Written by Isabel del Castillo (COO)

Edge computing is a field for the future of sustainability and CO2 emissions reduction. The use of Klepsydra brings about a reduction of 50% in the processor power while substantially increasing up to 8 times the amount of data processed.

Klepsydra can save energy, and therefore help reducing CO2 emissions, in several ways:

• Directly by reducing CPU usage. On applications connected to the grid like data centres, industry 4.0, etc. with lower electrical power consumption.
• Directly by extending the computer lifetime. On edge applications the benefits are twofold. First, battery lifetime can be increased for IoT, satellites, robots, etc. by reducing power consumption in the data processed on-board. And secondly, by extending the life of edge and on-board computers in the same environments.
• Indirectly, as an enabling technology. Klepsydra products have been used for green energy markets (e.g., wind turbine inspections), space debris removal (planned for 2022), electric cars and Earth Observation.

Calculation of the CO2 emissions reductions of Klepsydra based on the sales projections for the next 5 years

As mentioned, the use of Klepsydra brings about a reduction of 50% in the processor power consumption. These processors can be small like the Raspberry PI4, with an average consumption of 5 W or higher, for server applications, with a consumption of 150 W.

If Klepsydra is deployed in 100.000 devices connected to the utility with small processor (like P.E. in 4.0 industry robotics, IoT devices, etc.) and in 200 higher processor servers, carbon footprint reduction using Klepsydra can be estimated as:

Average energy saved per hour:

(100.000 x 5 Wh x 0,5+200 x 150 Wh x 0,5)/1.000 kWh/Wh= 265 kWh

Availability factor of 95%:

(0,95 x 8760 h/year x 265 kWh/h)/1.000 MWh/kWh= 2.205 MWh/year

Carbon footprint reduction:

2.205 MWh/year x 0,281 t CO2-eq/MWh(*) = 620t CO2/year

In summary, just with data processing optimization software like Klepsydra, at least CO2 emission reduction of 620 t/year could be reached.

(*) EU CO2 emission factor in 2018: 0,281 t CO2-eq/MWh.

CO2 emissions reduction by computer lifetime extension

Taking the most conservative estimate, we can assume a 25% lifespan increase for a computer using Klepsydra, because the computational capability boosts up to 10 times. For an edge computer, that usually lasts 7 to 10 years, a lifespan increase can be achieved of 2 to 4 years.

On the other hand, the cost of manufacturing a laptop or desktop computer is 227-270 CO2 kg. In the case of edge computing, we can assume that the cost is a fraction of this, a conservative figure would be 10Kg manufacturing CO2 for an edge computer.

CO2 emissions reductions by enabling green technologies

We provide here one simple example: Earth Observation to prevent fires. CO2 emissions from forest fires in 2020 can be roughly estimated as 1’000 Teragrams (109 kg).

Many Earth Observation (EO) companies are deploying satellites to monitor and prevent forest fires. By using Klepsydra, EO satellites can process sensor data in real-time inside the satellite computer, instead of sending the data to Earth for processing. This has a massive timing advantage, as sending and processing all data to Earth can take hours and even days, while processing onboard the satellite can warn Earth fire systems in real-time. Assuming that 10% of EO satellites for fire prevention use Klepsydra and that these satellites with Klepsydra inside help preventing 1% of all forest fires, then Klepsydra will enable a massive CO2 reduction of 10’000 Tons per year.

Beyond this example, there are plenty of areas where Klepsydra can enable green technologies: robots for intelligent farming, electric car sensor data processing, self-driving cars, wind farm inspections, volcano monitoring drones. The projections of CO2 emissions reductions by using Klepsydra as enabling technologies can be endless.