|
The Internet is perhaps one of the greatest technological advances of our time. It gives us the ability to be connected and to share information instantly with the potential to dramatically reduce our need for travel; thereby reducing the amount of CO2 emissions we produce. But, how much CO2 is the Internet itself producing?
The Internet has a big carbon footprint. It’s estimated that globally it takes about 868 billion kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity per year to run the Internet, associated PCs, routing infrastructure, and phone networks. (http://uclue.com/index.php?xq=724 .)
Of this, about 112.5 Billion kWh are used to power ‘data centers’, which are the servers that store all the websites.
This represents a lot of energy, and potentially a lot of CO2 emissions. What can be done to reduce the carbon footprint of the Internet? If your website is currently sitting on a server powered by energy from the grid, then you are tied to a system where you can never be sure where that energy is coming from, possibly from the burning of coal or other greenhouse gas producing sources. Solar Energy Host offers consumers another choice – a way to get your website off the energy grid.
A server such as ours is “Carbon Free”, which is a step beyond “Carbon Neutral” because you are not adding more pollution and then buying carbon credits to make up for it.
It has been estimated that as of early 2007 there were about 108,810,358 of these websites in existence. (See the link below for further details. (http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/misc/sizeofweb.html )
This means that on average, each website uses about 1020 kwh of "data center" energy each year.
The data center used by Solar Energy Host stops the emission of the following gasses/toxins:
* 19,890 lbs of Carbon Dioxide (CO2/GHG) per year
* 5.9 lbs of Nitrous Oxide (NOX/smog) per year
* 0.45 lbs of Sulfur Dioxide (SO4/acid rain) per year
Solar Energy Host also follows a socially responsible business model by giving back. We donate five dollars from each account to the ‘Gardens of Hope ’ Project. This money funds the planting of one tree and helps link five communities in Lesotho, southern Africa, into a network of projects that share ideas, skills, resources and common purpose while supporting the educational needs of orphaned and vulnerable children.
Solar Energy Host is part of perhaps the only commercial carbon-free data center in existence.
What happens to your server at night. We have a large set of batteries, a propane generator, and as a last resort, the conventional energy grid, which we have never needed to use!
Looks like the future is now.
Click here to choose a hosting package .
|
How Green is the Internet?
