Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The 21st century is the 'information age' in which people around the globe are linked through information networks that allow them to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time. This increased and open communication has the potential to significantly improve industrial productivity as well as the quality of life for broad segments of society. The amount of energy needed to power and maintain the information infrastructure, however, is considerable. For example, information systems (data centres, telecommunication networks, personal computers) in North America alone consume over 350 trillion BTU of energy every year; this translates into 3-5% of all electricity produced. This amount of electricity produces about 120 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year. Energy consumption related to information technology (IT) is expected to continue to grow further, exponentially, without any end in sight as society becomes ever more dependent on the use of computers, office equipment, telecommunications technologies, and consumer electronics. There has been, however, very little discussion of the economic and environmental consequences, even though they will be extremely dire if the growth in IT infrastructure sector energy consumption is allowed to continue unabated. The proposed research seeks to significantly reduce IT-related energy consumption while increasing energy generation capability of wind- and solar-based, cleaner, environmentally-friendly, green technologies. Innovative, state-of-the-art research to address all relevant issues related to energy generation, distribution, and consumption will be performed in order to develop new power electronic technologies tailored to data centres.