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new paper on energy performance in data centers

  • From: Fred Heutte
  • Date: Tue Dec 09 03:24:30 2008

A little more mundane than B-movie-set data center deco.

cheers from foggy Poznan, Poland*

fh

*see my new (non-ops) web log: climateobservatory.wordpress.com

------ mail forwarded, original message follows ------

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected] <UC Energy Institute>
Subject: NEW EDT Working Paper
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:17:55 -0800

*University of California Energy Institute's
**New Energy Development and Technology (EDT) Working Paper Series**
*______________________________________________________________


    *EDT-014*

*"Improving the Energy Performance of Data Centers**"*

*
*

*Arpad Horvath and Arman Shehabi*
University of California, Berkeley


_Abstract:_

Data centers greatly impact California?s natural environment and
economy.  These buildings host computer equipment that provide the
massive computational power, data storage, and global networking that is
integral to modern information technology.  The concentration of densely
packed computer equipment in data centers leads to power demands that
are much higher than those of a typical residence or commercial office
building.  Data centers typically consume 15 times more energy per
square foot than a typical office building and, in some cases, may be
100 times more energy intensive (Greenberg et al. 2003).  Nationally,
data centers consumed 61 Terawatt hours in 2006; equivalent to the
practical power generation of more than 10, 1 Gigawatt nuclear power
plants (Brown et al., 2007).  This is approximately equal to annual
electricity consumption for the entire state of New Jersey (EIA, 2006).
California has the largest data center market in the U.S., indicating
that a significant portion of this energy is consumed within the State
(Mitchell-Jackson, 2001).

This research project focused on identifying how data centers are
currently designed and exploring potential energy saving associated with
alternative building design options.  The energy savings were quantified
to understand when design changes resulted in significant benefits and
when the benefits from alternative designs were minimal.  The potential
energy savings benefits were juxtaposed against changes to the
environmental conditions in data centers and evaluated within the
context of computer reliability concerns.  The objective of this
research is to provide data center designers and other decision makers
with a better understanding of the benefits and concerns associated with
data center energy efficiency, thereby reducing the unknown consequences
that may hinder attempts to shift away from conventional design practices.

Download this paper in Adobe Acrobat format:
http://www.ucei.berkeley.edu/PDF/EDT_014.pdf

*The document can be downloaded or viewed using Adobe's Acrobat Reader
(version 4.0 or later). If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can
download it from Adobe. To DOWNLOAD the documents right mouse click on*
*the name and then click again on* *"Save link as..."  All EDT working
papers can be downloaded **free of charge from the UCEI website:
http://www.ucei.org <http://www.ucei.org/>**.