The A to Z of green IT

Energy sources

When it comes to alternative energy sources there are plenty around, from wind to solar to wave, with most companies and vendors realising they need to change their fossil fuel burning ways.

Green IT from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more...

A is for Abroad
B is for Blades
C is for Carbon footprint
D is for Data centres
E is for Energy sources
F is for Freecycle
G is for Government
H is for Homeworking
I is for Ice caps
J is for Jobs (Steve)
K is for Kilowatts
L is for Landfill
M is for Mercury
N is for Nanogeneration
O is for Offsetting
P is for Paperless office
Q is for Queen
R is for Recycling
S is for SmartPlanet.com
T is for Travel
U is for Upgrade
V is for Virtualisation
W is for WEEE
X is for Xmas
Y is for You
Z is for Zero emissions

Some companies are embracing alternative energy sources, for example using renewable energy from hydro electric power. And a Cisco executive recently recommended Scotland as a good option for data centres because it has an abundance of water- and wind-power generation facilities, according to the networking giant.

Of course, it helps if you have some scale to your power needs. BT recently revealed it's planning to develop wind farms to generate up to 25 per cent of its existing UK electricity needs by 2016. Its wind farms could generate a total of 250MW of electricity, which would prevent the release of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 each year compared with coal generation, it calculates.

Scientists are still coming up with novel ways to power gadgets too, from poo power to solar bikinis, with researchers around the globe busy trying to find alternative ways to create energy. To see photos of the six unusual power sources click here.

And scientists are also coming up with alternatives to batteries as the classic lithium-ion power provider could soon be outflanked by other battery types.

One alternative to lithium-ion batteries is fuel cells, which are being tested in a variety of applications - from cars to laptops to data centres.

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices which convert chemical energy to electrical and thermal energy - with the added eco-bonuses of not using fossil fuels or producing any harmful emissions.

The mobile computing industry is particularly interested in fuel cells for their long battery life of up to eight hours on a single 'fill'.