At the time, the Green Grid barely was getting off the ground. It's now an influential organization with more than 175 members dedicated to greening their infrastructure practices. The EPEAT green technology rating system was just in its infancy, starting with monitors, desktops and client devices. Now, it has moved into other areas, including imaging peripherals, and most government agencies use it to guide their procurement decisions.

Energy efficiency and clean energy sources are, of course, one of the biggest concerns for cloud services providers: Google has made it a rallying cry, so far investing almost $1 billion in various renewable energy technologies. Apple will use solar-generated electricity to power its North Carolina data center, while eBay considers smart electricity sourcing decisions core to its overall business model.

So, as much as you love visiting this pulpit to read about why LED lighting is one of the quickest ways to improve energy efficiency or how businesses are using on-site renewable energy installations to reduce their grid dependence, you'll now find those issues covered in ZDNet's core columns and news sections.

After all, green has really become mainstream, which is why our coverage is heading that way, too.  

The good news for me is that I'll be continuing my coverage of corporate sustainability efforts through technology and other green business measures over at GreenBiz.com, where I'm now a Senior Writer. And many of these issues are explored every day at our sister site, SmartPlanet, which has a core mission to explore how innovation is transforming the world around us.

I'm sticking around the ZDNet network with the Small Business Matters blog, focused on technology for small and midsize businesses (as opposed to the traditional enterprise buyers that ZDNet has served for many years).

I'm also starting a brand-new here column on March 1, Next-Gen Partner, which is dedicated to coverage of services and integration companies that specialize in deploying public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure. This crowd includes both legacy integration and IT services companies, such as Dimension Data or CDW, as well as a whole new brand of consulting partner, characterized by the likes of Cloud Sherpas.

Thanks for reading. If you want to pitch green technology stories to me personally, you can send a note to me via my Google+ profile.

How much power is that? According to one estimate, it's about 30 billion watts, which represents the output of 30 nuclear power plants. Or, to put it another way, it's an annual utility bill of about $8.5 billion.

Realistically, it's the prospect of mushrooming power bills that have most companies with big datacenter operations scrambling to introduce energy efficiency measures or to supplement their operations with on-site renewable energy installations.

Akamai, the big content delivery service provider, is also researching another alternative: using batteries to help reduce the amount of power that datacenters draw.

The approach being researched by Akamai fellow and University of Massachusetts professor Ramesh Sitaraman, proposes using smart batteries within internet-scale distributed networks. The batteries would automatically begin supplying power when server loads hit specified peak levels, helping reduce the need for grid-connected power during those periods, when power usually costs more. They are recharged or replenished during the night, when server loads are usually at their lowest and electricity rates are usually more cost-effective.

"Anything that reduces the peak power consumption also reduces the impact on the environment and what you need to build out a datacenter," said Sitaraman.

The batteries could be built into the servers themselves or within the rack. The research currently focuses on lead-acid technology, but it could also be applied to lithium-ion models as well, according to Sitaraman.

"We show that batteries can provide up to 14 percent power savings, that would increase to 22 percent for more power-proportional next-generation servers, and would increase even more to 35.3 percent for perfectly power-proportional servers," wrote Sitaraman in the research paper discussing his findings. "Likewise, the cost savings, inclusive of the additional battery costs, range from 13.26 percent to 33.8 percent, as servers become more power-proportional. Further, much of these savings can be achieved with a small cycle rate of one full discharge/charge cycle every three days that is conducive to satisfactory battery lifetimes."

Mind you, this is theoretical right now, but it represents another way that companies might consider reducing both peak demand, as well as the amount of power they need to source for their datacenters.

Giant property management company Simon Property Group has been experimenting with electric vehicle charging infrastructure for some time now, but its new installation in Carmel, Indiana, marks a departure into unknown territory for several reasons.

Not only does the fast-charging system rely on 10 kilowatts (10 kW) of solar generating capacity, it also comes with an integrated, 75-kW battery from Toshiba to store that power when it is cloudy or for when the system is used during evening hours.  The first-of-its-kind installation includes both a traditional charger as well as a "quick charge" option, so that electric vehicle batteries can be replenished more quickly.

Currently, there isn't a charge for electric vehicle drives to use the system while they are parked at the mall. 

A number of companies were involved in pulling off the installation, including Toshiba, Duke Energy, ITOCHU Corp., Tom Wood Automotive Group and Indiana's cleantech program, called Energy Systems Network.

The company manages 337 retail real estate locations that account for 245 million square feet of space in North America and Asia. At latest count, Simon Property had installed almost 100 chargers - almost double the 55 chargers it had installed this time last year.

That's why the Department of Energy is rallying 13 big U.S. businesses to get involved with its Workplace Charging Challenge, an initiative that aims to increase the number of U.S. employers that support electric vehicle charging by tenfold over the next five years.

Their pledge involves coming up with a plan to install charging stations in at least one major work locations.

Google, Tesla, Siemens, Verizon and GE are among the high-tech companies that are participating. The other backers are Ford, Nissan, 3M, Chrysler, Duke Energy, Eli Lilly and Company, General Motors and San Diego Gas & Electric.  

Google already boasts a massive electric vehicle initiative and hosts 300 charging stations, more than any other U.S. company. Watch the video below to find out more about its strategy: 

This week, the developer published a progress report on the Microsoft Green Blog in the form of an interview with TJ DiCaprio, a senior director of environmental sustainability for the company and the person who dreamed up the strategy in the first place.

So what has happened so far?

For one thing, Microsoft's business groups have to account for the carbon fee in their long-term operating cost estimates and scenarios. So an investment in a cloud service line, for example, would need to consider the energy consumption of the servers behind it. In other words, the right conversations are happening for the company to be thinking more sustainably.

"Our governance council provides the flexibility to allow the carbon price to grow over time to meet investment goals," DiCaprio told the Microsoft Green Blog. "The carbon price will likely increase over time as we expect the price of carbon offset projects to also increase over time. In this first year, the carbon price has proven effective at facilitating the right conversations and initiating net new carbon reduction projects across the company."

The fees that are collected are reinvested in energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon offset projects. The first money, collected in October 2012 for Microsoft's first quarter, went to support wind, hydro and biomass projects.

Microsoft also is creating energy-efficiency "grants" that will support proposed initiatives such as metering installations, lighting retrofits, energy management programs and travel reductions. 

This wasn't part of the original plan, but the concept was added after conversations across the company over the past six months.

"By engaging in brainstorming and listening to feedback, we heard loud and clear from stakeholders across the company that investments that directly support business group efforts would be much more effective than simply a punitive model," DiCaprio said.

You can think of Building, Industry, Transportation, Electricity and Transportation Scenarios (aka BITES) as a what-if sort of application.

It allows researchers, educators and operations managers to adjust their assumptions to account for things like the variable price of energy generation or transportation fuel use, which will give them an idea of how carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) or utility bills might be affected. So, a facilities manager could study how certain policies or new equipment might change the emissions at a particular site or consider the impact of product design choices.

"For instance, someone could calculate how much energy could be saved by making homes and businesses more efficient," said Austin Brown, an NREL analyst, in a press release about the BITES site. "They could also look at how much petroleum could be saved by making cars, trucks and planes more efficient. And then, users can put it all together and look at the combined impact of these situations."

You can choose to do this in private, or you can submit information to the BITES community for public discussion or feedback.

That works out to about $100,000 in annual energy costs.

The deployment is part of a broader efficiency initiative being undertaken by the company, one that focuses on rationalizing its software application licenses. The NightWatchman application automatically powers down client systems that are not in use, by integrating with the Microsoft System Center 2007 Configuration Manager. The company sets parameters for when this happens.

Here's what one of the company's IT managers, Danie Smit, had to say about why Sasol choose to install the software:

Power management is one of those unsung, simple IT management measures that can save money relatively quickly behind the scenes. Data from Pike Research suggests that businesses could save upwards of $18.6 billion by taking steps to shut down personal computers or servers when they are not in use.

So it isn't surprising that Silver Spring Networks, a well-known player in the smart grid networking space, is teaming up with Streetlight.Vision to create a smart city solution for that purpose.

The offering is targeted at city planners who are in charge of optimizing lighting networks, but it is also applicable for traffic light control, managing parking meters and monitoring environmental sensors, according to the two companies. That's a big deal, because smart public lighting networks can help reduce energy consumption for streetlights by up to 40 percent.

"This solution is the only technically effective answer we have seen to delivering the monitoring and control so critical to efficiently managing public lighting," said Ken Grant, managing director at Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E), which is one of the early adopters of the solution. "We look forward to working with Silver Spring and Streetlight.Vision to test this solution that could improve quality and reduce costs for our customers."

Silver Spring's smart grid technology is being used by more than 13 million homes and businesses globally.

Here's some of my past coverage of the company:

Silver Spring signs up another smart grid client
Smart grid tech player Silver Spring receives a cool $75M
Silver Spring Networks boasts smart grid network in action

One of the items that really struck me as I was reading was the serious investment that Houston has made in mobile solar technology since it was hit by Hurricane Ike - 17 units in all. Similar short-term efforts to deploy mobile solar cropped up in New Jersey and New York after Superstorm Sandy ripped through the region and left people without power for days, if not weeks. 

As you have read or know firsthand, the resulting surge in gasoline generators usage (coupled with damage to local refineries) caused a regional shortage at the pump - one that makes a really good case for more focus on microgrids, energy storage and mobile power options that fueled by renewable energy sources.

So, which companies specialize in this sort of technology? And what are the typical applications?

One example is developer Solamor, which uses technology from Outback Power and from SolarWorld to develop mobile power generation units for both big outdoor events (such as Maker Faire) and disaster recovery situations. Their equipment was also used by protesters at the height of the Occupy Movement.

Company's founders Tatianna Pavich and Peter Clark said what inspired their business was interest from event planners in power generation solutions that are

far cleaner than the alternative. You can debate whether or not any massive event really can be "green," but you have to give credit to festival planners and event management companies for trying to reduce their impact, and to Solamor for seeing this business opportunity.

In any case, Solamor has developed several different mobile generators using a range of renewable energy sources including wind, solar and biodiesel - such as a hybrid light tower than uses all three of these fuel types and outputs 12 kilowatts of power. Another unit, called WhisperWind (pictured below), adds two wind turbines.

Solamor rents the equipment for events, and the installations can be managed via a Web-based interface.

Although the electricity needs depend on the size and sort of event being covered and the equipment that needs to be operated, 17 to 20 generator grids are sufficient for those with audiences up to 15,000.

Mainly, the Oregon-based company is working near its home geography, but as the need for temporary power solutions grows, it is easy to see how it could expand relatively quickly into other regions.

"There aren't a lot of people doing what we're doing," Pavich said.

So far there are 36 copiers, multifunction devices, and printers listed in the database--which looks at products along 33 strict metrics such as how they are designed, the components used in them, energy consumption, and how easily they can be recycled or refurbished. Digital duplicators, fax machines, mailing machines, and scanners are also covered, but there aren't any certified products yet.

The first four vendors have products listed in the imaging category are Canon, Ricoh, Xerox, and Dell.

In fact, Canon has earned a Gold rating (the highest possible) for all eight models of its ImageRunner Advance C5200 and ImageRunner Advance 4000 Series multifunction devices. Its commitment to earning the certification falls under the company's "Kyosei" philosophy of living and working together for the common good.

"Canon handles research and development with two simultaneous objectives in mind: Maximizing each products performance, while minimizing its environmental impact," said Seymour Liebman, executive vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel for Canon US, in a statement. "We are extremely proud to be among the first companies in the digital-imaging category to secure EPEAT registration and look forward to expanding on our great heritage of developing products that can help our customers achieve their own environmental goals."

It also tops the list that ranks the Top 20 companies that have made an all-in commitment to clean energy.

Between its on-site generation projects, the renewable energy credits (RECs) it buys through Sterling Planet and clean energy it sources from utility company PNM, Intel is driving 3.1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWhs) in green power consumption on an annual basis (or 100 percent of its power needs).

For contest, the Top 50 companies on the EPA's list purchase about 17 billion kWhs combined, about 70 percent of the clean power commitments made through its Green Power Partners program.

The EPA considers green power to be electricity created by solar, biogas, biomass, small-hydro or wind technologies.

The other technology companies on the Top 50 list with Intel are Microsoft (No. 3 with 1.1 billion kWhs, or 46 percent), Cisco Systems (No. 9 with 459 million kWhs, or 44 percent), Sprint (No. 25 with 176 million kWhs, or 5 percent), and Dell (No. 39 with 119.4 kWhs, or 29 percent).

Yep, you read that correctly. There's some new data out from Pike Research about the metropolitan regions that are most likely to adopt alternative or "green" transportation, and the Pennsylvania cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton are high on the list.

Among the factors considered in the analysis were population, age, gender, household income, race and household size.

Based on that criteria, Pike figures that sales of plug-in electric vehicles in the largest 102 cities in the United States will total 1.8 million from 2012 to 2020. 

The report breaks things down on a regional basis. As already mentioned, the Pennsylvania region mentioned above factors largely, as does the San Jose metropolitan area in California, the Worchester metro area in Massachusetts, and several cities in Colorado, including Denver, Aurora, Broomfield and Colorado Springs.

If you look at individual cities that look especially promising for adoption, here are the top five: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. More than one-quarter of all the plug-in electric vehicle sales over the eight-year period considered are expected to come from that area, according to Pike's "Electric Vehicle Geographic Forecasts" analysis.

The state that jumped up most on the Pike ranking was Texas, which has supported a dramatic expansion in electric vehicle charging infrastructure over the past 12 months. It jumped up to No. 4 on the state ranking, compared with its position at No. 42 in 2010.

(Photo of Focus Electric courtesy of Ford Motor Co.)

The product, called StreetSense LED Roadway Sign Light, comes in two different versions. One is a 6,000-lumen, 70-watt (W) lamp that is used in multiples to light up signs larger than 14x14 feet. The other is a 4,000-lumen, 40W edition that is meant for smaller signs.

They weigh less than 20 pounds each and use approximately 30 percent less energy than previous-generation fixtures, according to Dialight's research.

The company also promises a much longer lamp life. Tests show that they maintain up to 70 percent of their lumen output after 60,000 hours, which means they don't have to be changed as often as their HID metal halide counterparts.

Said Roy Burton, Dialight Group chief executive, in the company's press release about the new fixtures: "Typical roadway sign lighting is costly to operate and a major drain on maintenance resources, not to mention the traffic headaches caused by the frequent bulb changes required of HID lighting fixtures. This new StreetSense LED fixture resolves all of those challenges, slashing operating and maintenance costs by nearly 75 percent compared to traditional 100-250W HID sources and freeing up precious manpower for other more important projects."

Related stories:

• Hey there, LED lamp-post, whatcha saving?

• And then there was light. Street lights 'bloom' when needed

• Things of signs to come: New LED street light

The researchers are working with thin-film solar technology that is less than one-micro thick. The cells can be removed from the silicon substrate used for fabrication by dipping them into room-temperature water, reported NREL and Stanford. After being exposed to heat of about 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees Fahrenheit) for a few seconds, they can be attached to other surfaces.

It's kind of like a bumper sticker that you might attach to a car.

The solar cells being used for the experiment were fabricated on nickel-coated Si/SiO2 wafers. The result is "flexible, lightweight, and transparent devices" that could be affixed to military helmets, portable electronics, or sensors, according to the researchers.

"We were able to peel it off nicely and test the cell both before and after," said Qi Wang, principal scientist from NREL. "We found almost no degradation in performance due to the peel-off."

The potential for silicon to be used in formats other than the traditional panels we are growing used to seeing on rooftops or in unused files is growing. Dow Solar, for example, is already using solar technology in a line of roofing shingles. It recently expanded the distribution for the technology to the US East Coast after pilots in Colorado, California, and Texas.

Experiments with other building-integrated photovoltaics are also picking up momentum, although today it remains very much a niche market.

For the past two years, Microsoft has been working with the United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) to create computer models that "mimic the physics and chemistry of the planet's land, ocean, and atmosphere," Josh Henretig, who is responsible for Microsoft's global environmental sustainability strategy, wrote on the company's Green Blog.

Models of these sort are used pretty commonly and extensively for mapping climate change and predicting potential effects. Now, scientists and researchers are looking to apply the same principles to marine and terrestrial ecosystems with something called general ecosystem models (GEMs).

Here's how the UNEP-WCMC explains it:

"Scientists from Microsoft Research and UNEP-WCMC argue that GEMs could capture the broad-scale structure and function of any ecosystem in the world by simulating processes — including feeding, reproduction, and death--that drives the distribution and abundance of organisms within the ecosystems. Such an approach could provide a way to base future conservation policy on an understanding of how ecosystems actually work."

So, for example, scientists could study the systems behind African savannas to have a better sense of what might happen to them over time, especially in the face of variable factors such as the effects of poaching of certain animal populations or water shortages triggered by climate change.

Microsoft Research and UNEP-WCMC already have built a prototype for one of these systems, called the Madingley Model, which is using data on carbon flows. They have published some of their findings in an article in the journal Nature. And they are encouraging other scientific organizations to participate in building far more elaborate models.

"One challenge is that while some of the data needed to create an effective GEM has already been collected and stored away in research institutions, more data is needed," wrote Henretig. "A new major data-gathering program would be expensive, so supporters of GEMs are calling on governments around the world to support programs that manage large-scale collection of ecological and climate data."

The ultimate hope is that these models will eventually be accurate enough and detailed enough to guide meaningful conservation policy.

recently named as market-leading providers in the category by independent analyst firm Verdantix: CA Technologies, CarbonSystems, IBM and Schneider Electric.

Verisae develops applications that provide companies with data about their facility power consumption, as well as insight about how to improve efficiency, with a particular focus on the grocery and food sector. Its typical customers spend from 1.5 percent to 3 percent of their annual operations budget on electricity, but by using Verisae's software as a service, they can cut those costs anywhere from 15 percent to 25 percent annually.

IBM's buyout of TRIRIGA, which also develops software that help companies improve the operational efficiency of office buildings and facilities. 

The energy management problem has attracted both startups (such as Verisae) and traditional enterprise resouce planning and management software vendors, which is one reason for all the consolidation.

Two-thirds of the customers surveyed by Verdantix for its recent report indicated that they plan to spend more money on energy management software over the next three years. Their top feature requests include utility bill management, energy monitoring and targeting, and energy reporting and certification.

For more background on environmental and energy management, see these stories:

12 environmental management software developers to watch 

15 energy management vendors worth your notice

The grant to the Energy Foundation will support its own "grantmaker" efforts in three areas:

• Developing "smarter electricity rates" that encourage both energy efficiency and on-site energy generation
• The creation of better demand generation programs, which compensate consumers and businesses for reducing energy consumption at certain time

Michael Terrell, senior policy counsel, energy and sustainability for Google, writes in the company's official blog:

"What if instead of a monthly bill we had access to more real-time and actionable information about our electricity consumption? What if our appliances, air conditioners, and lights adjusted automatically to use energy more efficiently and save money? If we did this in every home it would help improve the reliability of the grid and save billions of dollars."

Google's investment targets "rules governing electricity distribution that were written for last century’s grid." The Energy Foundation describes its mission as one that promotes as "sustainable energy future by advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy." Other backers of the non-profit include the high-profile charitable organizations started by both founders of Hewlett-Packard as well as the Schmidt Family Foundation created in 2006 by Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt.

Although Google retired its own PowerMeter energy management project about 18 months ago because of weak consumption adoption, it has emerged as one of the most progressive companies when it comes to renewable energy. Since 2010, it has backed projects representing about 2 gigawatts in clean energy policy.

Aside from the Energy Foundation, Google is also aligned with the Alliance to Save Energy (Terrell is council to the group), which champions the cause of energy efficiency.

The Spinning Spur development is located in Oldham County, a windy section of the Panhandle region about 35 miles outside Amarillo.

Why another wind investment? The company said on its blog:

"We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets."

This latest round of funding should put the total amount that the Internet giant has put toward clean energy to more than $1 billion. Since 2010 alone, the company has backed 10 different renewable generation projects representing 2 gigawatts of capacity. 

For more statistics related to Google's clean energy strategy, see the infographic below:

The model could also rewrite the rules for funding clean energy projects, particularly rooftop solar installations.

Exhibit A: one pioneer of this concept, Solar Mosaic, raised more than $313,000 this week for four projects that will be installed on affordable housing. In fact, the site raised that money in less than 24 hours.

More than 400 investors put in anywhere from $25 to $30,000 to help get these installations off the ground, with the average investment around $700, the company said.

"We are thrilled at how the public showed up yesterday," said Dan Rosen, Mosaic CEO, in a press release issued the day after the offerings were posted. "It's indicative of a pent-up demand that we are working to meet. People want strong returns and want to know what their money is invested in. Our marketplace allows people to sidestep Wall Street by investing in Main Street."

Since it was launched two years ago, Solar Mosaic has raised more than $1.1 million from 700 investors to back 12 rooftop solar installations in California, Arizona and New Jersey. The latest projects were available to investors in California and New York.

The average annual return on these projects is 4.5 percent, net of the servicing fees, over a period of nine years.

Investor Rosana Francescato noted: "Mosaic is lowering the barrier for regular people like me - not just rich investors or big companies - to benefit from solar power while providing a good return on investment. I invested in several projects, the process was easy and it only took a few minutes.

The company's approach is particularly relevant, given the explosion of rooftop solar across the United States. In the fourth quarter of 2012, residential installations grew 12 percent to hit an all-time high of 118 megawatts, according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association.

For more background on Solar Mosaic, and how crowdfunding could transform the solar industry.

Citing safety concerns, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing that makers of electric and hybrid vehicles meet minimum noise requirements so that pedestrians can hear them when they are coming.

The sounds would need to be distinguishable over street noise and other ambient background sounds when they are running at speeds of less than 18 miles per hour. Apparently, they make enough noise when going faster than that.

"Our proposal would allow manufacturers the flexibility to design different sounds for different makes and models while still providing an opportunity for pedestrians, bicyclists and the visually impaired to detect and recognize a vehicle and make a decision about whether it is safe to cross the street," said David Strickland, NHTSA administrator.

Although car makers would be able to pick their own distinct sounds, they would have to fall into a certain genre. So, for example, the sound of an accelerating vehicle might be different than one that is slowing down or idling. That would probably have to approximate the sounds that we're used to hearing today.

I had a debate over this very topic during the holidays, when I was discussing electric vehicles with one of my husband's friends who is a sportscar enthusiast. He is very particular about the sounds his cars makes, so he has been reluctant to consider electric. Who knows, maybe there's a sounded-up Tesla in his future after all.