Online Computing Becomes an Energy Hog: Consumption, Emissions Are Rising Fast

The Internet might help you shop online instead of burning gas to drive to the mall, but it's not the energy-saver you might think it is. In fact, the IT (information technology) industry is rapidly becoming an energy hog and a large producer of greenhouse gases.

A recent study by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, for example, found that energy consumption by data centers doubled between 2000 and 2006. And over the next four years, that consumption is expected to double again.

One survey of data center managers in the U.S. found that 42 percent are already worrying they won't have enough power to keep their operations going in the next two years. Those concerns appear justified when you consider the U.S. would have to build 10 new power plants over the next four years to meet the growing energy needs of data centers alone -- an unlikely achievement.

Last year, data centers in the U.S. accounted for 1.5 percent of all the nation's energy consumption, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While it doesn't sound like much now, imagine if that figure were to double, then double again in coming years: that's a serious dent in the country's energy supply.

Part of the problem is that data centers have been notorious energy wasters, operating at an average efficiency rate of only 56 percent. As one tech writer put it, that level of efficiency would mean bankruptcy if you were talking about hotels instead of data centers.

Another cause for concern is tighter energy supplies and higher energy prices. Both help put the squeeze on data center operations, which require lots of power not just to drive Internet servers but to keep those servers cool and working properly.

The combination of energy challenges is starting to wake up a lot of data center managers, as well as the utility companies that provide their power. Still, not as many IT people are taking the problem as seriously as they should. In fact, according to Environmental Leader, the data center industry has actually seen a drop in the number of companies pursuing green strategies, from 55 percent in 2007 to 51 percent this year.

On the plus side, some utility companies -- including Pacific Gas & Electric and Seattle City Light -- are considering incentives and rebates to help control their data center customers' energy demands. The U.S. government is also encouraging efficiency improvements in the IT industry: its National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program, provides a variety of resources, online and off, aimed at helping data centers run more efficiently.

IT managers concerned about their data centers' efficiency can also assess their energy performance using a neat online tool from Network World.

While efficiency might help tame the data center energy hog, there's a related problem the IT world must also tackle: greenhouse gas emissions. The recent McKinsey study, which used data from the Uptime Institute, found that data centers now generate more carbon emissions than the Netherlands and Argentina put together. By 2020, those emissions are expected to exceed those spewed out by the global airline industry.

What's the solution there? Part of the answer could lie with data centers that run on clean, renewable sources of energy: solar power, wind power, hydropower and even geothermal power. These green IT operations are just a small segment of the industry right now, but they're gaining favor with many customers who are concerned about the Internet's impact on climate and the environment.

If you include yourself in that category, you can find more information about carbon-neutral data centers at the Virtual Hosting Blog or at Suite101.com's guide to wind-powered Web hosts.