Arthur Max Associated Press Google News 2 Sep 10;
AMSTERDAM — Greenpeace said about 500,000 Facebook users have urged the world's largest online social network to abandon plans to buy electricity from a coal-based energy company for its new data center in the U.S.
Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo sent a letter Wednesday to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warning that the company risked its reputation and financial health if it ignored the environmental impacts of its actions.
"Facebook is really out of step with the trend" among information technology companies, Naidoo told The Associated Press by phone.
But Facebook says it is committed to environmental responsibility and that the data center in the state of Oregon is "one of the most efficient in the world."
The Amsterdam-based environmental group started a Facebook campaign in February after the company announced plans to build the center in Oregon.
Last week, Greenpeace-sponsored groups urging Facebook to use 100 percent renewable energy passed a collective 500,000 members — a small fraction of Facebook's more than 500 million users worldwide.
Naidoo said Facebook "had a choice" as to where to locate the data center and made an "active choice to lean in the direction of dirty coal."
But Facebook says Greenpeace is offering a simplistic explanation of how energy grids work, and the company choose the location of its data center because it could be energy efficient. To say the Facebook "chose coal" is inaccurate, said spokesman Barry Schnitt.
The high desert climate of Prineville, Ore., is dry and cools down at night, which Schnitt said has allowed Facebook's data center to operate without energy-hungry "chillers," used to cool the buildings so that the servers inside don't overheat.
Naidoo said his organization singled out Facebook because of its reach across the globe, especially among the young. Information-technology companies, including titans such as Microsoft, contribute an estimated 2 percent of human-made carbon emissions, about the same as the aviation industry. But the IT sector is growing fast. Greenpeace cite studies saying the industry has the capability to reduce its emissions 15 percent by 2020.
Greenpeace says the utility PacifiCorp, which powers the data center, uses 83 percent coal in its energy mix. But PacifiCorp spokesman Tom Gauntt said this number is actually 58 percent. The rest is natural gas at about 20 percent and hydro and renewable energy at about 10 percent each.
Burning coal for power is one of the largest sources of carbon accumulating in the atmosphere.
Facebook faces campaign to switch to renewable energy
Social networking site under fire over intention to run giant new data centre mainly on coal-powered electricity
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 1 Sep 10;
Social networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web's fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace international says at least 500,000 people have now protested at the organisation's intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity produced by burning coal power.
Facebook will not say how much electricity it uses to stream video, store information and connect its 500m users but industry estimates suggest that at their present rate of growth all the data centres and telecommunication networks in the world will consume about 1,963bn kilowatt hours of electricity by 2020. That is more than triple their current consumption and more electricity than is used by France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined.
Facebook announced in February that it planned to build what is expected to be the world's largest centralised data storage centres in Portland, Oregon. Although it will include some of the world's most energy-efficient computers, the sheer scale of the Facebook operation will almost certainly use more electricity than many developing countries.
The company has said it will source its electricity from Pacific Power. It uses coal power – the dirtiest form of power generation – for 67% of its electricity, and produces less than 12% of its electricity from renewable sources. The company has said it plans to generate more electricity from renewables in future but has given no detailed information.
In a statement Facebook said: "It is true that the local utility for the region we chose, Pacific Power, has an energy mix that is weighted slightly more toward coal than the national average. However, the efficiency we are able to achieve because of the climate of the region and the reduced energy usage that results minimises our overall carbon footprint.
"Said differently, if we located the data centre most other places, we would need mechanical chillers, use more energy, and be responsible for more overall carbon in the air – even if that location was fuelled by more renewable energy."
Kumi Naidoo, director of Greenpeace International, urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to commit his company to a plan to phase out the use of dirty coal-fired electricity. In a letter to Facebook, Naidoo said: "Facebook is uniquely positioned to be a truly visible and influential leader to drive the deployment of clean energy."
Earlier this year Greenpeace admitted that many of its own web hosting operations are also housed in data centres powered primarily by coal and nuclear power. The environmental group said it offset all the energy used to power its main website in Amsterdam and used renewable energy where it could. Many of its servers in Washington also used wind power.
