亚马逊moves on renewables — after a push from Greenpeace

There’s a not-so-silver lining to all the cloud computing, streaming video and massive data file sharing that make our Internet-based lives so much easier — they consume huge amounts of electricity.

Electricity use by the data farms that power the services of Internet companies is rising 20 percent a year, according to Greenpeace.

“如果说互联网是一个国家，它的电力需求将目前排名第六，”绿色和平组织资深气候与能源项目大卫波默朗茨在博客中有关本集团的年度说“点击清洁“的报告。

因此，它是重要的是什么样的能源公司的数据农场使用，以尽量减少他们的碳足迹 -as Apple,Facebook and谷歌有来决定。

Greenpeace shed light on the carbon footprints of the largest Internet companies this week — and made it easier for the rest of us to do so by launching a "单击清除记分卡,"a Google Chrome browser extension which shows the energy mix used by the largest Internet companies. Apple was the top scorer with an A; Facebook also got an A and Google a high B.

亚马逊有一个D.

亚马逊

"A massive portion of the Internet would be on the road to becoming greener if Amazon moved to power with renewable energy," Greenpeace said, because of the huge dominance of its subsidiary Amazon Web Services in the cloud computing, web hosting market.

事实上，Synergy研究市场研究表明，对于许多网络公司亚马逊Web服务主机的数据，它的字面主机三分之一的互联网。

正如它被调出使用互联网巨头之间的能量的最肮脏的搭配，亚马逊网络服务公司本周宣布了一项协议，建立一个80兆瓦的太阳能发电厂电力公司东海岸的数据中心。它将投资1.5亿$朝着建设在弗吉尼亚州的太阳能发电场，其中大部分的数据中心存在的 - 并在现任实用的Dominion弗吉尼亚依靠其产生的所有，但2％的化石燃料。

It's a significant move to renewables because Virginia is home to 60 percent of Amazon Web Services data centers.

The deal is a power purchase agreement with Community Energy Inc., which will build and operate the solar farm and expects to start generating 170,000 megawatt hours of electricity by the fall of 2016.

这不是一个姗姗。就在一周前，19个Amazon Web服务包括的tumblr，来自HootSuite和赫芬顿邮报的影响力的客户公开要求公司揭示其“能源和碳足迹和对可再生能源的目标方面的进展，”在信delivered to the AWS senior vice president and released to the press.

After Greenpeace gave Amazon a F grade last year for its fossil fuel energy mix and lack of any significant moves towards use of renewable power, Amazon Web Services announced in the fall a commitment to transition in the long term to 100 percent renewable energy. No timetable was given.

在实用的Dominion弗吉尼亚州已经没有化石燃料发电表示计划转变了 - - 在弗吉尼亚州的数据中心的亚马逊的扩张让人怀疑，绿色和平组织和亚马逊的信写的客户表示，对亚马逊的承诺的透明度和诚意。

亚马逊刚刚命名its first sustainability executive — Kara Hurst去年8月 - The可持续发展联盟的前竞彩足球app怎么下载CEO。

In January, Amazon Web Services announced a wind power purchase agreement for its data center in Benton County, Indiana. A few months later, the company stated that it was 25 percent of the way to its goal of 100 percent renewables powered data centers and made a commitment to reach 40 percent of that goal by fall of next year. That happens to be when the Virginia solar farm is expected to become operational.

但绿色和平组织的波默朗茨有些在鸣叫淡化了弗吉尼亚州的太阳能农场的交易，“AWS”#solarPPA是一个好兆头;还很小接下来他们在VA需求，仍然在等待透明度bit.ly/1MIHymF#clickclean。" He estimated that at 80 megawatts, the solar farm will provide less than half of the energy Amazon’s Virginia data farms consume. Amazon, however, did not provide details on what percentage of its east coast data center power needs would be covered by the solar farm.

嘿弗吉尼亚

要了解亚马逊的弗吉尼亚数据中心的重要性，认为亚马逊网络服务，估计主机对全球互联网流量的30％ - 迄今为止最大的云计算主机市中心，使这里，according to Synergy Research- 这是弗吉尼亚州的东部一半的亚马逊的美国数据运营中心。事实上，公司在呼唤新的弗吉尼亚州的投资“亚马逊太阳能农场美东”。

据Gartner集团，亚马逊Web服务是目前在云基础设施服务行业的领导者，微软，谷歌，IBM，世纪链接，WMWARE遥远紧随其后。

亚马逊网络服务的客户包括美国政府（和许多其他国家的政府），Comcast公司，Netflix公司，道琼斯，沃达丰，时代公司，以及制造商，如多尔和诺华公司。在点击绿色记分卡，AWS客户的Netflix，Pinterest的，书签交易得到成绩不好，因为它依赖于亚马逊网络服务托管的云服务。

Part of why Amazon's investment in the 80-megawatt Virginia solar farm may redeem the company, however, is the bad rap of the Virginia utility, Dominion Energy, which Greenpeace calls "Ground Zero for the Dirty Internet."

“Virginia remains the epicenter of data center growth in the U.S. Loudoun County in Northern Virginia, boasts that up to 70 percent of global Internet traffic passes through its borders on a daily basis. That amount of data data traffic requires massive mounts of electricity, and most of it is generated by Dominion Resources, a utility that continues to rely almost exclusively on dirty sources of generation, and plans to well into the future," says its 2015 Clicking Green report.

“Dominion’s latest long-term plan that it submitted to regulators shows that it does not indent on making any significant increase in its investment in renewable energy over the next 15 years, and will continue to maintain a high reliance on coal.”

苹果，Facebook，谷歌赢得高分

在2015年的“点击清洁”报道，绿色和平组织盛赞苹果100％的可再生能源的它的“积极进取，追求”通过建设太阳能和风力发电设备的投资，以电力公司所有的数据中心。它得到的上品，很炫A，在单击清洁记分卡。

“点击清洁”称赞Facebook以寻求迫使其公用事业改用可再生能源，并为风电和太阳能电力购买协议投资。而谷歌，它说，“仍然是可再生能源的部署部门的领导者，采购，投资和政策宣传的一个强有力的组合。”

But it noted that Amazon Web Services, if it invested in renewables, could really make a difference in greening the Internet.

“没有一家公司可以做更多，使我们最喜爱的网站比Amazon Web Services的绿色。AWS的云计算主导者”，其2015年的报告说，并指出，在所研究的110个Web服务“单击清除”，35依靠亚马逊Web服务作为自己的数据服务器。但绿色和平组织批评弗吉尼亚操作获得自Dominion弗吉尼亚州，从煤炭和核能主要是其产生的电力电源，其能源来自可再生资源来的只有2％。

与主要客户的信一起 - - 的宣传和对亚马逊网络服务，近年来绿色和平组织批评社会媒体的关注摆也提供了一个显着性的微调，以该公司获得其承诺转向可再生能源，并投资于弗吉尼亚太阳能农场。

But investment analyst Megan Birney, director of strategic affairs for Wiser Capital, an investment firm that specializes in solar and sustainable energy, said it may not be the shaming that is driving Amazon to this investment in solar farms but rather sound economic advantage.

“即使有压力（来自客户和投资者）仍然需要有一个经济理由来让他们做出在可再生能源投资，”伯尼说，她认为这是减轻对未来的电力成本和风险用品

“我们开始看到一个转变，”大公司的可再生能源投资大笔资金的。“公司正在寻求有成本的确定性和寻求降低风险。我们认为，实际上是什么在推动这一点。”