A CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE ON GREEN ICT Network infrastructures to curb carbon emissions

2011The Power of Innovation

G-ICTGreen Information & Communications Technologies

© Prompt inc. ITU Green Standards Week, September 2011

A CANADIAN PERSPECTIVEA CANADIAN PERSPECTIVEON GREEN ICTON GREEN ICT

Network infrastructures to curb carbon emissions

ITU Green Standards Week Rome, Italy

Session 8: September 8th 2011 Dr. Charles Despins




Green ICT in CanadaPrompt: • Industry-university R&D consortium headquartered in Montreal, Canada;• Mixed public & private sector funding;• 30 industry members and 12 university members;• Focus on various industry vertical markets (Green ICT since 2008).

Sources: Climate Check, WWF Canada

ICT in Canada: • Represents 1 megaton of GHG emissions

(<1%);• Application in various sectors could curb

GHG emissions by 20 megatons per year: - 3.2 M cars off the road

- 7% of Canada’s annual Kyoto obligations.• Estimated annual benefits: $7.5B-$12.9B.

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From energy efficiency to GHG emission reductions

Many Green ICT R&D initiatives focus on energy efficiency:• Cost driver e.g. for the data-intensive wireless industry;• A theme on which ICT researchers traditionally excel.

However, the link between energy efficiency and GHG emission reductions can be but is not always direct …

• ICTs operate 24/7 and produce “scope 2” GHG emissions• If power grid is based entirely on fossil fuels, the link between energy

consumption and GHG emissions is direct … BUT …• Power grids are often a mix of fossil-fuel (cheap) and clean energy

(more expensive) sources … utilities will leverage energy efficiency gains to limit the use of clean energy sources.

• In such cases, energy efficiency gains thus translate into zero gains in terms of GHG emission reduction … 3




Green ICT:maximizing economic & environmental benefits

1. Integrate ICT design with power generation considerations• Requires holistic approach involving different ICT subsectors, power

generation and sustainable development experts

2. Develop GHG emission standards for ICT• ISO14064 protocol is difficult to apply in the ICT sector• The ITU is a leader in developing such standards to quantify the GHG

emission reduction potential of ICTs.

3. Tap research funds targeted to GHG emission reductions• In many jurisdictions, these funds are managed by environment

departments who may not always sufficiently aware of the G-ICT opportunity

• The ICT research community has yet to significantly tap these sources of funds … 4




The carbon market: “cap & trade” perspectivesGHG emission limits are gradually being imposed throughout

the world in various industry sectors• The ICT sector is not one of these … so far …• Taxes on fossil fuels are often directed to GHG emission reduction funds

“Cap & trade” regimes are being proposed e.g. North America • Purchasing & trading of “carbon credits” if emission caps are exceeded• ICT GHG standards will allow the ICT industry to participate in this

“carbon economy”

Examples of “cap & trade” proposals and GHG registries• Western Climate Initiative (www.westernclimateinitiative.org):

7 USA states & 4 Canada provinces• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (www.rggi.org):

10 USA (northeast) states 5

http://www.westernclimateinitiative.org/

http://www.rggi.org/




Greenstar (GSN): a zero-carbon telecom network pilot project

CANARIE

GreenStar

http://www.greenstarnetwork.com

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http://www.greenstarnetwork.com/




Greenstar (GSN): a zero-carbon network pilot

GSN objectives and underlying principles:– GSN: an open architecture ICT service delivery network

– Leverage virtualization concepts so that user applications can be moved, in a seamless way for the user, to data centers in close proximity to renewable energy sources.

– Renewable energy use is also optimized within GSN: energy loss in transmitting power is higher than when data is moved over networks.

– Development of ICT GHG emission standards (ITU link).

– Utilize GSN to generate carbon credits in a perspective of selling such credits generated by relocation of service implementation within GSN.

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Greenstar partnersPartners (Canada):

Université du Québec à Montréal

SIGMACO

Canadian Standards Association (CSA), Climate Change Division

Spain Ireland USA Belgium China

Partners (international):

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http://promptinc.org/




Going forward …Extend virtualization concept to backbone and access

portions of networks: e.g.• Router and switching virtualization;• Wireless access virtualization:

Only 15% of energy consumed by a base station is radiated; Virtualize signal processing functions with radio-over-fiber

architectures; Build upon initial work in GENI (USA) and 4WARD (FP7-EU).

ICT is a (relatively unexploited) low-hanging fruit in terms of GHG emission reductions:

• Fossil fuel sources won’t vanish in the foreseeable future …• Climate change dilemma:

reconciling economic and environmental benefits often perceived as difficult to achieve.

• ICT opportunities: intelligent transport systems, domotics, industry processes, etc. 9




Any jurisdiction exploiting renewable sources of energy can be a hub for the 21st century, digital, low-carbon economy.

• Virtualizing ICT infrastructure and co-locating data centers with renewable energy sources:

Green benefit: energy efficiency (resulting from transmission of data instead of energy) and GHG emission reductions.

Digital benefit: economic incentive for (regional) network deployments.

Productivity benefit: economic incentive for investment in ICT products and services.




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For more information on Promptwww.promptinc.org

Dr. Charles DespinsPresident & CEO+1-514.875.0032 ext. [email protected]

Mr. Jacques Mc NeillGreen ICT Coordinator+1-514.875.0032 ext. [email protected]

For more information on Prompt:

For more on these G-ICT concepts:C. Despins et al., Leveraging Green Communications for Carbon Emission Reductions: Techniques, Testbeds and Emerging Carbon Footptint Standards, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 49, no. 8, August 2011, pp. 101-109.

A CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE ON GREEN ICT Network infrastructures to curb carbon emissions

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