new paper on energy performance in data centers

Fred Heutte aoxomoxoa at sunlightdata.com
Tue Dec 9 06:51:27 UTC 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: UCEI at berkeley.edu
From: UCEI at berkeley.edu <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/>**.






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