Using ICT to improve energy efficiency
The information and communication technologies (ICT) sector has an important role to play in helping the EU achieve its energy efficiency goals, according to a workshop on applying ICT solutions to energy efficiency challenges, held in Brussels as part of the EU's Sustainable Energy Week. The EU's Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, which forms part of the wide ranging energy package put forward by the European Commission on 10 January, sets the EU the energy efficiency target of saving 20% by 2020. The workshop brought together leading stakeholders from the ICT world and representatives of the EU institutions to discuss how ICT could help the EU to achieve this goal. The overall tone of the meeting was optimistic. 'I'm ready to bet that in a few years from now we will be able to say that 50% of energy efficiency gains have been due to ICT,' said Bernard Meric, Senior Vice-President of External Affairs for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Hewlett-Packard. 'I think ICT is clearly the place to be when we think about energy efficiency.' Many speakers pointed out that ICT has already helped to streamline processes in a range of fields, for example through e-banking, e-government and e-health. Furthermore, advances in videoconferencing technologies are already helping many businesses to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money in their travel budgets. However, it was widely agreed that most people do not think of ICT as a solution to energy efficiency problems. 'People simply don't make that link there directly,' commented Frans de Bruïne, Director of the department 'ICT addressing Societal Challenges' at the European Commission's Information Society and Media DG. 'There is quite a bit of awareness raising to be done,' he added. An area where ICT has great potential to save energy is in the home. Kevin Fisher, Standards and Regulations Manager at Intel, pointed out that in the UK, homes account for almost a third of the total energy used. 'There's a lot of scope for savings,' he commented. One suggestion was to create a visual way of displaying how much various appliances use, so that people can easily see the differences in their total energy consumption when appliances are in use, in standby mode and switched off. Greater use of remote control would enable people to access systems through the web. For example, this would mean that someone who was expecting to be home later than usual could go online and change the timer on their central heating from their office. Mr Fisher also suggested a greater use of light sensors and programmable thermostats to help people reduce their energy use in the home. However, he underlined that all of these systems need to be fully integrated, and they need to be designed in such a way that they can be fitted into new homes and also retrofitted into existing homes. Achieving this will require both research and a policy environment which encourages consumers to take such measures, he said. On the policy front, there was a broad consensus that public organisations need to do more to promote innovation in the ICT-energy efficiency field, and green procurement would be a good way of doing this. The ICT sector is also working to address the energy efficiency issue inside its own companies. 'It is important to put our own house in order,' emphasised Richard Barrington of Sun Microsystems, pointing out that his company's office in San Francisco is just half a metre above sea level. One area of particular concern is data centres and servers. Currently, a large proportion of the energy going into these is not used for computer processing, but cooling. Mr Meric noted that HP had developed 'smart cooling' systems for servers which cools only the parts of the server which need cooling, and not the whole room. They are also increasingly consolidating their data centres, generating further energy savings. Looking further into the future, a number of people raised the issue of education and training; in many countries fewer and fewer students are choosing to study science and mathematics, and yet people with these skills will be essential if the ICT sector is to contribute fully to helping Europe achieve its energy efficiency goals. Obviously a good deal of research is needed to develop this exciting field; Márta Nagy-Rothengass, Head of the 'ICT for Sustainable Growth' Unit at the Commission's Information Society and Media DG pointed out that there will be a call for proposals on ICT and environmental management in May.