The Problem Is Us - U.S. Data Center Growth Spawning Climate Disaster
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 08. 6.07
"Left unchecked, data centers could double their energy consumption over the next five years at a cost of $7.4 billion annually, according to a report [to the US Congress] issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By 2011, the equivalent of 10 new power plants would be needed to supply 12 gigawatts of electricity unless the energy efficiency of data centers can be improved. That's bad news for the corporate bottom line and the environment. It's also a hit on taxpayers' wallets: federal government data centers alone consume about 10 percent of that electricity.
The good news, say EPA's researchers, is that greening data centers through consolidating servers, energy-efficient equipment and tapping alternative energy sources could cut annual electricity costs by $1.6 billion to $5.1 billion by 2011 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 47 million metric tons a year." And boy we have work to do to keep our online viewing from contributing to climate catastrophe. Take a look below the fold for a map of US states that have yet to upgrade their commercial building code standards to even the bare minimum. How many "wired" nations in the world even have commercial building code standards that promote energy efficiency? Via:: Green Wombat
Image credits:: USEPA, ENERGY STAR Program , August 2, 2007, Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency, Public Law 109-431
Sponsorship credits::The report was requested by Congress in legislation passed in December 2006, as introduced by Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI).
60 billion kWh is 1.5% of the nation's electricity use and 0.6% of the nation's total energy use.
Seems like a fairly trivial amount considering its value to society. If every household swapped out 2 incandescent 100W bubls for 27W CFLs, it would save about 50 billion kWh per year (assuming 8 hours of use per day).