Powering down

INBOX:WHILE POLITICIANS and environmental campaigners rail against the transport and power industries, those of us in the technology world may have to start looking at our own actions in helping to save the planet.

According to German magazine Stern, global internet usage produces the same amount of carbon emissions as the airline industry, requiring the equivalent of 14 power stations to power all those computers and servers. The IT sector is said to be responsible for 2 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, so next time you decide to leave work without switching off your monitor or desktop computer, think again.

These points were brought into sharp focus at the CeBIT technology festival in Hanover this week, where Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer was extolling the benefits of Microsoft's newfound interest in green technologies.

Ballmer says machines running newer versions of Windows use less power than those still using older software.

Microsoft claims that Vista's idle mode consumes 33 times less power than XPs, while Windows Server 2008 is up to 40 per cent less power-hungry than Windows Server 2003.

Microsoft is building new data centres around the world and aims to make them 40 per cent more efficient than a few years ago. However, much of these power savings are down to chip-makers increasing the efficiency of their microprocessors.

Microsoft also announced a partnership with German power supplier Yello Strom, which has developed an electricity meter based on Windows CE which then sends information about a house's power consumption to a Vista desktop widget.

In fact, green is the theme of choice at CeBit this year as many of the 5,845 exhibitors from 77 countries tout developments such as servers that use less electricity and data centres that emit much less carbon dioxide. IBM is to unveil an emissions-free computing centre model that uses energy recycling and cools hot-running microchips with water.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative, founded in 2007 with Microsoft, Google, Intel, IBM and others, aims to reduce computer-related emissions of greenhouse gases by 54 million tonnes annually.

By a happy coincidence for these firms, however, it is going to take a lot of computing power to work out how to make technology more environmentally friendly.