Tipping Point For Data Centers

Forbes.com (May 20 2009) Emissions , Cloud Computing , Servers

1. The continuing rise in the amount of electricity consumed by data centers is challenging our nation's grid capacity and infrastructure. We have reached a tipping point. Data-center energy use is now a very noticeable fraction of total supply available. When you count everything from mammoth data centers down to server closets, data-center electricity usage in the U.S. has doubled to 2% of total supply since 2000. And the numbers just keep getting worse. Data-center electricity use is growing at about 12% per year, which means we need to add about 1,000 megawatts of electricity-production capacity annually. That means two large 500-megawatt power plants, each of which costs $1 billion to $2 billion to build. This is money we could be spending on productive information technology equipment, rather than building fuel-fired plants that will emit massive amounts of carbon over their lifetime. (Read Full Article)

   Bookmark or Share this article

Login to comment.