Data centers draw a lot of power. That newsy tidbit was one of the conclusions of the Environmental Protection Agency's data center report to Congress, released Aug. 2. While not surprising, the EPA's gross numbers are nonetheless staggering. Data centers used 61 billion kilowatt-hours in 2006, or 1.5% of all power consumed in the United States. The cost: $4.5 billion, or about as much as was spent by 5.8 million average households. Of the total consumption, the feds sucked up about 10% of that power.
What's truly telling is the EPA's forecast of our consumption under different scenarios. If we do nothing, data center power usage will double by 2011. If we all implement what the EPA considers the state of the art, we could lower overall data center power usage to 2001 levels by 2011--a net swing of 90 billion kilowatt hours....MORE atInformationWeek
HT: Environmental Valuation & Cost-Benefit Analysis
