Latest news with #Earth-warming
New Straits Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
NST Leader: Data centre surge
MALAYSIA, a small hydrocarbon producer by world standards, is eyeing the new oil of the 21st century: data centres. Glowing bromide hype on such centres match their power demand surge. On Monday, Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd (HLIB Research) said in a thematic note to Business Times that Malaysia is no longer a spillover market from Singapore and that it is a go-to destination for hyperscalers. Johor is partly the reason for the hype. From 10 megawatts (MW) of data centres in 2021, the state grew to 1.3 gigawatts last year, according to media reports. Not so fast, we must say. They are not just guzzlers of water and energy, but gobblers of land, too. Sure, there is ample land, as HLIB Research reckons, but only for now. Even cost competitiveness is under threat with the recent Tenaga Nasional Bhd tariff hike. A Reuters report on July 1 quoted industry and government officials as saying that the new tariff hike would add 10 to 14 per cent to the electricity costs of data centres. According to Gary Goh of Sprint DC Consulting, a data centre advisory firm that the news agency quotes, for a 100 MW facility, that works out to be an additional US$15 to US$20 million per year, not including fuel surcharge. Fuel surcharge is announced by the government every month based on fuel prices and foreign exchange. Goh also said many in the industry were caught unprepared for the scale of increase and that some investors were already on the wait-and-see mode. Be that as it may, Reuters, pointing to a joint report issued in May by Bain & Co, Google and Singapore's state-owned Temasek, said Malaysia is set for the region's fastest surge in data centre power demand, tripling to 21 per cent by 2027 from seven per cent in 2022. Malaysia, committed as it is to tame climate change, is slowly but surely phasing out black gold due to its Earth-warming effect. But data centres aren't exactly problem-free. Think guzzlers and gobblers. According to one estimate, a 100 MW data centre consumes electricity equivalent to what 45,000 households use. A data centre with similar capacity is said to use water equivalent to a 10,000-person city in the calculation of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an American entity. Malaysia may have enough energy and water for now, but what about in the years to come? Many will argue that the data centres are paying a premium for access to energy and water, but both are drawn from the same sources. As more and more data centres come chasing cheap land and energy, electricity infrastructure and rivers will be stressed beyond their capacity. This is precisely why Singapore imposed a moratorium on data centres between 2019 and 2022. On Jan 5, then natural resources and environmental sustainability minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad admitted in an interview with the Financial Times that data centres had put "a lot of pressure" on Malaysia's energy and water resources. For sure, data centres, especially the hyperscalers, bring in billions of investment dollars, but they come attached with a heavy price tag. Can we afford it? Only if the benefits outweigh the costs.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Airport that serves private jets hit with major backlash over future plans: 'The lowest of the low and the worst of the worst'
Protesters gathered last month outside the Farnborough Airport in Hampshire, England, to speak out against the expansion of this facility, which serves only private planes, the Alton Herald reported. A decision is expected this summer regarding the expansion, which aims to almost double the airport's capacity to 70,000 planes a year by 2040. On April 13, groups including Extinction Rebellion, Alton Climate Action Network, Farnborough Noise Group, and the Friends of the Earth rallied outside the airport with signs bearing messages like "It's plane stoopid." "This will also mean more night flights and holding stacks at 3,000 feet over places like Petersfield and Farnham," said campaigner Colin Shearn, per the Alton Herald. "The impact of these decisions will be felt by future generations in terms of pollution and climate change but more immediately in house prices and noise disturbance." Airports are a difficult enough neighbor as it is, given how they disrupt peace and compromise the air quality around them. When they serve private planes — which produce all that noise and toxic, Earth-warming pollution — for just a handful of people, it adds insult to injury. "Quite frankly, we're opposing that they're here at all," said an Alton protester in a video shot by XR, per the Alton Herald. "We've had the OK from the government to expand Heathrow, Gatwick, and Luton, which is insanity considering the ecological and climate crisis we're facing. "But to expand this airport, which is for private jets, for me is the lowest of the low and the worst of the worst. These are people flying away for the weekend to go skiing." They're not wrong about the outsized impact of private planes. A recent study found that just 250,000 people accounted for private flights worldwide — and that in a year, their travel produced more air pollution than Tanzania, a country of 67 million people. Not only that, but the use of private jets is increasing rapidly, often without any passengers aboard at all. Wasteful air travel like that needs to end if we want to protect both our communities and our planet from the impact of air pollution. Do you worry about air pollution in and around your home? Yes — always Yes — often Yes — sometimes No — never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Data shows surprising shift at power plants across the US — here's what's happening
As of March, American power plants had released over 300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — the most over a two-month period since 2019. Reuters chalked up this surge to rising natural gas prices and, consequently, increased dependence on coal for power generation. The energy derived from burning dirty fuels — coal, oil, and natural gas — releases carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to the changing climate by trapping heat within our atmosphere. Of the three, the Energy Information Administration considers natural gas the cleanest, though even gas-burning still makes up about 35% of the carbon pollution from power plants. Typically, power plants split their energy sources between coal and natural gas. The recent surge in carbon emissions can be attributed to a nationwide shift toward coal over gas as a result of rising gas prices. The MIT Climate Portal indicates that coal's higher carbon content makes the coal-burning process more emission-heavy than burning oil or natural gas. "Higher coal use and lower gas generation indicates that power producers would rather raise emissions than incur a financial hit from higher gas costs," Reuters stated. The United States is no stranger to rising global temperatures. Since 1979, the Environmental Protection Agency has recorded an increase of 0.3-0.5 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, and 2024 proved to be the warmest year worldwide. Especially once the demand for air conditioning kicks in, per Reuters, we can expect another spike in carbon pollution if power plants continue to rely on coal-burning for electricity. The increase in Earth-warming gases from the burning of coal, gas, and oil has had catastrophic effects, from exacerbating extreme weather events to putting the global food supply at risk. If carbon dioxide continues to clog up our atmosphere, we can expect further rises in food and insurance costs in addition to the continued loss of natural biodiversity. The EPA in 2024 implemented new regulations for power plants that could decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 68 to 390 million metric tons by 2040, according to a report by Resources for the Future. The regulations may compel power plants to switch to more eco-conscious means of electricity production but may also lead to rising electricity prices. Individuals can collectively help fight the climbing cost of electricity by reducing demand. In lieu of expensive energy plans, you can opt for solar panels and use efficient appliances such as a heat pump to keep your bills and usage low. Do you think the federal government should give us tax breaks to improve our homes? Definitely Only for certain upgrades Let each state decide instead No way Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
California EV Drivers Might Lose HOV Lane Access In September
As newly minted Tesla owner/spokesperson and President of the United States Donald Trump looks to cancel legislation intended to preserve the environment, it seems like California's HOV lane exemption for electric and plug-in vehicles is next on the chopping block. We covered just about everything there is to know about HOV lanes earlier this month, but as it pertains to this topic, one function of HOV lanes is that they encourage road goers to carpool to decrease the number of tailpipes that belch out Earth-warming emissions. California currently allows owners of Clean Air Vehicles to apply for special decals that allow drivers to use the HOV lane regardless of vehicle occupancy, thanks to their decreased or eliminated emissions. The state issued 194,486 Clean Air Vehicle exemptions in 2024, a 52-percent increase in the number issued in 2023, but the current program is set to expire on September 30, and prospects of an extension look grim. The 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century allowed states to issue these permits, and California instituted its program the following year in 1999. Qualifications for these decals have become stricter over the years. Originally any sort of hybrid qualified — you'll still see second-gen Priuses driving around with their original stickers in California — but currently, qualifying vehicles must be fully electric, hydrogen-fuel cell, a plug-in hybrid that meets certain conditions (mainly EV range) or compressed natural gas vehicles that meet certain conditions. Automotive News reports, In 2024, the state's Department of Motor Vehicles issued 194,486 stickers allowing cars to use the HOV lane with single occupancy through the Clean Air Vehicle decal program. That's a 52 percent increase from 2023's 128,122 decals. The popularity of the program paradoxically undermines its efficiency. As more vehicles are able to use the HOV lane, it becomes more crowded, eroding the incentive for both clean-air vehicle drivers and those making a concerted effort to carpool. "You're going to reach some point where you've exhausted that excess capacity," said John Swanton, an air pollution specialist with the California Air Resource Board's communications office. "We're not at the point where, no matter what we do, it's totally exhausted, but the challenge to our legislature is how to keep this a meaningful incentive." Read more: Honda Prologue Costs Less, Gets More Range Than Chevy Blazer EV Sibling Swanton told Automotive News that the impact of discontinuing the program "is not going to be a deal-breaker," since the number of people buying qualifying vehicles to take advantage of the carpool incentive is small nowadays. On the flip side, California Republican State Assemblymember Greg Wallis said it's a "key incentive" for many Californian car shoppers. Wallis authored a bill that would extend the state's Clean Air Vehicle decal initiative through Jan. 1, 2027, but it is currently pending extended federal authorization. That federal authorization is likely going to be very challenging for Republican Assemblymember Wallis' bill. The Republican-led Congress has introduced a bill to eliminate the individual $7,500 EV tax credit, and both Trump and his pick to run the EPA Lee Zeldin have been quite vocal about their intentions to gut environmental protections, so hope for the revival of the decal initiative is waning. According to the California Energy Commission, California had over 1.6 million EVs on its roads at the end of 2024, not including plug-in-hybrid or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The impact of losing the Clean Air Vehicle initiative could have been more devastating to widespread EV adoption in years past, but hopefully the impact is minimal should Wallis' proposed program extension get shot down. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
