Datacenters in Hong Kong can never become greener -- because
Hong Kong's government is lukewarm to the use of renewable
energy." "Despite an 18% growth in local datacenter floor space
from 2010 to 2011, the government has no metrics for assessing
the environmental impact of energy used to power datacenters,"
said Yau Yeung, Greenpeace's Clean Our Cloud campaigner in Hong
Kong. "The problem will get worse because datacenters and cloud
providers have no choice but to use 'dirty' energy produced by
coal, gas, and nuclear power in Hong Kong." The current local
grid-power mix is 54% coal, 23% nuclear energy, and 23% natural
gas, according to a recent Greenpeace report: "How Clean is your
Cloud" -- the report adds that electricity generation accounts
for 67% of local greenhouse gas emissions. The local government
proposes a token increase in the use of renewable energy by
2020: from currently less than 1% to 1-2%, said Yeung. "That
means tech firms like Google -- which receives high marks for
being more transparent