ENERGY STAR Turns Its Attention to Data Centers

February 24, 2009 - Having recently published its version 5.0 specification for personal computers and games, the U.S. Department of Energy's ENERGY STAR program is now in the process of finishing up a version 1.0 spec for enterprise servers.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that U.S. businesses could save up 4 billion dollars annually in energy costs if they used more energy efficient data center equipment.

Since a draft version of the specification is available, manufacturers are beginning to reevaluate their products in anticipation of the new requirements. In a recent article published in Computer Weekly, representatives from Dell, Sun, and HP all indicated that they will have servers that will meet the new standards.

In detailing the efficiency requirements for server power supplies, the ENERGY STAR specification names five different types of power supplies and identifies the percentage of rated output power at which each power supply should operate at 10%, 20%, 50%, and 100% load.

The specification also sets "idle" requirements, idle being defined as the state where "the computer is operational but not processing any useful work." These requirements limit the number of watts based on hardware configuration (number of processors, additional drives, etc.).

Once published, the new requirement will probably get greater notice due to increased attention from "green organizations" that function as evangelists for compliant products. Such groups, like Climate Savers and The Green Grid (which specifically focuses on data centers), seek to work in concert with agencies and manufacturers to develop a best practices approach.

With more and more incentives being given for purchasing green, energy efficiency is now a major selling point for server manufacturers. Out of such an environment, it will be interesting to see how the final 1.0 specs take shape and what innovative products will come as a result.

NOTE: Shortly after completing this blog, I learned that, as part of the U.S. Government’s new stimulus package, 50 million dollars will be going towards the effort to increase the energy efficiency of information and communications technologies. According to William Tschudi of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s environmental energy technologies division, much of the money could be directed to find new ways to improve the power efficiency of data centers. Such government support adds even more incentive for the development of more energy efficient servers.