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> What is the carbon footprint of GPUs? How can I use GPUs without polluting the environment? > I worked on a project that produced carbon offsets about ten ye

> What is the carbon footprint of GPUs? How can I use GPUs without polluting the environment? > I worked on a project that produced carbon offsets about ten years ago. The carbon offsets were generated by burning leaking methane from mines in China. UN officials tracked the process, and they required clean digital data and physical inspections of the project site. In that case, the carbon offsets that were produced were highly reliable. I believe many other projects have similar quality standards. Crusoe Cloud (https://crusoecloud.com https://crusoecloud.com) does the same thing; powering GPUs off otherwise flared methane (and behind the meter renewables), to get carbon-reducing GPUs. A year of A100 usage offsets the equivalent emissions of taking a car off the road. Disclosure: I run product at Crusoe Cloud

throw_pm23 4y ago
> burning methane probably not the first thing that comes to mind to people when they hear about carbon offsets. Things are gone further than I thought.
- CrazyStat 4y ago
  Methane that has been burned to convert it to CO2 is much less bad of a greenhouse gas than methane that has been allowed to just float off into the atmosphere. Perhaps counterintuitive given how much we usually go around saying burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but the science is sound.
  - asciimike 4y ago
    Methane has an 80x higher GWP than CO2 over the first 20 years, so ending routine flaring (even if the answer is "complete combustion") is an immensely important problem to help address the effects of climate change. Another source: https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-crucial-opportunity-climate-fight https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-crucial-opportunity-clim... Some other info we've published: https://www.crusoeenergy.com/digital-flare-mitigation https://www.crusoeenergy.com/digital-flare-mitigation
- kerpotgh 4y ago
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throw_pm23 4y ago

> burning methane probably not the first thing that comes to mind to people when they hear about carbon offsets. Things are gone further than I thought.

CrazyStat 4y ago
Methane that has been burned to convert it to CO2 is much less bad of a greenhouse gas than methane that has been allowed to just float off into the atmosphere. Perhaps counterintuitive given how much we usually go around saying burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but the science is sound.
- asciimike 4y ago
  Methane has an 80x higher GWP than CO2 over the first 20 years, so ending routine flaring (even if the answer is "complete combustion") is an immensely important problem to help address the effects of climate change. Another source: https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-crucial-opportunity-climate-fight https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-crucial-opportunity-clim... Some other info we've published: https://www.crusoeenergy.com/digital-flare-mitigation https://www.crusoeenergy.com/digital-flare-mitigation
kerpotgh 4y ago
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