US and European server power drain skyrockets

The consumption of power by servers and related cooling equipment around the globe doubled between 2000 and 2005, with Europe and the US consuming almost two-thirds of that power.
The report, Estimating Regional Power Consumption By Servers, A Technical Note, was sponsored by AMD and carried out by Jonathan Koomey of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Using research from IDC and others, the report highlighted how the US is the largest drain on power with 40 per cent, followed by Europe and Japan on 25 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
In total, the power consumed was estimated at 123bn kWh in 2005, which is equivalent to fourteen 1,000 megawatt (MW) power plants. The fastest-growing power user is the Asia-Pacific region, including China, India and Indonesia.
This area is growing faster than the industry average of 16 per cent and will account for 16 per cent of the power pie by 2010.
Koomey said: “If current trends continue, the US share of total world server electricity use will likely decline from 40 per cent in 2000 to about one-third by 2010, while the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) will increase from 10 per cent to about 16 per cent.
“The other regions will maintain roughly constant shares of the world total. In this scenario, growth from 2005 to 2010 in the Asia Pacific region’s server electricity use would be equivalent in capacity terms to two 1,000 MW power plants, while world growth from 2005 to 2010 (including the Asia-Pacific region) would sum to more than ten 1,000 MW power plants.”
Koomey said that the total power used by 2010 could be reduced by 20 per cent if firms applied energy-efficiency practices and technologies.
Larry Vertal, senior strategist for AMD Green commented: “With these findings we can begin to take steps, including examining how we can power data centres around the world while addressing impacts on global climate. For example, coal currently provides 25 per cent of global primary energy needs and generates 40 per cent of the world’s electricity.
“Clearly, we must work harder than ever to not only deliver more efficient server and cooling technology, but just as importantly, to work with our industry and government partners to develop environmentally sustainable solutions in areas where we see the most dramatic increases in energy use.”
Green data centres suffer setbacks