Moving forward with its strategy for a Smarter Planet, IBM is helping cities and utilities become smarter by providing new technologies and tools to help them better manage their resources, while reducing cost, increasing reliability and lowering energy and water consumption.
A new report from the IBM Institute for Business Value, “A Vision of Smarter Cities,” [...]
Posts Tagged ‘IBM’
IBM Makes Cities and Utilities Smarter with New Technologies
Monday, September 21st, 2009When I Grow Up I Wanna Be A . . . Green Data Center Manager?
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
It’s not really the stuff of your childhood dreams — fireman, President, doctor. But IBM, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Neb., plans to offer a 2-year associate degree for a “first-of-its-kind” green data center management program. IBM’s providing the servers, software and online training tools, and the partners also plan to offer a version of the program online to other colleges.
So what fun classes do aspiring green data center gurus get to take? Try topics like “Hardware, Disaster Recovery, & Troubleshooting,” “Virtualization, Remote Access, & Monitoring,” and “Data Center Racks & Cabling.” Ouch, and you thought Econ 1A was bad. Try studying up on “fault-tolerant, redundant configurations for a company’s Disaster Recovery (DRP),” while nursing a hangover.
Kidding aside, it’s an interesting program in that it shows how important the idea of making data centers more energy-efficient is becoming for the IT industry. As Clint Wheelock pointed out in a report on GigaOM Pro (subscription required) this morning, the energy consumed by information and communication technologies (Internet, computing, mobile phones) accounts for 2 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but these sectors have the ability to produce a potential 15 percent reduction in overall world greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. And it’s execs coming out of degree programs like this that will lead the way.
Why IBM’s Betting on Lithium Air Batteries: Nanotech and Supercomputers
Monday, August 31st, 2009Usually when IBM catches our eye with a cleantech play these days, it’s related to the smart grid: Big Blue has developed a variety of software to give utilities more intelligence on the power grid, and the computing giant’s Energy & Utilities chief, Guido Bartels, ranks among our top 15 smart grid influencers.
But in June IBM launched an ambitious battery project with several partners (including national labs), with a goal to commercialize an experimental battery technology — lithium metal-air — and to achieve at least 10 times the energy density of today’s batteries. And this week, the company is hosting a gathering of some of the world’s top battery researchers, auto companies and others involved with batteries for electric cars, to talk about moving beyond lithium-ion, the battery technology of choice for mass market electric cars now in the pipeline at companies including Nissan, General Motors and Tesla Motors.
So what’s IBM doing with lithium air — a risky technology that uses “highly flammable lithium metal to react with oxygen in the air,” as Technology Review explained recently. According to Winfried Wilcke, Senior Manager of Nanoscale Science & Technology, and Program Director of Silicon Valley Projects for IBM’s Almaden Research Center, the project plugs into IBM’s expertise in two main areas: nanotechnology and supercomputers.
Lithium-air batteries will require “really sophisticated nanostructures” in order to keep water out and let oxygen in, says Wilcke. IBM has been working on its nanotech research for years, particularly in micro electronic mechanical systems. One of the keys to cracking the lithium-air battery code could also be supercomputers said Wilcke (they’ll be used to model potential catalysts) — also one of IBM’s specialties.
Even with IBM’s work, the battery technology is still a long shot. According to Dalhousie University’s Jeff Dahn, who spoke today at Almaden, “rechargeable lithium air…will be very very challenging. I wouldn’t bet the farm on this, but it has to be explored.”
IBM now has a team of 6-10 people working on the project, and it’s growing. Wicke said he expects the basic science questions to be answered within three years, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars (for all the partners combined — IBM’s own financial contribution remains “in flux”).
Why lithium air? “It’s the only system that has a chance to be as good as gasoline” and make a significant dent in transportation fuel, according to Wilcke. But it’s far from proven, and “lithium ion is not going to go away anytime soon,” he said. “There could be big boulders and pebbles flying in our face, but we see a path.”
How will real-time change the enterprise? Find out at NewNet, GigaOM Pro’s newest research topic area.
