Re: my 2 articles about green webhosting (Updates, Corrections, etc)

Here are two major pieces I wrote about green web hosting and data centers. I actually spent a lot of time researching this. I’ll repost it on this blog eventually, but for now I recommend that you read it on the Houston Chronicle website and leave your comments there. (don’t worry; I’ll read them).

• Part 1 talks about how to figure out the carbon footprint of your webhosting service.
• Part 2 talks about how data centers are trying to reduce their energy consumption and how the EPA is establishing a new Energy Star standard.

Thanks to Dwight Silverman at Techblog for running the article and to all the people who gave me good information and assistance. It’s funny; although I now know a lot about the subject, when I started, I knew next to nothing. Also, I fully expect to receive even more information and analysis after the article. (I now see some glaring typos – ouch!) The act of writing an article and reading the reactions can teach you a lot.

Here are some addendums and afterthoughts to the article. I’ll be adding more to the list over time.

1. Rocky Mountain Power changed their URLs before the article went live, so the graphic is no longer on their page. Here’s another graphic from Pacificorp website about their energy mix. It comes from their 2008 Integrated Resource Plan (PDF) on page 74.
2. As a general observation, let me say it is absolutely maddening to figure out the energy mix of electric utilities anywhere. The Texas Power to Choose site is head and shoulders above anything I’ve seen so far.
3. Some commenters have already argued that the green label is too expensive for Internet services and energy companies. I can’t speak for all cases, but the interesting point I found is that the prices of  green hosting plans are comparable to regular hosting plans. I also found that the cost of green energy in my zip code is comparable to a traditional energy mix.