[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
[Technology | Media]
Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:41am EDT
Coal fuels much of Internet "cloud," Greenpeace says
｛石炭燃料、インターネットで不透明化：グリーンピース｝
(Reuters) - The 'cloud' of data that is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all-too-real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, Greenpeace said in a new report to be released on Tuesday.
A Facebook facility being built in Oregon will rely on a utility whose main fuel is coal, while Apple Inc is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina region that relies mostly on coal, the environmental organization said in the study.
"The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power," said Greenpeace, which argues that Web companies should be more careful about where they build and should lobby more in Washington for clean energy.
The growing mass of business data, home movies and pictures has ballooned beyond the capabilities of many corporate data centers and personal computers, spurring the creation of massive server farms that make up a "cloud," an emerging phenomenon known as cloud computing.
The Greenpeace report comes during a global debate whether to create caps or other measures to cut use of carbon-heavy fuels like coal and curb climate change.
Cheap and plentiful, coal is the top fuel for U.S. power plants, and its low cost versus alternative fuels makes it attractive, even in highly energy-efficient data centers.
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Google Inc have at least some centers that rely heavily on coal power, said Greenpeace.
PURSUING ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Most of the companies declined to give details of their data centers to Reuters. All said, however, they considered the environment in business decisions, and most said they were aggressively pursuing energy efficiency.
High technology companies say they support the environment. Apple has released its carbon footprint, or how much greenhouse gases it produces, and Facebook said it chose the location for its center to use natural means to cool its machines.
Microsoft said it aimed to maximize efficiency, and Google said it purchased carbon offsets -- funding for projects which suck up carbon -- for emissions, including at data centers.
Yahoo, which is building a center near Buffalo, New York, that Greenpeace saw as a model, will get energy from hydroelectric facilities. The company said energy-efficiency was the top goal, with a building design that promotes air circulation.
Data center energy use already is huge, Greenpeace said.
If considered as a country, global telecommunications and data centers behind cloud computing would have ranked fifth in the world for energy use in 2007, behind the United States, China, Russia and Japan, it concluded.
The cloud may be the fastest-growing facet of technology infrastructure between now and 2020, said Greenpeace.
The group based its findings on a mix of data, including a federal review of fuels in U.S. zip codes in 2005 and a 2008 study by the Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, which Greenpeace updated in part with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
[Green Business]
Nobuhiro Kubo
YOKOHAMA, Japan
Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:45am EDT
Nissan prices electric Leaf at premium to Prius
｛日産電気自動車"リーフ"の価格、"プリウス"に割増価格｝
(Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co priced its battery-powered Leaf hatchback at more than twice the cost of a similarly sized gasoline car, counting on government subsidies to drive demand for the emissions-free vehicles.
Nissan is banking on electric cars to help it close the gap on rivals such as Toyota Motor Co, which has won over fuel-conscious customers with its gasoline-electric hybrid Prius.
But with a starting price of 3.76 million yen ($40,640), the Leaf will be still be out of reach for many drivers in Japan.
The five-passenger Leaf is designed to provide a range of 160 km (100 miles). Nissan has developed the battery pack for the Leaf with NEC Corp so that it can be plugged in at home and recharged overnight on a 220-volt connection.
"I'm interested (in the Leaf), but the initial cost is still high, even with subsidies," said Kiyotaka Shimizu, a 43 year-old cram school teacher.
"I'm afraid the technology is not mature. I would choose hybrid cars at this stage," Shimizu said as he looked around a Nissan showroom at its headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
While skeptics abound, almost all major automakers are working on developing battery-run cars for use mainly in urban areas, to meet stricter emissions and mileage regulations being introduced around the world.
Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan and French partner Renault, has said he expects 10 percent of the world's auto market will be electric vehicles by 2020, a ratio at the top of industry projections.
While well above the price of Toyota's top selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid, the Leaf will be about 1 million yen ($10,800) cheaper than Mitsubishi Motors Corp's i-MiEV electric car.
"The most important point for our cars is zero emissions," Toshiyuki Shiga, chief operating officer of Nissan, said at a news conference. "Hybrid vehicles still consume gasoline. I want to fully push this sales point."
Nissan, Japan's third-biggest automaker, said it aims to sell 6,000 Leaf cars, its first mass-volume all-electric model, in Japan for the year ending in March 2011. The company will start taking orders for the model in April in Japan, with the first delivery expected in December.
After accounting for Japanese government subsidies, Nissan said the net cost to consumers to buy a new Leaf would be near 2.99 million yen ($32,320).
Japanese government subsidies on low emission vehicles, introduced to encourage sales during the financial crisis, are scheduled to run through to the year ending March 2011.
HYBRIDS CHEAPER
By contrast, Toyota's Prius hybrid, now in its third generation, has a base model starting price at just over 2 million yen ($22,195) in Japan, before government subsidies.
The Leaf's price also marks a premium over established, combustion engine-powered small sedans like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. Analysts said that reflects the cost of developing and producing the Leaf's lithium-ion battery pack.
"Everyone would think it is expensive. Of course there are some people who are willing to buy, but generally speaking, it needs to be below 2 million yen for consumers in general to buy," said Koji Endo, auto analyst at Advanced Research Japan.
Although Nissan once considered leasing the expensive batteries to lower the initial cost for consumers in Japan, it has given up on the idea due to the regulations related with car inspections.
Despite the initial price tag, Nissan said drivers would be able to save some money over the long run. It estimates that owners would pay 86,000 yen ($930) in electricity costs over six years, compared with 670,000 yen ($7,200) at the pump for a traditional gasoline-powered car.
Nissan was set to announce U.S. pricing for the Leaf later on Tuesday, with analysts expecting a U.S. price of somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000.
A $7,500 tax credit is available for U.S. consumers who buy electric vehicles like the Leaf and the upcoming Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid from General Motors Co.
After trailing rivals Toyota Motor and Honda Motor in the hybrid field, Japan's No.3 automaker has bet heavily on pure electric vehicles.
The automaker has also announced a series of partnerships with utilities and government agencies in the United States and Europe, where it believes it has a chance of seizing market leadership.
Shares of Nissan gained 2.3 percent to 801 yen, while the benchmark Nikkei average rose 1 percent.
($1=92.52 Yen)
(Editing by Chris Gallagher and Lincoln Feast)
[Green Business]
[Technology | Media]
Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO
Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:41am EDT
Coal fuels much of Internet "cloud," Greenpeace says
｛石炭燃料、インターネットで不透明化：グリーンピース｝
(Reuters) - The 'cloud' of data that is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all-too-real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, Greenpeace said in a new report to be released on Tuesday.
A Facebook facility being built in Oregon will rely on a utility whose main fuel is coal, while Apple Inc is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina region that relies mostly on coal, the environmental organization said in the study.
"The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power," said Greenpeace, which argues that Web companies should be more careful about where they build and should lobby more in Washington for clean energy.
The growing mass of business data, home movies and pictures has ballooned beyond the capabilities of many corporate data centers and personal computers, spurring the creation of massive server farms that make up a "cloud," an emerging phenomenon known as cloud computing.
The Greenpeace report comes during a global debate whether to create caps or other measures to cut use of carbon-heavy fuels like coal and curb climate change.
Cheap and plentiful, coal is the top fuel for U.S. power plants, and its low cost versus alternative fuels makes it attractive, even in highly energy-efficient data centers.
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Google Inc have at least some centers that rely heavily on coal power, said Greenpeace.
PURSUING ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Most of the companies declined to give details of their data centers to Reuters. All said, however, they considered the environment in business decisions, and most said they were aggressively pursuing energy efficiency.
High technology companies say they support the environment. Apple has released its carbon footprint, or how much greenhouse gases it produces, and Facebook said it chose the location for its center to use natural means to cool its machines.
Microsoft said it aimed to maximize efficiency, and Google said it purchased carbon offsets -- funding for projects which suck up carbon -- for emissions, including at data centers.
Yahoo, which is building a center near Buffalo, New York, that Greenpeace saw as a model, will get energy from hydroelectric facilities. The company said energy-efficiency was the top goal, with a building design that promotes air circulation.
Data center energy use already is huge, Greenpeace said.
If considered as a country, global telecommunications and data centers behind cloud computing would have ranked fifth in the world for energy use in 2007, behind the United States, China, Russia and Japan, it concluded.
The cloud may be the fastest-growing facet of technology infrastructure between now and 2020, said Greenpeace.
The group based its findings on a mix of data, including a federal review of fuels in U.S. zip codes in 2005 and a 2008 study by the Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, which Greenpeace updated in part with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
[Green Business]
Nobuhiro Kubo
YOKOHAMA, Japan
Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:45am EDT
Nissan prices electric Leaf at premium to Prius
｛日産電気自動車"リーフ"の価格、"プリウス"に割増価格｝
(Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co priced its battery-powered Leaf hatchback at more than twice the cost of a similarly sized gasoline car, counting on government subsidies to drive demand for the emissions-free vehicles.
Nissan is banking on electric cars to help it close the gap on rivals such as Toyota Motor Co, which has won over fuel-conscious customers with its gasoline-electric hybrid Prius.
But with a starting price of 3.76 million yen ($40,640), the Leaf will be still be out of reach for many drivers in Japan.
The five-passenger Leaf is designed to provide a range of 160 km (100 miles). Nissan has developed the battery pack for the Leaf with NEC Corp so that it can be plugged in at home and recharged overnight on a 220-volt connection.
"I'm interested (in the Leaf), but the initial cost is still high, even with subsidies," said Kiyotaka Shimizu, a 43 year-old cram school teacher.
"I'm afraid the technology is not mature. I would choose hybrid cars at this stage," Shimizu said as he looked around a Nissan showroom at its headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
While skeptics abound, almost all major automakers are working on developing battery-run cars for use mainly in urban areas, to meet stricter emissions and mileage regulations being introduced around the world.
Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan and French partner Renault, has said he expects 10 percent of the world's auto market will be electric vehicles by 2020, a ratio at the top of industry projections.
While well above the price of Toyota's top selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid, the Leaf will be about 1 million yen ($10,800) cheaper than Mitsubishi Motors Corp's i-MiEV electric car.
"The most important point for our cars is zero emissions," Toshiyuki Shiga, chief operating officer of Nissan, said at a news conference. "Hybrid vehicles still consume gasoline. I want to fully push this sales point."
Nissan, Japan's third-biggest automaker, said it aims to sell 6,000 Leaf cars, its first mass-volume all-electric model, in Japan for the year ending in March 2011. The company will start taking orders for the model in April in Japan, with the first delivery expected in December.
After accounting for Japanese government subsidies, Nissan said the net cost to consumers to buy a new Leaf would be near 2.99 million yen ($32,320).
Japanese government subsidies on low emission vehicles, introduced to encourage sales during the financial crisis, are scheduled to run through to the year ending March 2011.
HYBRIDS CHEAPER
By contrast, Toyota's Prius hybrid, now in its third generation, has a base model starting price at just over 2 million yen ($22,195) in Japan, before government subsidies.
The Leaf's price also marks a premium over established, combustion engine-powered small sedans like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. Analysts said that reflects the cost of developing and producing the Leaf's lithium-ion battery pack.
"Everyone would think it is expensive. Of course there are some people who are willing to buy, but generally speaking, it needs to be below 2 million yen for consumers in general to buy," said Koji Endo, auto analyst at Advanced Research Japan.
Although Nissan once considered leasing the expensive batteries to lower the initial cost for consumers in Japan, it has given up on the idea due to the regulations related with car inspections.
Despite the initial price tag, Nissan said drivers would be able to save some money over the long run. It estimates that owners would pay 86,000 yen ($930) in electricity costs over six years, compared with 670,000 yen ($7,200) at the pump for a traditional gasoline-powered car.
Nissan was set to announce U.S. pricing for the Leaf later on Tuesday, with analysts expecting a U.S. price of somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000.
A $7,500 tax credit is available for U.S. consumers who buy electric vehicles like the Leaf and the upcoming Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid from General Motors Co.
After trailing rivals Toyota Motor and Honda Motor in the hybrid field, Japan's No.3 automaker has bet heavily on pure electric vehicles.
The automaker has also announced a series of partnerships with utilities and government agencies in the United States and Europe, where it believes it has a chance of seizing market leadership.
Shares of Nissan gained 2.3 percent to 801 yen, while the benchmark Nikkei average rose 1 percent.
($1=92.52 Yen)
(Editing by Chris Gallagher and Lincoln Feast)
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