[LINK] National Broadband Network - except it's not national.

[Tom Worthington]

Gordon Keith wrote:
> On Wed, 12 May 2010 11:21:28 am Tom Worthington wrote:
>> Homes will need a powered fibre optic modem for the NBN...
> 
> Has anyone calculated the power requirements of the NBN for device not in use?  ...

The Australian Government took power consumption into account somewhat
in the original Request for Proposals for the NBN (ATM ID DCON/08/18,
Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy,
11-Apr-2008).

Respondents were asked for details of power consumption and provisions
to maximise power efficiency and provision of “sleep mode” for customer
terminal equipment. But there were no energy efficiency requirements,
estimates of energy use, or mention of who would pay for the energy or
carbon tax. I talked about this in Perth in 2008:
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/carbon_neutral_computing/>.

I raised the issue of power for NBN equipment in a talk I gave at the
World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2008) in Kuala Lumpur.
But this was pointing out that battery backup was required for emergencies:
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/emergency_management/>.

The need for battery backup was incorporated in later NBN planning. This 
then raised the issue of who replaces the batteries:
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/05/fibre-to-premises-in-greenfield-estates.html>.

What was not addressed was the additional energy consumption and e-waste
generated. One idea, which I am sure I mentioned some time, was to take 
advantage of the need for the NBN to run off the grid and power it with 
renewable energy. Because the NBN needs to operate independently of 
mains power in an emergency, it already has much of the investment 
needed for running it on renewable energy. As an example, instead of 
charging batteries from mains power, use a solar cell, or a wind generator.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/user/3890