By SAMUEL BLATCHFORD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Xbox is going greener. The company recently rolled out its new “carbon-aware” versions of its gaming consoles so updates and downloads run at times when the console can use the most renewable energy.
When the console is on and connected to the internet, Xbox will schedule game app and operating system updates for when nightly maintenance produces lower carbon emissions, Microsoft said.
The system uses “regional carbon intensity data,” which measures how clean electricity is and refers to how many grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) are released to produce a kilowatt hour of electricity. Electricity generated using fossil fuels is more carbon-intensive.
Carbon emissions are carbon compounds released into the atmosphere, such as by burning fossil fuels like coal and gas.
The initiative is a welcome one for minimizing the footprint of huge data downloads, said Alexis Normand, the CEO and co-founder of Greenly, a Paris-based company that helps companies minimize their carbon footprint. The company specializes in technology and emissions related to cloud computing.
When data centers use more electricity at night and during off-peak hours, it can reduce the digital product’s footprint by 55%, according to Greenly.
“When everyone is using a service or electricity at the same time, we need extra capacity to absorb demand. That has more active power plants and more data centers running,” he said.
Increased demand can increase emissions and harm the environment.
“Since renewable energy is always used first, what happens at peak hours is more gas turbines or coal plants are running and that same electricity is much more carbon-intensive, ” he said.
Microsoft and Xbox are telling their customers about these environmental measures. .
Xbox’s initiative raises awareness of the need for consumers to use more electricity from low-carbon sources, said Greenpeace East Asia Global Tech Project leader Xueying Wu.
“Such initiatives from the consumer side can educate users, who are often not aware of the scale of our electricity consumption and the power sources that we rely on,” Wu said.
She added that adopting renewable energy is one of the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions.
However, Microsoft needs to do more, said Wu, “The changes are not sufficient to reduce all emissions for Microsoft products.”