I was pleased to see the listing of the forthcoming O’Reilly Energy Innovation Conference, and wondered… how can Java and IT developers in general participate?
9/11, Hurricane Katrina, global warming, winter storms like they’re having in the Midwest and back East, and other major events have proven time and time again that the electrical grid and infrastructure is taxed to say the least. Remember the power outage in the Northeast in the summer of 2002? A single tree apparently was the cause of the blackout that affected millions in New York, Boston, Cleveland, etc.
And of course, we were up in arms, but that faded… Well, we cannot forget how fragile our grid is. The problem: We are at 21st century society trying to get by on 19th century technology found in our current crumbling infrastructure. And while investing more capital into the grid can help, I think we need more out of the box thinking with today’s companies, investors, government officials, etc.
For example,
* Adapt fuel cell technology to the home OR
* Offer super battery technology so that each/every household is self-sufficient
* Solar and wind power are also options, but increasingly more and more expensive ones as it’s turning out…
These are quite possible if we all move to the latest energy efficient lighting, energy star or better appliances, etc. Even our computers and chips within them are taking less and less power. More power efficient chips are on the way thanks to Intel and Sun, for both personal computers and even servers.
As IT developers/programmers, what can we do to contribute to solutions? I would imagine this is mostly the case in the context of embedded application development. But this is still, perhaps, only a starting point… We’ll see what comes out of this conference and others like it.
What do you think? Do you have ideas you want to share here?
How about simply working from home?
Having hundreds of thousands of cars sat in traffic twice a day just so people can sit at a computer is nuts! Fuel is energy, so why burn it at all if there is an alternative?
How about shutting down your PC fully when you go home?
This drives me nuts, why don't people just switch their computers off rather than leave them on all night? Same goes for IT projects, why do we have servers on all night doing builds when there is no-one there to care?
Stop looking to technology to fix bad behaviour. Take responsibility for your own energy use, and make little improvements whenever you can.
Yes, I agree, for those who have jobs that could be done at home on a computer. Just imagine the $, time, and eco saved from this.
But company politics and dated thinking will prevent this for a few more years, at least.
Our government should step in more and actively promote telecommuting via tax credits, etc. for companies to act.