IT goes green

The inconvenient truth about IT can be found in a simple equation: at the heart of every computer is a machine that sucks in power, and creates information plus heat.

The more IT there is in the world, the more power is consumed and heat expelled. It’s a basic law of physics.

But in a world suddenly hyper-aware of global warming, a spotlight is turning on the IT world as a significant – and growing – part of the problem. And as business and governments try to balance growth with climate science, technology is being harnessed to find short and long-term solutions.
Australian IT companies and researchers stand at the forefront of new products and services designed to reduce our reliance on carbon-producing energy sources. Australian industry has been lucky so far. Energy is relatively cheap, so they have added computing resources without worrying too much about the energy cost. But that cheap electricity has been mostly derived from one of the dirtiest forms of generation – burning of brown coal.

While the abundance of coal in Australia means it is unlikely to disappear from power generation any time soon, efforts are under way to find new ways of harnessing its energy in more environmentally friendly ways.

This is the mission of Queensland-based start-up IT company Carbon Energy. A joint venture between the CSIRO and the mining company Metex, Carbon Energy has developed a software system that improves the efficiency of a form of energy production called underground coal gasification (UCG).

Sidney Morning Herald