A recent study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory staff scientist Jonathan Koomey has revealed astounding facts about the power consumed by US servers.
Servers in the United States and their assisting cooling systems slurped down 45 million kilowatt-hours of energy in 2005, which is much more than Mississippi and 19 other states. The study further promulgated that the total power consumption in 2005 set US businesses roughly $2.7 billion back. Well, the power consumption by servers and the attendant cooling systems was 1.2 percent, which is very same as used by color TVs.
Jonathan Koomey, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and consulting professor at Stanford University said:
Over a five-year period from 2000 to 2005, there has been about a doubling. Most of the growth is from the widespread adoption of lower-end servers costing less than $25,000.
If the existing drift continues, server electricity usage will get a bump of 40 percent by 2010. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given a standing ovation to the results put forth by the research and hopes to continue its work with the IT industry to build new, energy-efficient solutions that does good to both consumers and the global environment.
The study was sponsored by AMD, which hopes to have their chips included in these energy-efficient solutions. With mounting energy prices and concerns over the impact of greenhouse gases on the climate, the private sector is already calling for a slash-down in IT energy costs.
Via: Arstechnica
