When one thinks of green, the first thought that comes to mind probably is not a chilly warehouse packed sky-high with servers. Yet in the energy-efficiency world, that’s exactly what where an increasingly amount of focus is going to — data centers.
Data centers are used by companies to store Web servers and associated computer equipment. And the behemoth buildings, which typically take up hundreds of thousands of square feet, are huge energy hogs, requiring large amounts to power the equipment, as well as air conditioning to keep the servers from overheating. In 2006, the government reported that data centers consumed 1.5 percent of all electricity in the U.S., costing $4.5 billion, and projected the energy use could nearly double by 2011, costing $7.4 billion a year.
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