Trendy “green” energy
Back in June, Wired reported on the growing trend of “green” webhosts. That is, those web hosting providers who power their datacenters using renewable energy sources: wind and solar energy. I thought this was unique, but not something that you’d expect to hear in this day age. Green energy for datacenters sounds almost like a dot-com bubble era type of extravagance. Nonetheless, these companies exist, and they’re thriving. This might lead one to wonder what sort of reliability these datacenters might have in the face of a natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina. Many Internet denizens followed the drama of DirectNIC, a New Orleans datacenter, from the Interdictor LiveJournal. Nonetheless they’re a popular option for those environmentally-minded.
Green energy is also making headway in other venues, though with questionable financial success. In Great Britain, government subsidies are paying for alternative energy sources — mostly wind “farms” — sometimes twice what the companies need to break even. I’m not sure why this is, but it is happening. This BBC article implies that the companies do need government money to succeed, but not as much as they’re getting. Rachel Ruffle of Renewable Energy Systems responds stating:
“I don’t think people mind paying a small subsidy for clean, green electricity. As more renewable energy schemes are built, then the price will come down. People want green electricity because they’re concerned about climate change and pollution.”
While this is largely true, if I were a citizen of the UK, I would be troubled by the findings of the government report. People are concerned about climate change and pollution, but not (usually) to the tune of £1 billion in extra funding. It is unclear whether the money is going towards research and development or some other purpose. In any event, I would expect some changes to be made in the near future. The British public seems too pragmatic as a whole to let such excesses slide for too long, despite assurances that the “subsidies [are] essential to develop renewable energy.”
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