be wiped three times in order to ensure the data cannot be retrieved and possibly used by others.

Reason for Data Security:

The data which is stored in the hard disk can be accessed by other users. This will leads to data lose and also more than money.The image of a company that holds secure data, such as banks, law firms, pharmaceuticals, and credit corporations is also at risk.

Secure Recycling:

There some following regulations to recycle a data in secure way.

1. Receive hardware for destruction in locked and securely transported vehicles.
2. Separate all aluminium from the waste metals with an electromagnet.
3. Collect and securely deliver the shredded remains to an aluminium recycling plant.
4. Mold the remaining hard drive parts into aluminium ingots.

Management of Computer Resources

• Power Management:The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), an open industry standard, allows an operating system to directly control the power-saving aspects of its underlying hardware. It allows a system to automatically turn off components like monitors and hard drives after set periods of inactivity.
• Operating System Power Management:Now a days, most of the Operating Systems like Windows, are providing PC Power Management features. It keeps the PC in Stand-by (suspend-to-RAM) mode, when the PC is not in use. It is possible by keeping the monitor in low power.
• Storage:A 2.5 inch Hard Disk Drive(HDD) consume less power per gigabyte than physically larger drives. Unlike hard disk drives, solid-state drives store data in flash memory or DRAM With no moving parts, power consumption may be reduced somewhat for low-capacity flash-based devices
• Video Card:A fast GPU may be the largest power consumer in a computer. There are some plans for Energy-Efficiency,
• No video card - use a shared terminal, shared thin client, or desktop sharing software if display required.
• Use motherboard video output - typically low 3D performance and low power.
• Select a GPU based on low idle power, average wattage, or performance per watt.

Energy Efficiency in Networking:

The Ethernet (IEEE 802.3az) is very effective in networking based on power consumption. In 2005, all the network-interface controllers in computer like switches and routers used 5.3 terawatt-hours of electricity. The Energy Efficient Ethernet could save an estimated $450 million a year in energy costs.

Steps taken to encourage Green Computing

Many governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations that encourage green computing.

• Energy Star: The Energy Star program was launched in 1992 by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. It is a voluntary labelling program which is designed to promote and recognize energy efficiency in monitors, climate control equipment and other technologies. The Energy Star program was revised in October 2006 to include stricter efficiency requirements for computer equipment, along with a tiered ranking system for approved products.

• The US Government encourages state-wide recycling programs for obsolete computers and consumer electronics equipments.
• The Statutes either impose an “advance recovery fee” for each unit sold at retail or require the manufacturers to reclaim the equipment at disposal.

Steps for Green Computing

There are 5 steps for creating a Green computing environment,

1. Develop a sustainable green computing plan: Always develop a plan which is useful to the people and also green computing policies in mind.
2. Recycle:Discard used or unwanted electronic equipment in a convenient and environmentally responsible manner.
3. Make environmentally sound purchase decisions:Purchase Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool registered products. EPEAT is a procurement tool promoted by the nonprofit Green Electronics Council to:

• Help institutional purchasers evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks andmonitors based on environmental attributes.
• Provide a clear, consistent set of performance criteria for the design of products.
• Recognize manufacturer efforts to reduce the environmental impact of products by reducing or eliminating environmentally sensitive materials, designing for longevity and reducing packaging materials.

These should be energy efficient a and reduce emissions of climate-changing green house gases.

4. Reduce Paper Consumption: There are many easy, obvious ways to reduce paper consumption:E-mail, electronic archiving, use the “track changes” feature in electronic documents, rather than redline corrections on paper. When you do print out documents, make sure to use both sides of the paper, recycle regularly, use smaller fonts and margins, and selectively print required pages.
5. Conserve Energy:Turn off your computer when you know you won’t use it for an extended period of time. Turn on power management features during shorter periods of inactivity.Power management allows monitors and computers to enter low-power states when sitting idle. By simply hitting the keyboard or moving the mouse, the computer or monitors awakens from its low power sleep mode in seconds. Power management tactics can save energy and help protect the environment.

Tips for industries to establish Green Computing:

• Become aware of and start measuring power consumption of IT devices
• To use fewer servers and printers by increasing utilization – virtualizing servers.
• To stop over-provisioning – plan capacity requirements more efficiently
• Improve the efficiency of cooling – wasting energy with servers overheating, then wasting this energy by cooling with expensive and high energy air conditioning
• To use the power management features on devices, and to turn power off when devices are not in use
• Extend the life of hardware assets by re-using within the business, or to pass on to be used outside of the business after use
• Ensure and validate the correct disposition of all electrical equipment ensuring no energy is being wasted un-necessarily
• Become aware of and analyze all waste
• Always produce the Energy Star rated electronic devices.

Tips for individual to establishing Green Computing

There are some steps that can be taken by each individual to serve for the Green Computing

• Power-down the CPU and all peripherals during extended periods of inactivity.
• Try to do computer-related tasks during contiguous, intensive blocks of time, leaving hardware off at other times.
• Power-up and power-down energy-intensive peripherals such as laser printers according to need.
• Use liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors rather than cathode-ray-tube (CRT) monitors.
• Use notebook computers rather than desktop computers whenever possible.
• Use the power-management features to turn off hard drives and displays after several minutes of inactivity.
• Always buy energy star rated electronic products.
• Create awareness among people to buy energy star products.
• Minimize the use of paper and properly recycle waste paper.
• Dispose of e-waste according to federal, state and local regulations.
• Employ alternative energy sources for computing workstations, servers, networks and data centres.
• Always buy the energy star rated electronic products.
• To use E-mail where ever possible for reducing the paper waste.

Tips for College to establish Green Computing:

• By skipping the appliances like mini-fridges and microwave where it is not necessary.
• To reduce energy bills, use Compact florescent Bulbs (CFL).
• Always recycle the electronic devices like computer,printers,etc.
• Always use Energy star rated Electronic devices.

-These little tips may help the people to start an Eco-Friendly life and also research on Green Computing.

Conclusion:

Green computing is a very hot topic these days, not only because of rising energy costs and potentialsavings, but also due to the impact on the environment. Energy to manufacture, store, operate, andcool computing systems has grown significantly in the recent years, primarily due to the volume ofsystems and computing that companies now heavily rely upon.

References:

• http://fortuitous.com/en/resources/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green computing
• http://www.energystar.gov
• http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/docs/1E_PC_Energy_Report_2009_US.pdf
• http://ecenter.colorado.edu/energy/projects/green computing.html
• http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.05646:
• http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/environment/index.jsp
• http://www.openeco.org
• http://www.natlogic.com