What Does Green Computing Mean?Green computing is the environmentally responsible and eco-friendly use of computers and their resources. In broader terms, it is also defined as the study of designing, engineering, manufacturing, using and disposing of computing devices in a way that reduces their environmental impact. Show
Many IT manufacturers and vendors are continuously investing in designing energy-efficient computing devices, reducing the use of dangerous materials and encouraging the recyclability of digital devices. Green computing practices came into prominence in 1992, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the Energy Star program. Green computing is also known as green information technology (green IT). Techopedia Explains Green ComputingGreen computing aims to attain economic viability and improve the way computing devices are used. Green IT practices include the development of environmentally sustainable production practices, energy-efficient computers and improved disposal and recycling procedures. To promote green computing concepts at all possible levels, the following four approaches are employed:
Government regulatory authorities also actively work to promote green computing concepts by introducing several voluntary programs and regulations for their enforcement. Average computer users can employ the following tactics to make their computing usage more green:
Open access Published: May 12th, 2021 DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.96847
*Address all correspondence to: 1. Introduction to green computing technologiesAlmost every person has more than one computing device. So, there are in our world milliards of computing devices that consume a huge amount, of megawatts. It is crucial to design energy-efficient computers, servers and Tablets. Computer engineers should design and manufacture green computers, servers, Tablets, and other computing devices. The computer industry design and manufacture every year new computing devices. Appropriately disposing, recycling of unwanted computing devices and electronic equipment is a crucial task in creating a green environment. Green computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and their resources. Green computing may be considered as the research and study of developing, designing, engineering, producing, using, and disposing of computing modules and devices to reduces environmental hazards and pollution. Computer designers, developers, manufacturing companies and vendors are investing in developing green computing modules and devices by reducing the use of hazard materials and improving the recycling process of computing and digital modules. Green computing is also known as green information technology (green IT). In 1992 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the Energy Star program that boosted Green computing practices. Green computing practices include the development of environmentally green production practices, efficient energy consumption computers, usage of energy harvesting technologies, and enhancing disposal and recycling procedures. Green computing main topics and initiatives:
The book presents new subjects and innovation in green computing technologies and in green computing and electronics industries. The main topics presented in the book are listed.
It is obvious in 2021 to most of the world population that Green Computing Technologies are crucial in protecting our universe from environmental hazards and pollution. In the last century, the world has suffered from rapid changes in climate, water pollution, and air pollution. The universe suffers from severe droughts, seawater acidification, rising seawater levels, increased depletion of groundwater reserves, air pollution, rivers pollution, and global rise of earth temperature. The rapid spread of diseases, viruses, macro-parasites, and the extinction of animal species are the direct result of environmental changes. Most of these changes are irreversible. Countries, governments, communities, and citizens should act rapidly to save the planet. In the last decade we notice that kids and young people lead around the world initiatives to decrease air pollution, water pollution and climate changes. The private cars industry, electronic industry, high tech computing industry, and the communication industry in the last century depleted and ruined the world natural resources. Computers waste, electronic waste, plastics, and food garbage contain dangerous chemicals that pollute air, soil, rivers water, sea water, and groundwater. These toxic materials cannot be removed from fishes, vegetables, fruits, and other food products. These toxic chemicals can be found in fruits, vegetables and other food crops, fishes, meat, and corps grown on polluted soil. Toxic waste, polluted water, polluted air, and climate changes affect severely first children health and grownup health. The universe oceans, rivers, seas, and lakes suffer from plastic and chemical waste. Chemical toxics and plastic waste kill the ocean and sea habitats in our planet. Hazard materials, chemical toxics, and plastic waste kill fishes, birds, and other creatures. Plastic waste poses choking and strangulation hazards. Plastic particles are making their way into the bottom of the food chain. Fishes and other species swallow plastic waste and become contaminated. These creatures are subsequently harvested for human consumption. The contaminated fishes and creatures, hazard toxics, are served in our plate and reach our stomach. Green computing, green electronics, green energy, recycling, and waste management and are the important crucial topics and challenges in green technologies, green industry, green research and in green innovation. The book is divided to three sections. Section one presents innovations in green computing and electronic systems. Section two presents green devices and technologies. Innovation in green computing technologies and computing industry are presented in section 3. Advertisement 2. Green computing and electronics technologiesGreen electronics and computing are in continuous growth in the last twenty years. The communication, wireless communication, electronics, and computing industries are facing increasing pressure from governments and legislation to remove toxic and hazardous material from their devices. There is a continual world-wide environmental movement to use green materials, green energy, and green components in production of communication, electronic devices, and computers. There are global series of activities that outline targets for electronic devices re-use and recycling. In green computing and green electronic industries, the use of hazardous materials such as cooper, lead, plastic materials, and other toxic materials is not permitted or limited to decrease pollution and to improve recycling process. Computers, communication devices, and electronics manufacturers are encouraged and challenged to develop electronic devices that are green and environmentally friendly. Green communication and electronics manufacturing focuses on using green materials, renewable energy, using efficient green devices, using energy harvesting units, reduction number of parts in modules and systems, recycling green materials, recycling energy, and recycling mechanical and electronic components. The book will describe and present development and production of green efficient devices that use green energy in computing and electronic industry. In this regard, energy harvesting technologies that can be employed to produce, recycle, and store green energy are presented in this book. On the other hand, it will present green computing systems and devices that are important factors in developing greener computing and electronic industry. Computers, cell phones and other electronic devices contain toxic hazardous materials that endanger the environment and, consequently, threaten the human health. Recycling of computer and electronic waste minimize the amount of toxic hazardous materials in the environment. Computers developers and manufacturers should handle and take care of electronic waste seriously with first majority. Computers, smart phones, and electronics manufacturers are challenged to reduce the amount, of computers and electronic waste and the number of parts in the system, by designing products that minimize the amount, of parts in the system and of harmful substances and to use parts and components that can be recycled. Computers developers and manufacturers are encouraged to develop products with a longer lifecycle. This book intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive presentation of green computing, green environmental technologies as a global universal standard for projects managers, developers, system engineers and manufacturers. Main Activities in Green Electronics and Computing
Advertisement 3. Green computing- cloud storage and computing servicesCloud storage cut energy consumption, computing expenses such us storage maintenance tasks, and purchasing additional storage capacity. Cloud storage provides greener computing services. Cloud storage is a service package in which data is stored, managed, backed up remotely and made available to users over a network and internet services. Cloud storage is based on a virtualized infrastructure with accessible interfaces. Cloud-based data is stored in servers located in data centers managed by a cloud provider. A file and its associated metadata are stored in the server by using an object storage protocol. The server assigns an identification number, ID, to each stored file. When file needs to be retrieved, the user presents the ID to the system and the content is assembled with all its metadata, authentication, and security. The most common use of cloud services is cloud backup, disaster recovery, and archiving infrequently accessed data. Cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment protected and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store and archive data files. Cloud storage services may be accessed via cloud computers and web services that use application programming interface, API, such as cloud desktop storage and cloud storage gateways. There are three main cloud-based storage architecture models public, private and hybrid. Public cloud storageservices provide a multi customer storage environment that is most suited for data storage. Data is stored in global data centers with storage data spread across multiple regions or continents. Private cloud storageprovides local storage services to a dedicated environment protected behind an organization’s firewall. Private clouds are appropriate for users who need customization and more control over their data. Hybrid cloud storageis a mix of private cloud and third-party public cloud services with synchronization between the platforms. The model offers businesses flexibility, and more data deployment options. An organization might, for example, store actively used and structured data in a local cloud, and unstructured and archival data in a public cloud. In recent years, a greater number of customers have adopted the hybrid cloud storage model. However, hybrid cloud storage presents technical, business and management challenges. For example, private workloads must access and communicate with public cloud storage suppliers, so solid network connectivity and compatibility are very important issues in this case. Advantages of Cloud Storage
Disadvantages of Cloud Storage
Cloud Computing. Cloud computingis an internet computing service that provides shared computer resources, stored data to computers and other devices, and computer processing resources on demand. Cloud computingprovide access to a shared pool of configurable computing devices such as servers, computer networks, data storage devices, computing applications, and other services. Cloud computing relies on sharing of computing resources. Cloud computingservices can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort. Cloud computing and storage solutions provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in privately owned data centers. Cloud computing allows companies to avoid high infrastructure costs such as servers and expensive software. Cloud computing allows companies to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance costs. Information technology teams can rapidly adjust resources to meet unpredictable business demands. Cloud computing applies high-performance computing power to perform tens of trillions of computations per second. Cloud computing allow organizations to focus on their core businesses instead of spending time and money on computer networks. Cloud computingand storage solutions cut companies energy consumption. Advertisement 4. Green renewable energySolar energy, wind energy, water energy, and biology fuel are examples of green renewable energy. Nuclear energy, fuel, hydrogen, coal, natural gas, and oil are nonrenewable energy resources. Light, wind, electromagnetic energy, are employed to produce green renewable energy. 4.1 Solar energyThe radiation of the sun is used to produce solar energy. The sun is an infinite limitless source of solar energy. Solar cells convert energy from natural light into electrical energy through the process of photovoltaics. Using solar energy to generate electricity minimize the consumption of coal and fuel. Using solar energy results in a significand reduction in air and environmental pollution. Solar energy farms are presented in Figure 1. Figure 1.Solar energy farms. Advantage of Green Solar Energy
Disadvantage of Solar Energy
4.2 Wind energyGlobal efforts to combat climate change, such as the Paris Agreement, renewable energy is seeing a continues growth. Cumulative wind capacity around the world increased from around 20,000 megawatts to more than 500,000 megawatts in the last fifteen years. Wind power is a popular sustainable, renewable source of power that has a small impact on the environment compared to burning coal or fuel. Wind energy uses the wind to provide mechanical power through wind turbines to turn electric generators for electrical power. The wind kinetic energy is used to operate electric turbines and windmills. The turbine’s blades spin clockwise when the wind blows, capturing energy. When the wind blows the main shaft of the wind turbine, connected to a gearbox within the nacelle, is triggered to spin. The gearbox sends the wind energy by the gearbox to the generator. The wind energy is converted to electricity. However, windmills cannot be operated in a residential area. Offshore wind turbines provide steady, reliable clean energy in several countries. Figure 2 presents wind energy cites. Wind is a clean source of renewable energy that produces no air or water pollution. Wind energy disadvantages include complaints from locals that wind turbines are ugly and noisy. The turbines rotating blades kill birds and bats. Figure 2.a. Country wind energy farm b. offshore wind energy cite Advantage of Wind Energy
Disadvantage of Wind Energy
Table 1 presents global wind farms database.
Table 1.Global wind farms database. 4.3 Hydropower, water energyWaterfalls and fast running water flow may be used to generate electric energy. Water Energy cite is presented in Figure 3. Water flow kinetic energy is converted to electric energy. In the late 19th century, hydropower became a source for generating electricity. The first commercial hydroelectric power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1879. In 1881, streetlamps in the city of Niagara Falls were powered by hydropower. Hydroelectricity can be used to store energy in the form of potential energy between two areas with different heights with pumped-storage hydroelectricity. Water is pumped uphill into cites during periods of low demand. This energy can be released to generate energy when demand is high. Figure 3.Hydropower energy cite. Hydropower Energy Sources
Hydropower Energy Advantages
Disadvantage of Hydropower Energy
4.4 Energy harvestingThe continuous growth in production of portable RF systems increase the consumption of batteries and electrical energy. Batteries and conventional electrical energy increase the environmental pollution. In last twenty years, the trend of using free space energy such us light, heat, electromagnetic energy, vibration, muscle motion and other energy sources, has become very attractive and useful. Several inventions and methods to produce electricity from green energy sources have been presented, see [1, 2, 3]. RF harvesting may be useful and recharge batteries only if we collect as much RF energy as possible. In this case, energy harvesting units can eliminate the need to charge batteries by using electrical cables. It is crucial to harvest RF energy from several RF devices and systems. Wideband or multiband antennas should be used to harvest as much electromagnetic energy as possible. The energy harvesting antenna must meet the system requirements. Due to low electromagnetic energy densities in free space, efficient antennas should be used. The antennas should radiate efficiently at a specific frequency range and polarization. The antenna should receive efficiently electromagnetic waves from a wide angular angle. To meet this requirement the antenna radiation pattern should have a wide beam width. Printed antennas were used to harvest RF energy as presented in the literature, [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. Electromagnetic energy harvesting systems capture waves propagating in the air. This RF energy is stored and used to recharge batteries and other electrical devices. In the last decade there is a huge increase in the amount of RF power in the air. The amount, of electromagnetic waves in the air in 2017 was 11 Exa-bytes per month. The amount, of electromagnetic waves in the air in 2019 was 33 Exa-bytes per month. However, the predicted amount, of electromagnetic waves in the air in 2025 will be around 165 Exa-bytes per month, Table 2. Table 2 presents the expected amount of RF wave in the air for 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. 5G devices are forecast to account for 45% of the universe mobile data traffic by 2025.
Table 2.Amount, of electromagnetic waves in the air from 2017 up to 2025. Energy harvesting system is shown in Figure 4. The electromagnetic harvesting unit consists of an antenna, a rectifying circuit, and a rechargeable battery. The RF harvesting energy system operates as a Dual Mode harvesting unit. The Low Noise Amplifier, LNA, is part of the RF system. The LNA DC bias voltages are supplied by the DC unit of the RF system. The programmable array consists of 3 to 4 antennas that can harvest RF energy from around 140 MHz up to 18GHz. The total received electromagnetic energy is transformed to DC power. The harvesting system consists of antennas, matching and feed networks, rectifying circuit, and a rechargeable battery. The RF harvesting system function as a dual mode harvesting unit. The harvesting unit can be part of a computing network, server, communication system, medical, IOT, computer, and smartphone. The LNA bias voltages are supplied by the RF system. The energy coupled to the built in test port, -20 dB, may be used to recharge a battery. Figure 4.Dual mode energy harvesting concept. Advertisement 5. RecyclingRecycling is the process of collecting and processing used materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash. Recycling conserves raw materials and saves the additional energy that manufacturers would use producing new products from scratch. The continuous growth in development of cellular wireless communication systems over the last thirty years has resulted that most of the world population owning laptops, computers, smartphones, smart watches, I-pads, and other devices. As a result, the number of unwanted electronic devices is huge. With this huge number of devices being produced and discarded, a new environmental disaster strikes our planet. Electronic waste or discarded old electronics are filling up landfills and trash storage areas. These electronics waste contain hazardous materials and toxic materials that endanger the environment and the health of local communities. This electronics waste increase air and water pollution. Green electronics and computing technologies are used to decrease environmental pollution. Recycling of computers waste, electronic devices waste, old batteries, plastic waste, and bottles decrease environmental pollution. Recycling saves original raw materials. Recycling reduce waste and reduce pollution. Computers recycling waste is shown in Figure 5. Figure 5.Computers waste recycling cite. Benefits of Recycling
Advertisement 6. Innovations and challenges in green computing technologiesIn the last fifty years, the world has suffered from significantly rapid changes in the planet weather, water pollution, and air pollution. The private cars industry, electronic industry, high tech computing industry, and the communication industry in the last century depleted and ruined the world natural resources. The universe suffers from severe droughts, seawater acidification, rising seawater levels, increased depletion of groundwater reserves, air pollution, rivers pollution, and global rise of earth temperature. The rapid spread of diseases, viruses, and the extinction of animal species are the result of environmental changes. Most of these changes are irreversible. Computers waste, electronic waste, plastics, and food garbage contain dangerous chemicals that pollute air, soil, rivers water, sea water, and groundwater. These toxic materials cannot be removed from fishes, vegetables, fruits, and other food products. These toxic chemicals can be found in fruits, vegetables and other food crops, fishes, meat, and corps grown on polluted soil. Toxic waste, polluted water, polluted air, and climate changes affect severely first children health and grownup health. The universe oceans, rivers, seas, and lakes suffer from plastic and chemical waste. Chemical toxics and plastic waste kill the ocean and sea habitats in our planet. Hazard materials, chemical toxics, and plastic waste kill fishes, birds, and other creatures. We should encourage countries, governments, communities, and citizens to act rapidly to save the universe. We should encourage companies to use green materials, green energy, and green components in production of communication, electronic devices, and computers. We should encourage global activities to re-use and recycle computers and electronic waste. In green computing and green electronic industries, the use of hazardous materials such as cooper, lead, plastic materials, and other toxic materials should be limited to decrease pollution. Computers, communication devices, and electronics manufacturers should be encouraged to develop electronic devices that are green and environmentally friendly. Computing and electronics manufacturers should use green materials, renewable energy, efficient green devices, and energy harvesting systems. Future Computing and Electronics Green Technologies Challenges and Innovations
References
Published: May 12th, 2021 © 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. What describes the practice and technologies used to Minimise the environmental effects of manufacturing and managing computing devices?Green IT (green information technology) is the practice of environmentally sustainable computing. Green IT aims to minimize the negative impact of IT operations on the environment by designing, manufacturing, operating and disposing of computers and computer-related products in an environmentally-friendly manner.
What are the practices of green computing?Purchasing from Environmentally Committed Companies. Participating in Electronic Recycling Programs. Deploying Virtual Technologies. Limiting Printing and Recycling Paper.
What technology is a form of green computing?Green computing, also known as green technology, is the use of computers and other computing devices and equipment in energy-efficient and eco-friendly ways. Organizations that use green computing methods often deploy energy-efficient central processing units (CPUs), servers, peripherals and power systems.
Which type of infrastructure service stores and manages corporate data and provides capabilities for Analysing the data?Data management services that store and manage corporate data and provide capabilities for analyzing the data.
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