The green web hosting options have expanded quite a bit in recent months. Which one should you choose? Well, right now it appears that the primary discriminator is the method by which they power their data centers. One group buys Renewable Energy Certificates; these insure that the power they use is generated in an eco-friendly manner. This is typically wind or solar, but it could also be biogas or geothermal as well. The second group actually generates their own power directly from renewable energy, usually wind and solor.

Recently, the Web hosting business had a dramatic change in it awareness of bringing green practices to the industry. Two years ago there were no hosting companies marketing themselves as Green Web Hosts. Today there are a handful that market themselves as green as well as hosting directories that have added green hosting as a featured category. Overall it will not have a large impact on the environment, but relatively, data centers are large consumers of power for the computer equipment and cooling systems needed.

Green web hosting is familiar to all, with a multitude of companies proudly taking on the description and promoting clean renewable methods of powering their data centers now a days. The fact is that many technology consumers are concerned about the human potential to degrade the environment and the sense that our hundreds of millions of cars and computers are not helping the planet. Rising temperatures may or may not be related to global warming, but the notion that humans, in general, have had a negative affect on the environment has begun to be absorbed by the web hosting industry.

Several hosting providers have set out to at least balance their part of what hosting does to negatively impact the environment. These hosts use alternative or renewable energy to power their data centers, plant trees for every server sold, and even telecommute to save gas. They are investing a lot of time, money, and other resources into helping the environment.

It's interesting to observe web hosts of all sizes are making a commitment to helping the environment. Some of these hosting companies are huge and others are small. Dell and other computer companies offer users money rebates to buy a tree to help offset the greenhouse gases used to power their machine.

IT data centers including hosting sites in the U.S. only consume an estimated (via the EPA) 1.5% of all electrical power used in the U.S. So while carbon credits are popular to talk about regarding data centers, the bigger issue is that of energy supply and demand on a reliable basis. Thus to support growth, the solution is not simply power down devices to avoid power consumption, rather, a multi-prong focus of 1) looking for and deploying more energy efficient technologies that can do more work (performance) and have more space or capacity with the same or less power and cooling requirements as well as implementing best practices including consolidation and data management.

Some Web hosts check the amount of harmful greenhouse-gas producing energy they use, and then purchase renewable energy credits which fund and support the production of renewable energy across the country. The amount of greenhouse gases which are produced by a Web host is offset by this process. In fact, what makes the vast majority of these Web hosts green is the purchase of renewable energy credits.

Green Web Hosting is responsible for lowering our carbon CO2 footprint and uses renewable energy. Trees are desperately needed in many countries to restore soil fertility, help in the battle against global warming and improve the lives of impoverished communities. Powering of a business through solar power or wind energy can be possible by purchasing green certificates (90% wind/10% solar), the electricity generated by these sources isn't routed directly into their various premises. For every kilowatt worth of green energy purchased, a kilowatt less is fed into the grid via non-renewable means. The solar/wind generated electricity they purchased simply goes into the grid, in their case. Still, the result is the same - carbon neutral web hosting.

You can usually choose which type of renewable energy you'd like - wind, biomass, landfill gas, or solar when you purchase green energy certificates. After your web site and associated online services are environmentally friendly, consider other aspects of your business - your offices and factories. The cost is the value over and above normal electricity rates. While it's a little more expensive it's worth the cost, not only in terms of benefit to the environment, but your clients will see you as a leader in resolving some of the most serious issues that face humanity today.

Recently, there have been a lot of environmental buzzwords floating around. It can be difficult to find a clear definition. I'll explain what the term "carbon neutral" means, and why it's important.

You might think that carbon neutral simply means that something does not release any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is true to an extent, however it is too simple a definition. It is possible to release CO2 into the atmosphere and still be carbon neutral, so long it is balanced by a CO2 reduction elsewhere.

Biofuels are carbon neutral, even though burning them releases CO2. How can this be? Well, the carbon in the biofuel comes from photosynthesis, where CO2 is captured from the atmosphere by a plant and turned into glucose. The glucose can then be turned into more complicated molecules such as sugars, starches, oils and proteins. Sugars and starches can easily be converted into bioethanol, while oils can be converted into biodiesel. Carbon is removed from the atmosphere, stored in plants for a few months, then released when the biofuel is burned. For every gram of CO2 released by burning a biofuel, there was a gram removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis just a few months ago. This perfect balance is why biofuels are carbon neutral.

Alternatively, the term carbon neutral can be used to describe energy that does not cause the release of any CO2 at all. For instance, solar cells, wind turbines and hydroelectric turbines generate electricity without releasing CO2. Nuclear power does not release CO2 during the generation process either.

There is a problem with this, however. Currently, virtually all forms of carbon neutral energy actually involve the burning of fossil fuels. The crops for biofuels are harvested using machinery that burns fossil diesel. This is because fossil fuels are a great deal cheaper than biofuels. Some ways of producing biofuels are controversial because so much fossil fuel has to be used in the production process. Some sources of bioethanol are in this grey area. Solar cells, wind and hydroelectric turbines are all produced and transported using fossil fuels to some extent. The technology exists to make these things truly carbon neutral, but it is hopelessly uneconomic at this time. Nuclear power involves the burning of fossil fuels in the mining and transport of uranium, the building of power stations, and the disposal of waste. When uranium becomes scarce, mining it will consume even more fossil fuels.

Sometimes companies plant trees to offset the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels. This is not truly carbon neutral. Fossil carbon is being released into the atmosphere, and locking it up in trees is a very short term measure. To be truly carbon neutral, the carbon would have to be locked up for millions of years. Trees only live for tens or hundreds of years, after which they decay or are burned, releasing the carbon back to the atmosphere. We have no way of knowing whether people in the future will be able to keep replanting trees to keep the carbon locked up.

Scientists are trying ways to lock up carbon on a long term basis. This is called sequestration, and most experiments involve pumping carbon compounds such as CO2 into old oil wells or coal mines. This would genuinely make fossil fuels carbon neutral, but it is questionable whether enough carbon could ever be stored to offset fossil fuel use.

In summary, moving to a genuinely carbon neutral society will take time. It may take government tax breaks to make biofuels and alternative energy economically viable. People can take steps towards being carbon neutral by using biofuels and alternative energy. Where it is impossible to avoid fossil fuels, people can focus on efficiency to reduce their fossil fuel use to a bare minimum, and switch to biofuels when they become available. This will move them closer to the ideal of having no net effect on the amount of carbon in the biosphere, in other words, to be carbon neutral.

One of the hot terms in the energy market right now is sustainable energy and although the term itself is quite simple, the concept itself is often misunderstood.

Sustainable energy has two key elements. The first being a renewable source of energy and the second being the efficient use of energy. Understanding how to apply these two principles is an important part of understanding how sustainable energy will contribute to our future energy mix.

First, let's consider renewable resources. The term is really quite self explanatory. The resources used in the production of the energy must be renewable in a relatively short period of time. Many people define the time frame as being within the average human lifetime. For this reason, resources such as wind power and solar power have become obvious choices. However, there are a variety of other renewable resources which can be an excellent source of energy in the right situation such as tidal power and geothermal power.

Although Uranium is not a renewable resource itself, many consider it a source of sustainable energy because of its availability in mass quantity and the relatively small amount of material to produce energy. The energy output of 1 kg. of Uranium is about the same as 1500 tonnes of coal. There are obvious social and political concerns about the use of nuclear energy. However, proper waste disposal measures can help to make nuclear energy an inexpensive and clean source of power.

The second element of sustainable energy is just as important as the first. Energy efficiency is defined as the use of energy in a way that produces little waste. Traditionally, improving efficiency is done by HOW energy is used. This process usually consists of implementing new devices which use less energy to produce the same amount of work or by using technologies such as power factor correction equipment (see XXXArticle). However, we must consider a third alternative. Load Shifting! Load shifting is the practice of changing WHEN we use our appliances and electrical devices.