Klixo being a web service company and me being a bit eco-minded, I figured why not start my blog with something about web hosting? I've read quite a bit in New Scientist over the past year about how data centres are able to improve their energy efficiency through a whole raft of technologies and software. 

A report from UK-based Global Action Plan, puts carbon dioxide emissions from information and communications technology at 2 per cent of global emissions, on the same level as that of the aviation industry, so it's something that I am really concerned about. One particular article from New Scientist talked about many companies that are tackling this problem. It stated that IBM are investing $1 billion USD into a project called 'Big Green' which aims to double their computing capacity without increasing power consumption.

But my favourite article was by IBM Switzerland. The idea is to add microfluidic pipes over the processors in the data centre which connect up to a heat exchanger. This is used to heat nearby homes. They reckon that 75% of the energy used in the data centre can be reclaimed and a medium-sized data centre consuming 1MW of energy could heat 70 homes.