Facebook’s newest data center in Altoona, Iowa, will run off of 100 percent wind energy, as tracked through renewable energy credits, when it starts serving the social network’s online traffic in early 2015, according to a company news release. Facebook plans to purchase electricity for the facility from a nearby wind farm in Wellsburg, Iowa.
The release last month of a joint announcement by Greenpeace and Facebook marks the end of one of the most interesting green campaigns of recent years. Greenpeace first targeted Facebook 20 months ago, after the social media giant announced a new purpose-built data center, which it turned out would
Coal-fired electricity is still the cheapest form of electricity around, that is, if you don’t count the environmental and social costs of emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury into our air and water.
The right mix of cheap electricity, cheap labor, and proximity to raw materials and
umissgym: Is it just me, or is it hot in here?
The social media craze has hit building automation, as the campus at the University of Mississippi will soon be broadcasting its energy consumption via Twitter and Facebook updates.
In partnership with smart grid company SmartSynch, Ole Miss has created online feeds (also via RSS) detailing several of its main buildings’ energy use, ostensibly to “alter behavior to reduce electricity consumption and carbon emissions.” The UMiss project will study consumption from lighting, temperature controls, and appliances. The organizations have created an online application to monitor and report the energy draw so that building operators can learn where energy is being wasted and implement new conservation strategies.
Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), yesterday answered questions from Facebook and the White House website about President Obama’s vision for a clean energy economy.
If you missed the live chat, here’s the video of the event.