![]() ![]() To start with, the Internet already uses three times more energy than all wind and solar power sources worldwide can provide. However, running data centers on renewable power sources is not enough to address the growing energy use of the Internet. For example, Greenpeace’s yearly ClickClean report ranks major Internet companies based on their use of renewable power sources. In order to offset the negative consequences associated with high energy consumption, renewable energy has been proposed as a means to lower emissions from powering data centers. According to the latest estimates, the entire network already consumes 10% of global electricity production, with data traffic doubling roughly every two years. Contrary to this projection, it has become a large and rapidly growing consumer of energy itself. We were told that the Internet would “dematerialise” society and decrease energy use. The solar powered website in the media Why a low-tech website? This means that the website will go off-line during longer periods of cloudy weather. Typical for off-the-grid renewable power systems, energy storage is limited. It needs 1 to 2.5 watts of power, which is supplied by a small, off-grid solar PV system on the balcony of the author’s home. In addition, the low resource requirements and open design help to keep the blog accessible for visitors with older computers and/or less reliable Internet connections.īecause it uses so little energy, this website can be run on a mini-computer with the processing power of a mobile phone. We further apply default typefaces, dithered images, off-line reading options, and other tricks to lower energy use far below that of the average website. To reduce energy use, we opted for a back to basics web design, using a static site instead of a database driven content management system. Because a web redesign was long overdue - and because we try to practice what we preach - we decided to build a low-tech website that meets our needs and abides by our principles. ![]() Low-tech Magazine questions the belief in technological progress, and highlights the potential of past knowledge and technologies for designing a sustainable society. The solar powered server that runs this website. ![]()
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