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Germany's green energy boom is leaving a 'trail of blood' on coal companies
Since the beginning, the commercial growth of renewable energy has been a laborious, often painful matter of government pushes, tax incentives and campaigning for greater awareness. In Germany, however, the energy market is on the cusp of evolving to the next step: An era in which the sun and the wind replace fossil fuels through the sheer, unstoppable force of the market.
Greenpeace: Apple's energy policy has improved, still needs to remove the coal smoke from iCloud
Wondering where Apple stands environmentally after the recent withdrawal (and subsequent return) of its laptops and desktops from the EPEAT rating system? Greenpeace has issued a well-timed report, outlining the company's broader back-end energy policies. According to the organization, "Apple's clean energy policies have significantly improved, but the company still gets low scores for its energy choices when compared with sector leaders." Greenpeace applauds Cupertino's commitment to goal coal-free by next year, but wonders aloud how the company will get there, noting that while it has invested in solar and other renewable energy sources, it still buys power from outlets that rely on coal. The organization also took the time to admonish Apple's lack of transparency on its environmental plans.
Greenpeace activists protest Apple by blocking train tracks
Greenpeace activists tried to stop Apple's coal consumption at its source by blocking train tracks that Duke Energy uses to ship coal to Apple's Maiden, North Carolina data center. Activists targeted the Marshall Steam Station in Catawba county, according to a report in Charlotte's WCNC. Protestors locked themselves to the train tracks, posted a sign that read "Save Our Mountain Clean The Cloud" and branded train cars with Apple's logo. Greenpeace International IT analyst Casey Harrell said, "Apple should be more transparent about its coal problem, and take steps to start solving it, as other tech companies have." Police were called in to disband the protest and remove the signs. The protesters will be charged with trespassing.
Greenpeace releases balloons in Apple Store
Greenpeace is trying to highlight Apple's choice to power its data center with coal by holding a series of demonstrations at Apple stores. The latest stunt involved bunches of black balloons that were released in Apple stores in NYC, San Francisco and Toronto. Greenpeace called the protest a success, but judging from the responses recorded in a New York Times report, I'm not so sure. First, the black balloons had an iCloud logo on the side and at least one customer thought it was an Apple promotion. Other people didn't even notice the protest because there was only a handful of balloons. Apparently in NYC, several protestors were late due to traffic and couldn't enter the store to release their balloons. Some applauded the event and others thought Apple was being picked on because of its high-profile position.
Apple has the "least green" data centers
Apple has come in last place among a list of tech companies in the latest Greenpeace tech report How Dirty is Your Data? [PDF]. While Apple has made some pretty big strides over the last few years in trying to eliminate environmentally unfriendly chemicals from its products, Apple placed last in this list due to its heavy reliance on coal power at its data centers. The report compares energy consumption and sources made by Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, IBM, Microsoft, HP, Akamai, Amazon and Yahoo. In it, Greenpeace points out that Apple's new North Carolina data center, which is set to open this year and will supposedly be primarily used for cloud-based computing services, will triple Apple's energy usage and use the same amount of energy as 80,000 US homes. Of that energy, 62 percent will be provided by coal (one of the dirtiest energy sources), and 32 percent of it will be provided by nuclear power. This isn't the first time Greenpeace has expressed concern over Apple's energy footprint regarding cloud computing. In March of last year, Greenpeace also expressed concern about the North Carolina data center that runs on "dirty coal power."
Inhabitat's Week in Green: of mirror cubes and urban icebergs
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. With summer in full swing, this week Inhabitat watched the mercury rise as the world's largest thermostat burst forth with an array of 72,000 building-mounted LEDs. We also kept things cool with a remarkable plan to transform frozen construction sites into event-hosting urban icebergs. And if you haven't made plans for a summer vacation yet, might we recommend this stunning Swedish "Treehotel" housed within a silvery mirror cube in the sky? Heartening news rang forth from the renewable energy sector this week as a UN-backed study reported that the building of new renewable energy plants has officially overtaken fossil fuel plants in Europe and the US. We also took a look at two brand new types of power plants -- the world's first hydrogen-driven power plant in Italy and the first hybrid coal-solar power plant in Colorado. The past week also saw several remarkable advances in clean tech, starting with MIT's latest innovation, a new type of high-tech fiber that can transmit sound, light, and generate electricity. We also paid homage to one of our all-time favorite sources of (surprisingly green) home entertainment - the Roku Box.
Nokia patents diamond-hard coating for devices
That shiny new N800 isn't going to look so shiny or new after a couple drops on pavement. And don't act like you're more careful than that, either -- it happens to the best of us. Heck, frequent pocketing of a phone (or Internet Tablet, as the case may be) is usually enough to get it scuffed solidly into "well used" status. The boys and girls in Espoo always have their thinking caps on, though, and it looks like they've brewed up a solution for the pollution. To use their words, they've put together a "cover, a mobile communications apparatus and a method for producing a coated cover for an electronic apparatus" using an amorphous diamond coating. Basically, you feed some current through coal, wave your hands, and a magical 100 nanometer coating of diamond-like stuff attaches itself to plastic parts in the vicinity. And you know how hard diamond is. Best of all, the coating is apparently biodegradable, breaking down over time, at which point it'll probably turn back into coal and live to coat another device again. There's something almost Soylent Green about it, is there not?[Via Slashdot and New Scientist Tech]
