Just in USA alone these data centers used enough energy to power nearly 6 million homes during 2005. And the energy usage is expected to double by year 2011.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton takes a closer look on what is being done to make these “SUV’s of the tech world” more energy efficient and green, something that might not be as easy as you think.

If you run a website or blog you can help speed up this process by choosing a green web host from our green webhost list. These hosting companies power their servers with renewable energy such as wind and solar power or offers carbon offsetting by buying green tags or RECs.

Image credit: Clayirving. Image licensed under a Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Their datacenter is located in California, east of Los Angeles, and uses 120 solar panels which generate all the electricity they need to power the servers and their offices, becoming the first and only solar-powered hosting company in the UK.

We “assist” in the offset all of our estimated 25 Tonnes per year of CO2 (by “sequestration” or “Carbon Fix”) by working with TreeSponsibility, a community based Climate Action Group, we also plant a tree for every new Broadband and Web Hosting customer.

One of their plans for the near future is to build the first “Solar Powered Data-centre” in Europe. This data-centre is expected to be built in Portugal. They are currently looking for Investors or Internet companies wishing to help.

During 2007/08 we will be liaising with investors and technical experts in the field of Internet backbone connectivity and data-centre design to complete Europe’s first “Solar Powered Data-centre” build, we will be meeting with key people interested in making this vision a reality, this is looking more likely to be in Portugal.

Website: http://www.greenwebhost.net

The first one is Host Papa, a web host located in Canada who purchases Green Certificates (Green Tags or RECs).

The second one is Lightbeing Creations. Lightbeing Creations is a green reseller host. They buy server space from the 100% solar powered hosting company Aiso.

Aiso are one of the few that truly offers green web hosting. Live Earth choosed to host their site with them. Asio is also a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and was featured in Inc. Magazines’ Top 50 Green Companies. If you want you can learn more about Aiso here.

• Yes! (44%)
• No, but I will soon. (33%)
• I am not sure? (22%)
• No! (0%)

Surprisingly a rather large part of our visitors (voters) are already hosted on a green web host. That makes us happy. But what makes us happier is that 33% will soon go green. It’s good to see that things are moving and people are realising that you can green every aspect of your life.

22% of the votes where from people who don’t know if they are hosted on a green host or not. I personally believe people voted on this one even though they are pretty confident in that they are not hosted on a green server.

Here comes a short explanation what a green web host is:

Green web hosts are hosting companies that power their servers with renewable energy such as wind and solar power or offers carbon offsetting by buying green tags or RECs.

The new poll question is: Would you vote for Al Gore in the (USA) presidential election 2008?

Does it sound like a mission impossible or a PR-coup to you? It’s not. Strato has already proven that they mean serious by having reduced its energy usage with 30 % per customer in the past 18 months.

In an interview with The Register the CEO of Strat, Damien Schmidt, said that “while people may be more aware of reducing their individual carbon footprint, it was also important for tech firms to “look behind the screen” and consider the sizable, carbon-munching emissions spat out by IT equipment.”

Green Blog is happy to see that more and more web host companies are taking their responsibility by going green and wish Strato the best of luck.

http://www.strato.de

According to you it doesn’t matter if a green web host cost a little extra. Only 9% would like to move to a green web host but can’t because “they cost too much”.

Around 30% of you haven’t yet fully understood what a “green” web host actually is. That’s okay, we understand that. That’s why we will soon dedicate a whole section of our site were we will try to explain what separates green web hosts from normal (dirty) web hosts.

Only about 4% of our visitors (or at least the ones who have voted) don’t want to move to a green web host. Are you stubborn or don’t you know what’s at stake? Please tell us why you don’t want to move to a green web host.

• Yes! (57%)
• What’s a “green” web host? (30%)
• Yes, but they cost too much. (9%)
• No! (4%)

Our new poll question is: Are you currently hosted on a “green” web host?

By purchasing renewable energy certificates, we’re not only offsetting our own emissions of harmful pollutants and greenhouse gases, we’re participating in a community of responsible businesses and individuals. The income from REC’s goes towards either supporting existing wind turbine farms or developing new ones. We’re part of the solution – imagine if more people participated too! Even if less than 50% of the population participated, we would be well on our way to independence from imported fossil fuels.

We believe that Sustainable Websites host their own dedicated servers over at GNAX. According to our research Sustainable Websites hosted around 360 different domain names in the beginning of September. The trend is going upwards with more and more domain registrations so you can safely say that Sustainable Websites is a trustworthy web host.

Sustainable Websites is not only a green web host. In addition their green hosting they offer a community for their members with access to a large library of sustainable and green marketing articles.

Our mission is to deliver quality internet and communications services to the general public while contributing to the growth in awareness of and limiting our impact on the delicate balance of our environment.

This company uses energy wisely by using the solar photovoltaic panels mounted on the roof-top to power up their servers. Another reason is their “grid connection”: in the summer months when the sunlight is stronger the excess of energy is grid back to system to be use by others and in the winter months when the sunlight is low and they need more energy they draw power back from the grid. This energy goes directly to support the production of wind power.

EcoSky is also dedicated to help their community by donating part of their annual profit to non-profit and community-based organizations. They offer to their employees a work environment that supports physical well-being, individual expression through mutual respect and career advancement.

EcoSky recognizes that a healthy and supported staff of people contributes to the success of our efforts.

Besides all the benefits not all services are entirely powered by renewable energy. The services are: internet access and local POP service. DNS, mail, web and authentication services are totally powered by renewable energy.

http://www.ecosky.com

The hosting plans starts at $14.95 per month for 1GB of space and 5GB of monthly data transfer.

Greenest Host will be added to our Green Web Host list later today and reviewed by someone in the Green Blog team in a very near future. Stay tuned!

Video: Introduction to Greenest Host

This is what Acorn Host say about themselves:

Web hosting from a company that shares your values. We are dedicated to being a company that enriches and supports life. We offer exceptional uptime, responsive service, and carbon neutral hosting.

Sounds good, but let’s get back to the reseller part. From what we have been able to dig up Acorn Host servers are located in a data-centre owned by either ServInt or SwitchMedia (I would bet my money on ServInt). But none of these two web hosts are a green web host. So that means Acorn Host is not a reseller host of another green web host.

But how is Acorn Host a green web host then you might ask? Well, Acorn Host says this on their site:

Acorn Host purchases Green Certificates monthly for the amount of energy that is used to run the servers, office equipment, lights, etc. Green Certificates (also known as Green Tags) are a simple way to offset the use of carbon-based energy sources and effectively power a business (or your home) on 100% renewable energy resources, without changing electricity providers. Find out more about the Green Certificates program at 3phases.com.

Acorn Host buys energy credits (also known as RECs or Green Tags) to make their hosting green. This is not the best way to be a green web host on, but it is a start. Green Blog would love to see Acorn Host become greener by taking part in more “green projects” or actually doing it’s hosting like Aiso. But being a reseller host is not the easiest thing. You can’t buy your own data-centres just like that. So we understand if Acorn Host can’t be any better. That is why we need to put more pressure on our governments and energy suppliers to drop the investments in fossil fuels and nuclear energy and start supporting renewable energy. That way all hosts will become green web hosts to a certain extent.

I also want to mention that the most recognized certifier of RECs is Green-e, an independent, non-profit group that verifies renewable energy credits and certifies that they are what they claim to be. Acorn Host uses this RECs certifier.

But does Acorn Host offer anything more worth mentioning? Well in fact they do. Acorn Host is woman owned and offers discounts to non-profit organisations.

http://www.acornhost.com