Climate protection needs energy efficient data centers - Stulz GmbH

2 Developments in Data Center Energy Requirements• 2.1 OverviewInformation and communication technology (ICT) isan important factor in modern economies: In Germanyalone, the Gross Value Added (GVA) of this sector hasgrown by almost 50 per cent since the mid 90s andnow exceeds that of the automobile and mechanicalengineering industries. In 2007 the German ICT markethad a volume of roughly 148 billion Euros. The sectoremploys around 800 000 staff and freelance personnelwith almost another one million ICT specialists workingin other sectors. At the same time, the ICT sector is oneof the main driving forces of economic growth. In theapplications sectors, investment in ICT leads to increasedlabour productivity and facilitates significant product andprocess innovations.In the past, however, these highly positive developmentsalso lead to a continual rise in ICT energy consumption.In a study 2 carried out on behalf of the Federal EnvironmentalMinistry, the Borderstep Institute estimates thatenergy consumption in German data centers more thandoubled between 2000 and 2006, rising from 3.98 billionkWh to 8.67 billion kWh. In fact, due to rises in the cost ofelectric power, data center energy costs have more thantrebled, rising from 251 million Euros to 867 millionEuros. If this trend continues, electricity costs are likely todouble yet again in the next five years.But the study also reveals that this trend can be reversedthrough the application of modern technologies, despitethe continuing increase in IT performance.The overall electricity consumption of data centers couldbe halved within the next five years if state-of-the-arttechnologies were used. Despite the probable rise in thecost of electric power, electricity expenditure in data centerswould still be significantly reduced. (Fig.1).Electricity Costsin millions of €18001674 m €1600140012001000867 m €801 m €800600400582 m €200251 m €02000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010„Current Efficiency Trend” scenario„State-of-the-Art” scenario„Best-Practice” scenarioDevelopment to dateFig. 1: Development of data center energy costs 3• 2.2 Energy consumers in the data centerAn analysis of Data Center equipment reveals that, onaverage, only about half the energy consumption isattributable to the IT systems themselves. The additionalessential infrastructure such as air conditioning and uninterruptiblepower supply (UPS) is responsible for the otherhalf. Fig. 2 shows the distribution of energy consumptionin the USA between the years 2000 and 2006. On the ITfront, the increased energy consumption is mainly attributableto the considerable rise in the number of volumeservers. The ever-increasing volume of data means thatenergy consumption in the storage sector has also risendramatically. Today it accounts for roughly 15% of theenergy demand generated directly by IT systems.6