The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have released a report that details recommendations identifying the next steps for public and private collaboration to improve energy efficiency in the nation’s data centers.
The report, Energy Efficiency in Data Centers: Recommendations for Government-Industry Coordination, resulted from a national strategy workshop convened in July 2008 by DOE and EPA. The workshop gathered representatives from industry, utilities, associations, and nongovernmental organizations.
Participants provided recommendations for key areas of collaboration between government and industry and identified gaps and opportunities related to defining, advancing and rewarding energy-efficient data centers. The report also includes papers from workshop presenters highlighting current trends in data-center energy efficiency.
U.S. data centers use a growing portion of the U.S. energy supply, due to growing demand for services they provide. Data centers used 61 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006, representing 1.5 percent of all U.S. electricity consumption, double the amount used in 2000. Based on current trends, energy consumed by data centers will continue to grow by 12 percent per year.
The workshop and report are part of a joint information program on data-center energy efficiency initiated by the DOE and EPA. The program coordinates a variety of activities from both agencies, including Save Energy Now, Energy Star for products and buildings, and the Federal Energy Management Program.
To read the report or learn more about the program, visit DOE’s Partnering with Computer Data Centers Web page or visit the EPA's Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives Web page.
