Transcript G-ICT

Green Information & Communications Technologies
The Power of Innovation
A CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE
ON GREEN ICT
Network infrastructures to curb carbon emissions
ITU Green Standards Week
Rome, Italy
Session 8: September 8th 2011
Dr. Charles Despins
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ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011
2011
G-ICT
Green Information & Communications Technologies
2011
G-ICT
The Power of Innovation
Green ICT in Canada
Prompt:
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Industry-university R&D consortium headquartered in Montreal, Canada;
Mixed public & private sector funding;
30 industry members and 12 university members;
Focus on various industry vertical markets (Green ICT since 2008).
ICT in Canada:
• Represents 1 megaton of GHG emissions
(<1%);
• Application in various sectors could curb
GHG emissions by 20 megatons per year:
- 3.2 M cars off the road
- 7% of Canada’s annual Kyoto obligations.
• Estimated annual benefits: $7.5B-$12.9B.
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Sources: Climate Check, WWF Canada
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ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011
Green Information & Communications Technologies
The Power of Innovation
From energy efficiency
to GHG emission reductions
Many Green ICT R&D initiatives focus on energy efficiency:
• Cost driver e.g. for the data-intensive wireless industry;
• A theme on which ICT researchers traditionally excel.
However, the link between energy efficiency and GHG emission
reductions can be but is not always direct …
• ICTs operate 24/7 and produce “scope 2” GHG emissions
• If power grid is based entirely on fossil fuels, the link between energy
consumption and GHG emissions is direct … BUT …
• Power grids are often a mix of fossil-fuel (cheap) and clean energy (more
expensive) sources … utilities will leverage energy efficiency gains to limit
the use of clean energy sources.
• In such cases, energy efficiency gains thus translate into zero gains in
terms of GHG emission reduction …
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ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011
2011
G-ICT
Green Information & Communications Technologies
The Power of Innovation
Green ICT:
maximizing economic & environmental benefits
1. Integrate ICT design with power generation considerations
• Requires holistic approach involving different ICT subsectors, power
generation and sustainable development experts
2. Develop GHG emission standards for ICT
• ISO14064 protocol is difficult to apply in the ICT sector
• The ITU is a leader in developing such standards to quantify the GHG
emission reduction potential of ICTs.
3. Tap research funds targeted to GHG emission reductions
• In many jurisdictions, these funds are managed by environment
departments who may not always sufficiently aware of the G-ICT
opportunity
• The ICT research community has yet to significantly tap these sources of
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funds …
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ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011
2011
G-ICT
Green Information & Communications Technologies
2011
G-ICT
The Power of Innovation
The carbon market: “cap & trade” perspectives
GHG emission limits are gradually being imposed throughout
the world in various industry sectors
• The ICT sector is not one of these … so far …
• Taxes on fossil fuels are often directed to GHG emission reduction funds
“Cap & trade” regimes are being proposed e.g. North America
• Purchasing & trading of “carbon credits” if emission caps are exceeded
• ICT GHG standards will allow the ICT industry to participate in this
“carbon economy”
Examples of “cap & trade” proposals and GHG registries
• Western Climate Initiative (www.westernclimateinitiative.org):
7 USA states & 4 Canada provinces
• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (www.rggi.org):
10 USA (northeast) states
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Green Information & Communications Technologies
2011
G-ICT
The Power of Innovation
Greenstar (GSN):
a zero-carbon telecom network pilot project
http://www.greenstarnetwork.com
GreenStar
CANARIE
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© Prompt inc.
ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011
Green Information & Communications Technologies
2011
G-ICT
The Power of Innovation
Greenstar (GSN): a zero-carbon network pilot
GSN objectives and underlying principles:
– GSN: an open architecture ICT service delivery network
– Leverage virtualization concepts so that user applications can be
moved, in a seamless way for the user, to data centers in close
proximity to renewable energy sources.
– Renewable energy use is also optimized within GSN: energy loss in
transmitting power is higher than when data is moved over networks.
– Development of ICT GHG emission standards (ITU link).
– Utilize GSN to generate carbon credits in a perspective of selling such
credits generated by relocation of service implementation within GSN.
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© Prompt inc.
ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011
Green Information & Communications Technologies
2011
G-ICT
The Power of Innovation
Greenstar partners
Partners (Canada):
Université du Québec
à Montréal
SIGMACO
Canadian Standards Association
(CSA), Climate Change Division
Partners (international):
Spain
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Ireland
USA
Belgium
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China
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Green Information & Communications Technologies
2011
G-ICT
The Power of Innovation
Going forward …
Extend virtualization concept to backbone and access
portions of networks: e.g.
• Router and switching virtualization;
• Wireless access virtualization:
 Only 15% of energy consumed by a base station is radiated;
 Virtualize signal processing functions with radio-over-fiber
architectures;
 Build upon initial work in GENI (USA) and 4WARD (FP7-EU).
ICT is a (relatively unexploited) low-hanging fruit in terms of GHG
emission reductions:
• Fossil fuel sources won’t vanish in the foreseeable future …
• Climate change dilemma:
reconciling economic and environmental benefits often perceived as
difficult to achieve.
• ICT opportunities: intelligent transport systems, domotics, industry
processes, etc.
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Green Information & Communications Technologies
The Power of Innovation
Any jurisdiction exploiting renewable sources of energy can be a hub
for the 21st century, digital, low-carbon economy.
• Virtualizing ICT infrastructure and co-locating data centers with renewable
energy sources:
 Green benefit: energy efficiency (resulting from transmission of data
instead of energy) and GHG emission reductions.
 Digital benefit: economic incentive for (regional) network deployments.
 Productivity benefit: economic incentive for investment in ICT products
and services.
Green ICT
& the digital economy
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Sustainable development &
economic development
ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011
2011
G-ICT
Green Information & Communications Technologies
2011
G-ICT
The Power of Innovation
For more on these G-ICT concepts:
C. Despins et al., Leveraging Green Communications for Carbon Emission
Reductions: Techniques, Testbeds and Emerging Carbon Footptint Standards,
IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 49, no. 8, August 2011, pp. 101-109.
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