Sustainability Report
Louise Burfitt-Dons
21.5.09
Australia
plans to build the world's largest solar power station apparently.
The plant will have three times the generating capacity
of the Californiant solar-powered electricity plant which is in currently
in California.
Prime Minister Ken Rudd hopes that this new project would put the country
in the lead with renewable, clean energy.
Never has as job in the sun been more useful to the world!
Louise
Burfitt-Dons
19.5.09
A recent
research study which stated that performing two Google searches from
a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide
as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea has been challenged.
A report
form the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy now has come
at the problem from a different angle.
While
we are using computers more and more, with the usage set to expand further,
internet fans such as the director of ACEEE, Steve Nadel, has pointed
out that the use of this type of technology has in fact saved tons.
“Analysts
tend to pay more attention to the energy-consuming characteristics of
semiconductor devices than to their broader, economy-wide, energy-saving
capacity, ” he says.
With
the economy in 2020 set to be 35 per cent larger than today , it is
comforting news indeed. Further usage of computers as opposed to the
old fashioned way is a move forward, not backward.
Had it
not been for our love affair with the internet, mobiles phones and in
fact everything else that is powered by semiconductors we apparently
would have built 184 additional large power plants.
So boot
up and search on.
With
the liberal exchange of views on sustainability via the information
superhighway there could indeed be more benefits to being a Google freak
than even this report suggests.
Any one
designed a ‘I love semi conductors!’ tee shirt yet?
