Arctic Data Center

As the internet age consolidates more and more computing power in "the Cloud," away from end-users in data centers, the energy intensity associated with those data centers is skyrocketing. In a 2007 Congressional Report, they were pegged at 61 billion gigawatt-hours, or 1.5% of all electricity use in the United States. By 2011, this is expected to double.

Data centers need 1) an immense amount of energy to run all the processors, and 2) an immense amount of cooling/air conditioning to keep the equpiment from overheating.

Since the essence of data centers and cloud computing is to be off-site or remote, it may make good sense to locate them near remote energy resources in cold areas. There are many energy resources like oil and coal reserves, mountain streams, or geothermal reservoirs, that are not economical to transport back to population centers. Additionally, the efficiencies of thermodynamic cycles are highest when you have plenty of cool air or water as a "cold sink," so power generation and air conditioning would work much better.

High bandwidth data could be fed in and out of the facilities using runs of fiber optic cable or satellites.

CATEGORY: Energy / Technology
IDEATION: Oct 22, 2008

RE-BEER, Earth-friendly brew re-uses old bottles

Imagine a tasty microbrew that is made using natural ingredients, green strategies, and energy-efficient equipment. Now imagine the marketing and branding that could distinguish this frothy beverage...

The call-sign of the brewery is to clean out and reuse a motley mix of old beer bottles, regardless of their shape, size, or color. If you're a large brewery that can buy back their old bottles from cleaners/recyclers/sorters, there is some incremental cost there. But if you took any ole' bottle you could get, cleaned it up, and dropped your beer into it...you could save a lot of money, do a lot of good for the environment, and create a catchy niche in the consumer's mind.

You could print one simple, recognizable label (from recycled materials) and slap it on the endearing assortment of decanters.



CATEGORY: Entertainment / Business Idea
IDEATION: May 13, 2009

Reduce other taxes to soften impact of Carbon taxes

Legislators and the scientific community are in agreement that some economic incentive is needed to discourage carbon emissions. There is considerable debate, however, that adding costs to fossil fuels, via a carbon tax or a carbon cap-and-trade system, will crush industry as it wobbles to its feet in these precarious economic times.

The question is: Does the government need more money?...or do we simply want to incentivize cleaner energy use? If the government were to hold its revenues constant - gradually phasing in a carbon tax while proportionally reducing income tax and corporate tax, the net effect would be a win-win.

The government would collect the same amount of revenue, the carbon tax would discourage fossil fuels and raise the cost of business, but a corresponding decrease in income & corporate taxes would compensate by raising spendable income.

A large obtacle may be the accounting and paper work behind the scenes to balance the budget, but come on - we're smart people. Let's figure this out. Any thoughts? Please discuss in the comments.

CATEGORY: Political / Economic / Energy

IDEATION: April 28, 2009

Credit Card with Digital Display

People often start out budgeting by using the “envelope” method – a tangible object lesson: one envelope of cash for groceries, one for entertainment, etc. – for a week or month. However, with more and more people using credit cards and/or debit cards for their expenses, our purchases no longer make a visible, immediate dent in our wallets. When you spend cash, you have less of it. Spend on a credit card, however, and nothing in your wallet changes to let you know that you have less money.

What if you could make a “credit card” that had a digital display on it, telling you how much you had in each category? So, if you only have $7 left to spend on lunches for the week, you know that you’d better go to Subway rather than Quizno’s. This could be linked either to the credit card account itself, or a standalone device that allowed you to keep track of everything right in your wallet or purse.



CATEGORY: Finance / Technology
IDEATION: April 15, 2009, submitted by Jonathan Mesh.