Google shares green tips

According to Google's green energy czar, Bill Weihl, by embracing some fairly basic practices, the average data centre operator can reduce his or her facility's power usage effectiveness to 1.5, reports Infoworld.

The most significant gains, Weihl says, can be achieved by reducing the overhead costs associated with running a data centre, including cooling, power infrastructure, and lighting.

The most interesting tip Weihl offers pertains to power infrastructure. Whereas most companies use large PDUs (power distribution units) to provide backup power for their data centre hardware, Google instead equips each server with a 12-volt battery.

Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson plans to focus a big chunk of his firm's latest $400 million funding toward green computing and other energy-related investments, states Market Watch.

Jurveston's past investments include electric-car maker Tesla Motors, algae bio fuel firm Synthetic Genomics, thermal solar firm BrightSource Energy, as well as dot-com classics such as Hotmail and Baidu.com

Now Jurvestson, who serves as MD of the firm, is about to close Draper Fisher Jurvetson's 10th venture capital fund, which will partly take aim at opportunities to curb the roughly 3% of US electricity output that goes toward running IT systems.

OPower has developed a software system that analyses years of utility data and provides consumers with recommendations on how to shave their bills, says CNET News.

Next month, utility ComEd will install an updated version of the system to about 120 000 customers who are receiving smart meters.

Although not totally unique, OPower's approach stands out in that it combines analytical software with expertise in behavioural science. The company is best known for its printed monthly reports which compare one household's bills to that of their neighbours as a way of motivating people to act.