DOE and EPA release report on advancing energy efficiency in data centers

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the report, “Energy Efficiency in Data Centers: Recommendations for Government-Industry Coordination,” that details the discussions and recommendations covered during a national strategy workshop on July 8, 2008. The workshop convened representatives from industry, utilities, associations, and NGOs to identify the next steps for public and private collaboration toward advancing improved energy efficiency in data centers.

The report provides recommendations for key areas of collaboration between government and industry, along with detailed descriptions of interactive sessions in which participants identified gaps and opportunities related to defining, advancing, and rewarding energy efficient data centers. The report includes point papers presented by workshop presenters that detail current trends in data center energy efficiency.

U.S. data centers consume a growing portion of the U.S. energy/electricity supply due to growing demand for the services they provide. Data centers used 61 billion kW hours of electricity in 2006, representing 1.5% of all U.S. electricity consumption—double the amount consumed in 2000. Based on current trends, energy consumed by data centers will continue to grow by 12% per year.

The workshop and report are part of a joint national data center energy efficiency information program initiated by the DOE and the EPA. To view the report visit DOE’s “Partnering with Computer Data Centers” web page and EPA’s “Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives” web page .

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