Climate Change

Microsoft's carbon emissions up nearly 30% thanks to AI

Company will require certain suppliers to run on 100% carbon-free electricity ... by 2030

On-Prem16 May 2024 | 37

Italy's climate super computer, Cassandra, to combine HPC with AI

CPU-heavy big iron boasts Intel's HBM-packed Xeons and a tiny complement of Nvidia H100s

HPC10 May 2024 | 11

Asia's hyperscalers hustle for juice as datacenters drain grid

Power shortages are driving the industry to once-unthinkable places

On-Prem09 May 2024 | 3

Tech industry sheds some light on the planet's situation via LinkedIn

Comment Kyndryl exec ponders 'fragility of the planet,' as Intel and Amazon offer advice

Offbeat01 May 2024 | 14

Crypto conferences liquidated after biblical flooding in Dubai

There's something nice about seeing Web3 fanatics in ankle-deep water

Bootnotes17 Apr 2024 | 17

Digital Realty ditches diesel for salad dressing in US to cut datacenter emissions

Hydrotreated vegetable oil to power bit barns stateside after successful Euro trial

Systems11 Apr 2024 | 17

UK awards £1.73M to AI projects to advance net zero goals

Great! Just ignore the energy needed to train them, process queries, keep the lights on in datacenters ...

AI + ML20 Mar 2024 | 35

Caffeine makes fuel cells more efficient, cuts cost of energy storage

Boffins show less platinum may be needed for long-lived power source

Science14 Mar 2024 | 58

Google searches for boss to get grip on climate, energy costs of this AI hype cycle

Hyperscalers increasingly looking over shoulders as workloads grow

AI + ML12 Mar 2024 | 3

Climate change means beer made from sewer water, says North Carolina brewery

Water? Like from the toilet?

Offbeat11 Mar 2024 | 79

Water worries flood in as chip industry and AI models grow thirstier

Mega makers already operate in water-scarce areas, and worry is they'll drink us dry

Systems29 Feb 2024 | 32

With $1B to burn on green tech, HSBC seeks Google’s help

The clock's ticking on those 2030 net zero climate goals

Systems08 Feb 2024 | 7

Think tank funded by Big Tech argues AI’s climate impact is nothing to worry about

Sure, datacenters consume lots of energy. But maybe they'll invent stuff that helps

Off-Prem07 Feb 2024 | 12

US starts 'emergency' checks on cryptocurrency power use, citing winter power demands

Up until now watchdogs say they've just been guesstimating consumption

Public Sector02 Feb 2024 | 81

Affordable, self-healing power grids are closer than you think

Feature They're just an algorithm away, national lab engineer tells El Reg

Public Sector01 Feb 2024 | 114

US cities are going to struggle to green up their act by 2050

Instead of 100% renewables, most will reach around a tenth of that

Public Sector19 Jan 2024 | 53

Stripe commuters swap traffic jams for hydrofoil glam

SF employees set sail on exclusive six-seater sea shuttle – the rest will have to stick to roads

Offbeat18 Jan 2024 | 18

Deep Green gets £200M from power supplier to scale waste heat reuse

Octopus Energy wants to back server-cooling, district heating projects

On-Prem16 Jan 2024 | 17

Road to Removal: A blueprint for yanking billions of tons of CO2 out of our atmosphere

It'll also cost billions, but perhaps a price worth paying?

Science07 Jan 2024 | 156

Japan to test datacenter powered by reused hydrogen fuel cells

The source? Repurposed parts from electric vehicles

On-Prem03 Jan 2024 | 13

Scientists mull Solar Radiation Management – a potential climate-change stop-gap

In-depth As we argue over freeing ourselves from fossil fuels, can SRM buy us time to develop green energy we need?

Science30 Dec 2023 | 243

Shame about those wildfires. We'll just let the fossil fuel giants off the hook, then?

Comment As world heads into 2024, scientists are asked: When will Big Oil face the heat?

Science16 Dec 2023 | 198

Bitcoin's thirst for water is just as troubling as its energy appetite

A single transaction chugs 6.2 million times more than a credit card swipe

Personal Tech30 Nov 2023 | 42

Virgin Atlantic flies 'world's first fossil-fuel free' transatlantic commercial flight

Sustainable kerosene-alt is hot right now as low-emission aviation takes off

Bootnotes28 Nov 2023 | 40

Intel chips away at carbon footprint but skims over thirst for water, chemicals

Semiconductors are a dirty business

Systems15 Nov 2023 | 3

Now we can blame spacecraft for polluting the atmosphere

'My god, it's full of aerosolized metals!'

Science18 Oct 2023 | 12

Want a clean energy transition? Better start putting cash into electrical grid

Spending needs to double to $600B by 2030 if we want to stay within 2°C warming

Science18 Oct 2023 | 91

British boffins say aircraft could fly on trash, cutting pollution debt by 80%

Domestic jets can use 'municipal solid waste' to fly the friendly skies

Research17 Oct 2023 | 115

Swedish tech biz aims to sail past traffic woes on electric hydrofoils

But P-12's production timeline is fuzzy

Offbeat10 Oct 2023 | 8

You shouldn't be able to buy devices that tamper with diesel truck emissions on eBay, says DoJ

Feds allege tat bazaar turned blind eye to folks buying more than 343k aftermarket defeat devices

Legal28 Sep 2023 | 71

The alternative to stopping climate change is untested carbon capture tech

We could do most of what we need to prevent 1.5°C warming now; reversing it will be nigh impossible

Science27 Sep 2023 | 87

Lithium goldrush hits sleepy Oregon-Nevada border

Deposit in 19-million-year old caldera could dwarf sources in Bolivia, Chile and Australia

Science11 Sep 2023 | 20

IBM sells off cloud business – yes, we mean Weather.com

What better time for private equity to capitalize on changing climate

Science22 Aug 2023 | 14

MIT boffins build battery alternative out of cement, carbon black, water

Imagine your home's foundation was its own energy-storing supercapacitor

Science02 Aug 2023 | 98

Aspiration to deploy new UK nuclear reactor every year a 'wish', not a plan

Notably stretching the target requires 'a credible pathway towards its delivery,' says committee

Offbeat01 Aug 2023 | 263

Infineon to offer recyclable circuit boards that dissolve in water

Phasing out epoxy resin laminate with biodegradable substrate might be costly, though

Systems28 Jul 2023 | 37

Thames Water to datacenters: Cut water use or we will

Utility to consider introducing restrictions

On-Prem27 Jul 2023 | 115

Our AI habit is making us less environmentally friendly, Google admits

Just 6% of the water it consumed last year was replenished, report says

On-Prem25 Jul 2023 | 15

Methane-spotting satellite that gives true readings of industry emissions hits skies in 2024

Potent greenhouse gas even worse for climate than too much carbon dioxide

Science12 Jul 2023 | 28

Fancy tinkering with the atmosphere? The Derecho supercomputer can advise

NCAR's biggish iron will also explore wildfires, drought and solar storms

HPC12 Jul 2023 | 6

Post-Brexit tariffs on cross EU-UK electrical vehicle imports still going ahead

Commission official insists it has to protect itself against US subsidies

Offbeat07 Jul 2023 | 99

NASA to tear the wings off plane in the name of sustainability

They'll be replaced with longer, thinner wings supported by a truss

Science14 Jun 2023 | 97

How do you boost server efficiency? Buy new kit, keep it busy

Increase in efficiency between 2017 and 2019 hardware is 34% for Intel servers, 140% for AMD, claims report

On-Prem09 Jun 2023 | 17

Atlassian says 'Don't #@!% the Planet' so it can keep making money

Which when you think about it, is a pretty good reason to build a sustainable business

Devops24 May 2023 | 9

Boeing takes flight in sustainability battle with carbon data cruncher

Analytics to grok impact of competing greener tech as industry seeks environmentally friendly path

Emerging Clean Energy Tech Week18 May 2023 | 2

TSMC brags of 20TWh solar scheme. Feels a bit like greenwashing to us

A welcome development, but let's not overdo it

Emerging Clean Energy Tech Week22 Apr 2023 | 11

America ain't exactly outlawing gas cars but it's steering hard into EVs

Maybe soon all our friends are electric

Personal Tech12 Apr 2023 | 96

The second dust bowl cometh for America, supercomputer warns

Droughts, flash floods the future for the Midwest ... probably

Science18 Feb 2023 | 90

Could 2023 be the year SpaceX's Starship finally reaches orbit?

Meanwhile, no one is thinking of the horrible emissions coming out of all these rockets, say scientists

Science06 Feb 2023 | 65

Have we hit a climate tipping point? Green power attracts big money

As much cash went into low-carbon as fossil fuels last year, apparently

Systems27 Jan 2023 | 19

Self-driving car computers may be 'as bad' for emissions as datacenters

Oh, great – another source of carbon fumes we forgot to factor in

Personal Tech13 Jan 2023 | 79

Draft climate law threatens fines for datacenters that don't cut their carbon count

Legislation also puts cryptocurrency farms in the crosshairs

On-Prem12 Jan 2023 | 15

KaRIn to hitch a ride on NASA's water-tracking sat

I demand to speak to the space manager

Science14 Dec 2022 | 1

Colocation execs fret about sustainability as world eyes water, energy use

What, you thought green tech shift will come from the good of their hearts?

On-Prem09 Dec 2022 | 3

Energy being expensive and trickier to source is good news ... for renewables

Green tech will be largest power source by 2025, says IEA, but even accelerated rollouts might not stave off disaster

Science07 Dec 2022 | 38

US could save billions in health costs if it changed wind energy strategy

Socio-economic disparities between who benefits from new plants still remain, say MIT researchers

Science05 Dec 2022 | 22