US servers need equivalent power of 4 million homes

Stan Beer
Friday, 16 February 2007 10:21

Your IT - Home IT

A new study has found that US data centers consume the energy equivalent to five large power plants, enough to power about 4 million homes and costing US$2.7 billion each year.

The findings of the study, commissioned by AMD, were presented in a keynote address at the LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit in New York, by Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division of the chipmaker.

The study, authored by Professor Jonathan Koomey, staff scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and consulting professor, Stanford University, found that in 2005, in the US alone, data centers and their associated infrastructure consumed five million kW of energy, the equivalent of five 1,000 MW power plants.

The cost of US data centers is a large 37.5% chunk of the US$7.2 billion annual spend on global data centers.

"Though we have long known that data centers worldwide consume a significant amount of energy, AMD believes Dr. Koomey’s findings are a wake-up call not just for the IT industry, but also for global business, government and policy leaders," said AMD’s Allen in his address.

"This study demonstrates that unchecked demand for data center energy use can constrain growth and present real business challenges. New generations of energy-efficient servers are now able to help provide IT departments with a path to reduce their energy consumption while still achieving the performance they require."