IT energy efficiency examined by both the EC and US’s EPA

Another step towards datacentre energy efficiency could be taken next week at a European Community meeting to be held in London.

The 1 March session will be the first held by the Commission to investigate the possibility of a voluntary code of conduct.

Kevin Fisher, European standards manager at Intel, said he hoped to discover the chances of “a regulatory environment without a regulator”.

Fisher is also working with European computer makers group Ecma and benchmarking outfit Bapco on plans for the second tier of the US EPA’s Energy Star programme due in 2009. The effort includes building a model whereby desktop and mobile PCs can more quickly return from idle to active states.

“We need a more holistic assessment because the real inefficiency today is the idle mode,” Fisher said. “The active mode is only about six percent [of usage] and the big block is idle mode. If you can reduce power consumption in idle mode then even if you increase power consumption in sleep mode you still have a more energy-efficient computer.”

Fisher added that he expects the EPA to have developed an Energy Star badge for servers “in the 2009 timeframe”.

Intel also provided details of plans for its first “green building” in Haifa, Israel. The facility uses the internal datacentre’s waste heat to warm offices and water, and condensate water from the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning is used to irrigate the garden. Employees can set personal ventilation, temperature and lighting settings via a PC.