15
February
2007
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00:19 AM
America/Los_Angeles

2.15.07: Data centers gobble up only 1% of US energy bill

Are data centers contributing to global warming or the energy crisis? A new study commissioned by AMD says no: While data center energy consumption has doubled from 2000 to 2005 and now matches the consumption of the state of Mississippi, it's still only 1.2 percent of total US consumption.


SF Chron: Demand grows, but data centers don't hog power


That's massively less than previous estimates that Internet power use was as much as 13 percent.

"If you see that there might be a problem, you have to ask how big is the problem," Jonathan Koomey, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley and the author of the study, said. "The purpose of the study is to give a reasonable estimate of how much electricity is used. From that, you can then figure out whether there are actions that industry can take or that government can take."



Still, it's a huge increase and AMD's John Fruehe says customers were starting to max out their energy budgets. Both to save money and to retool to be less polluting, companies are looking at how to make data centers more energy efficient.

Chandrakant Patel, a research scientist at Hewlett-Packard Labs, said tech companies need to focus on every aspect of the data center, from the microprocessor to the air-conditioning system. "You really must look at the stack," he said. "It has to be addressed holistically."