US Industry consumes 32 quadrillion Btu per year, which is almsot 1/3 of all energy used in the nation. Data centers are consuming solid percentages of this energy, with the U.S. Department of Energy estimating in 2010 that 1.5% of all energy consumed in the US is through datacenters. This number was expected to grow at 12% per year, doubling in 5 years.
In Jan 2010 The Department of Energy announced a program investing $47 Million to “Improve Efficiency in Information Technology and Communications Sectors” (See: http://www.energy.gov/news/print/8491.htm ). The Recovery Act Projects in this effort are being focused on activities that will lower energy use by data centers and telecommunications systems.
Results of this fast moving program are already showing progress in some surprising ways.
Each project funded promises significant reductions in energy consumed by information technology and communications systems. After a $14 Million dollar grant, one company, YIIAFD, Inc., has already fielded a rather unique solution which is reducing data center energy consumption by unbelievable amounts.
YIIAFD, Inc has devised a proprietary means of reducing the need for energy in datacenters by up to 70%. Their Very Agile Support System (VASS) makes saving energy as easy as flicking a switch.
The VASS systems involves agressively reducing the computational power delivered thereby enabling a linear savings in power. As computational power is reduced, servers are turned off. Additionally, savings are generated by reducing the demand for heat, reducing the need for server space and even reducing the demand for servers themselves since now over half will not be required to deliver the reduced output of transactional and other processing power.
Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, highlights the importance of this effort: “I’ve long tried to help people understand the benefits of working on stuff that matters. Maybe we should consider the benefits of not working on anything and turning off computers for a while.”
Crucial Point LLC CTO Bob Gourley remarked “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this first, I could have told people turning off servers would save money, and I would not have charged $14 million for that, I would have only charged $13.9 million to tell them that.”
