CANARIE - Green IT Program

CANARIE provided $2.4 million in funding for four ground-breaking Green IT projects aimed at reducing ICT’s carbon footprint and measuring the impact of ICT and cyberinfrastructure on university electric consumption.

CANARIE’s biggest Green IT funding recipient is the GreenStar Network, an alliance of Canada’s leading IT companies, universities and international partners, led by Quebec’s École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) in Montreal. CANARIE has given the GreenStar Network $2 million to develop the world’s first internet network, where the network nodes will be powered entirely by wind and solar energy and yet will provide the same reliability to users as the current Internet network does. A likely outcome of this project is a broader market for Green IT and a strong Canadian leadership position within it.

The GreenStar Network has launched two solar-powered nodes: the first one is located at the Communication Research Centre in Ottawa, and has been fully operational since May 21, 2010. The second node was launched on June 29, 2010, at the University of Calgary, and is also solar-powered.

• Download the fact sheet: GreenStar Network [pdf | 171 kB].

The GreenStar Network has received a lot of attention, given the focus on green technologies and the enormous opportunity for commercial applications. Click on the links below to read more:

• Research Networking goes green with GreenStar
• Dirty data: The Internet's giant carbon footprint
• Canadian researchers hope to green the web, make Canada the world's web server
• Solar-Powered Datacenter Launches in Green Internet Network
• Montréal, leader des énergies vertes pour le Web

CANARIE’s other GREEN IT funding recipients are:

• A joint project between McGill University (CLUMEQ) and University of California, San Diego (SDSC Centre) to design an ultra-efficient data centre for high-performance computing applications. Funding: $163,000
• International Institute for Sustainable Development, based in Winnipeg, will conduct a study to assess the business case, and carbon-offset potential, for Canadian universities to use CANARIE’s ultra high-speed network to run IT operations from remote, zero-carbon data centre facilities. Funding: $100,000
• University of British Columbia’s Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation at Sauder School of Business will develop a business case for how carbon offsets can be used to finance data centre relocations and how universities could implement this opportunity. Funding: $119,000