exascale consumption

In 2008, Darpa, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency assembled a panel of the nation’s best supercomputer experts and asked them to think about ways in which it might be possible to reach an exascale computer — a supercomputer capable of executing one quintillion mathematical calculations in a second, about 1,000 times faster than today’s fastest systems. The panel, which was led by Peter Kogge, a University of Notre Dame supercomputer designer, came back with pessimistic conclusions…

One reason is computing’s enormous energy appetite. A 10-petaflop supercomputer — scheduled to be built by I.B.M. next year — will consume 15 megawatts of power, roughly the electricity consumed by a city of 15,000 homes. An exascale computer, built with today’s microprocessors, would require 1.6 gigawatts. That would be roughly one and half times the amount of electricity produced by a nuclear power plant.

via The New York Times

To hell with efficiency, effectiveness is all I care about.

— On the Battle Field, Saving Energy Can Save Lives - NYTimes.com

Somewhere on the 5 in California.
by Tim Navis on Flickr

We can wait to solve this problem as long as we want, but Nature is balancing its books every day… There are laws of politics and laws of physics. Only the latter can’t be repealed.

—

Nate Lewis, an energy chemist at the California Institute of Technology

Op-Ed Columnist - The Terminator vs. Big Oil - NYTimes.com

Since when has [an] oil company ever been interested in jobs? Let’s be honest.

—

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California

Op-Ed Columnist - The Terminator vs. Big Oil - NYTimes.com

This idea that we can make Frankenfood or Frankenalgae is just absurd.

—

Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, and a co-founder of Sapphire Energy, on engineering superalgae to produce biofuels.

via The New York Times

The best way to get more out of energy, by a fairly wide margin, is low-tech and unsexy: density.

—

David Roberts, “Local Power: Tapping Distributed Energy in 21st-Century Cities”

for Scientific American

The environmental impact is only one cost of our oil addiction. Like all addictions, the greatest toll is on human health … Cleaning up our energy habits is indeed the moral equivalent of war.

— The Full Price of Oil (via ehoefler)

surp:

The New York Times has created this fascinating infographic that looks at the price of gas and its relationship with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) since 1956. Interestingly, according to the Urban Land Institute’s Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change report reducing VMT is the single greatest way in which urban planning can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The study projects that overall North American emissions will decline by 10% if 60% of new development built between now and 2030 is compact as opposed to conventional low density sprawl. Compact development (i.e. blended densities, mixed land uses, interconnected street patterns) reduces dependence on automobiles because distances between destinations are shorter, making sustainable mobility options like walking, cycling and transit more attractive. Finally, this brings to mind the question of whether urban planning or peak oil will be a stronger driver in changing how we get around and where we live over the coming decades. My money is on peak oil.
SG

underpaidgenius:

A new type of tidal turbine which its creators describe as an “underwater kite” has taken a step closer to becoming commercially available. “Deep Green,” developed by Swedish start-up Minesto, has just secured €2 million ($2.5 million) from investors to fund testing scheduled to start in 2011. The technology comprises of a turbine attached to a wing and rudder which is tethered to the ocean floor by 100 meters of cable. Anchoring “Deep Green” and steering the tethered “kite” enables the turbine to capture energy from the tidal currents at ten times the speed of the actual stream velocity, say Minesto.

(via ‘Underwater kite’ aims to turn energy tide - CNN.com)

K. R. Sridhar: Bloom Energy's Fuel-Cell Guru | Newsweek.com

thestormglass:

Short but interesting interview with ‘K.R’, founder of Bloom Energy. This technology looks really amazing, the first really ‘new’ idea for power generation in a very long time.

In one direction, I take the solar energy during the day, and I break water up into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is stored locally in very low-pressure bladders. And at night, when the sun stops shining, you take this hydrogen, run it through the fuel cells, and produce electricity.

Not only new, but designed from the ground up to be environmentally friendly.

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