NREL Launches Efficient Data Center

Data centers in the U.S. use about 1.5 percent of national electricity use as of 2006. The NREL facility will require as much as one megawatt of electrical power to run.

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is getting ready to open the doors to the world's most energy efficient high-performance computing (HPC) data center.

The Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) will require as much as one megawatt of electrical power to run, and is the first data center "dedicated solely to advancing energy systems integration, renewable energy research, and energy efficiency technologies."

According to the NREL press release, the data center system will cost $10 million, which is the average price of a conventional data center system of the same kind. But with its energy efficient properties, the building will actually cost less to build and will be less expensive to operate.

"Compared to a typical data center, we are looking at saving almost $1 million per year in operation costs for a data center that cost less to build than a typical data center," said Steve Hammond, director of NREL's Computational Science Center.

A year-long study from the New York Times found that there are tens of thousands of data centers using up electrical power across the globe today. An estimated one-third of the data centers is located in the U.S., and use about 1.5 percent of national electricity usage as of 2006.

"Data centers' energy, carbon, and environmental footprints can be reduced significantly however, resulting in economic, social, and environmental gains and benefits."

Source: Clean Technica

By Gaylen Davenport