U.S. DOE offers energy saving program for data centers

The United States Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now initiative is offering a program to businesses to help them reduce data center energy consumption and save money. The program carries the standard government-issued unnecessarily long name: National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program, and offers fact sheets and presentations on their website, outlining their plans.

According to the website, the number of data centers continues to grow, and servers are becoming higher powered and more energy intensive. The DOE plans to invest in research and development into best practices for data center energy efficiency and provide guidance to businesses. They see the move as beneficial to both parties, since the businesses will reduce energy spending and the DOE will benefit from a reduction in load on the electric grid.

The website also includes data assessment summaries for some organizations that have already been evaluated, including Verizon and Lucasfilm. Through their research, they estimated that Verizon, a wireless service giant, could save $181,500 and 1,540,700 kWh of energy. Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies and merchandise, could save $343,000 and 3,109,200 kWh. The information sheets include detailed information about the data centers, including server layout and cooling.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy
Photo: Flickr