I’ve got two stories in today’s Toronto Star, the first about seven co-generation projects totalling 414 megawatts that have been given the go-head by the Ontario Power Authority. The authority fell short of its goal of securing 1,000 megawatts, but apparently is going to have another round of bidding early next year with new contract announcements by mid-2007. Co-generation, or combined heat and power, is considered a highly efficient way of using natural gas or waste gas from industrial operations. Many proponents of the approach believe that widescale adoption could help Ontario get off coal and wean itself off nuclear. Picking projects, however, is tricky. Not only do you need to have a committed “steam host” for byproduct heat from power generation, but the power authority also has to negotiate a reasonable price for the electricity under a 20-year contract. The complexity of co-gen projects explains the slow embrace of it in Ontario, but hopefully as the power authority works out kinks in the process acceptance of it will gather momentum. A standard offer program for small co-gen projects is also in the works, which is also good news.

The second story is about data centre efficiency, and Sun Microsystems’ launch today of a new “data centre in a box” that is completely contained within a standard shipping container and is mobile enough to airlift to remote locations, such as offshore oilrigs or third-world disaster zones. Called “Project Blackbox,” the system is also super efficient with regards to power consumption, keeping in line with Sun’s marketing push toward higher-efficiency computing products. As I’ve mentioned before, energy-efficient computing is becoming a big deal, particularly in Silicon Valley, as Internet companies and data-centre operators feel the weight that high power costs are putting on the bottom line. Google continues to warn against this trend, and the need for change.

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