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Tag:

efficiency

“Zombie” Servers and Inefficiency Drive Energy Waste at Data Centers

“Zombie” Servers and Inefficiency Drive Energy Waste at Data Centers

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In nearly 3 million data centers across the United States, some 12 million machines serve up the emails, web pages, and files we access online every day. They’re the repositories of all our computerized information.

The high energy demand of those servers is well documented, but up to 30 percent of them are drawing power without actually doing anything.

These “zombie,” or comatose, servers are among the examples of energy waste documented in a report about U.S. data centers released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). If those facilities were to cut electricity consumption by 40 percent—half of what is possible using the tools now available to improve efficiency—the electricity savings would amount to $3.8 billion and 39 billion kilowatt-hours, according to the report.

That’s enough to power 3.5 million American homes.

Large companies such as Google, Facebook, eBay, and Microsoft are already highly efficient, a result of major resources and huge scale, but their share of electricity use is just 5 percent of total data center consumption in the United States.

“Our concern is more about the other 95 percent,” said Pierre Delforge, who co-authored the new report, which focuses on corporate data centers, small- and mid-size server rooms, and firms that manage data for a variety of clients, which are called multi-tenant data centers.

Underworked Servers

One of the main ways that data centers use energy is to keep all those large, humming server machines cool. The industry has made significant progress in this area, some using upgraded systems that can generate power from waste heat or use outside air in cooler climates. (See related stories: “KPMG Captures Heat for Data Center Cooling” and “National Snow and Ice Data Center Gets Cool Makeover“)

But how the machines themselves are being operated leaves a lot of room for improvement, the report finds. That millions of servers are running at only 10 to 15 percent capacity—or, in the case of zombie servers, at zero, is “one of the lesser known issues,” Delforge said.

Useless servers tend to stay powered up because no one is aware of them, or no one wants to take the risk of unplugging them in case they are wanted at some point down the road. “It’s like an airline flying 30 percent of its planes empty, and the rest of its fleet with an average of less than 15 percent of its seats filled,” Delforge said. But as the report notes, data center managers tend not to get in trouble for keeping comatose servers online—their job is to make sure servers don’t go down.

The NRDC report highlights the fact that at many data centers, the people managing the equipment are focused on keeping data secure and functioning properly. The electric bill goes somewhere else: a different department at the same company, perhaps, or to the external customer in the case of a multi-tenant data center.

Bill Tschudi, who has worked for about 15 years on data center efficiency and leads those efforts at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, said the larger Internet companies have made a lot of advances in recent years.

“But then you look at the rest of the market, and there’s been no progress,” he said, noting that smaller data centers in particular lack the resources and expertise to make significant changes. “That part of the market really needs to be reached. People are operating the way they were ten or 15 years ago, and the industry’s kind of moved on since then.”

Many small companies “are not even aware that their server room is a large energy hog and might be responsible for 30 to 50 percent of the entire electricity bill,” Delforge said. “It’s just not the top of the priority list.”

Similarly, companies that outsource to multi-tenant data centers likely have no idea how electricity use factors into the bill, instead paying a flat fee for a block of server space. Most data centers are not disclosing to customers—or anyone else—how much energy they use, Delforge said.

Overcoming the “Fear Factor”

IO, a Phoenix-based multi-tenant data center provider that contributed information to the NRDC report, has designed systems that allow it to measure energy efficiency in real time.

“Energy inefficiency is money left on the table,” said Patrick Flynn, group leader of applied intelligence and sustainability at IO. “Why somebody would leave it there means that there must be some nuanced barrier to adopting that change. We see that in the data center world.”

Part of the barrier is a lack of insight at many facilities into just how much inefficiency there is. The industry has no agreed-upon standard for gauging how hard a server is working. Setting a simple metric for server utilization, and disclosing the figures, the NRDC report argues, would “help resolve one of the biggest efficiency issues in data centers: underutilization of servers.”

At many data centers, aversion to risk can make managers wary of trying new things. “The fear factor in the data center world is that if you’re operating OK now, don’t change anything because you could upset the systems, and if some systems go down, then somebody’s going to get fired,” said Tschudi.

The NRDC recommends that data centers set common goals for efficiency among corporate executives and information technology managers alike. It also advocates for more investment in efficient equipment, pricing models that include incentives for efficiency, and more integration of renewable energy, a point also made in a Greenpeace report on data centers released in April. “This is a complex issue,” Delforge said. “There is no silver bullet.”

IO’s Flynn said that the data center sector has been “left behind” on efficiency even as it has helped streamline other industries such as airlines and healthcare. His firm is building energy savings into its business strategy, aiming to compete by offering its clients more visibility into how much energy their servers are consuming and where they might maximize efficiency. “We’ve got a strategy of passing savings on to customers,” he said.

Delforge echoed the idea that data centers have lagged in the productivity and efficiency that they have enabled in other sectors. “We want to make sure that this is not perceived as ‘data centers are bad,’ ” he said. “For data centers to be part of the solution in terms of having a more efficient economy, they need to start cutting the waste in their own backyard.”

Article by Christina Nunez of National Geographic, appearing courtesy 3BL Media.



August 27, 2014 0 comment
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Solar Plant in Israel is Now Self-Cleaning

written by CleanTechies Staff

Developing large solar power plants in the desert makes a lot of sense in many ways.  Wide swaths of land coupled with unobstructed sunlight makes for a compelling case.  One of the drawbacks of being located in the desert is the dust that gets kicked up by the winds which eventually settles on the surface of the solar panels located nearby.  The efficiency of the panels dwindles and time, money, manpower, and water is spent to constantly clean the panels.

Located in the Negev desert, the Ketura Sun solar park spans 20 acres and produces 9 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.  The manual cleaning process takes approximately 5 days and can pose a risk to the cleaners but also sensitive equipment.  Without cleaning, the efficiency of the panels could drop by as much as 35 percent.

Thanks to Ecoppia, the Ketura Sun solar park no longer has to worry about dust or expend time and money to manually clean the panels.  The panels are now cleaned nightly by Ecoppia E4 robots that clean 54 square feet in 30 seconds.  The robots use a rotating microfiber brush and an airflow cleaning system to remove 99 percent of the dust build-up.  No water is required.  No additional energy is required either.  The robots are powered by their own solar panels and battery system.



April 1, 2014 1 comment
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New York City Bets On Energy Efficiency To Boost Sustainability

New York City Bets On Energy Efficiency To Boost Sustainability

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The world needs to make a transition to renewable energy as part of a global sustainability project, but until solar, wind and other renewables​ become the norm, there’s one solution that is available​ now: energy efficiency. More energy efficient buildings means less energy and fewer emissions, besides huge savings. However, financing projects is not always easy, since payback is not immediate, ​putting lenders off.

But New York City is looking at this issue in a different light, thanks to two initiatives. New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (NYCEEC) and the recently launched New York State green bank are offer​ing ​solutions for clean energy financing in New York City and State, respectively. They leverage expertise and financial resources to convert inefficient buildings into clean, high-performing investments. Best of all, they can offer custom-built financing options that are too attractive for building owners to turn down.

“Clean energy building upgrades have an important role to play in the new Mayor’s promise to increase affordable housing in NYC, and innovative financing program’s like those offered through the city and state’s green banks are exactly what New York needs to ensure a greener, cleaner, and more affordable living experience,” wrote Susan Leeds, NYCEEC’s CEO, in a recent blog post.

​Take the example of ​LEEDS highlighted Franklin Plaza, a Mitchell-Lama housing co-op in East Harlem that has taken advantage of the city’s new energy finance offerings. Franklin Plaza recently closed on the first tranche of its $3.8 million loan through the NYC Housing Development Corporation’s (HDC) Program for Energy Retrofit Loans, a program enabled by HDC’s partnership with NYCEEC. ​THis investment will result in measurable environmental benefits: ​a 15 percent reduction in energy use, which equals a ​30 ​percent reduction in carbon emissions.

NYCEEC recently announced $50 million in financing available through a range of products and partnerships. These include equipment loans, mortgage lending, credit enhancements and energy services agreements, ​covering a range of services and upgrades to improve the performance of a building.

Article by Antonio Pasolini of Justmeans, appearing courtesy 3BL Media.



March 5, 2014 0 comment
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Where’s the Real Utility Leadership?

written by Walter Wang

Yesterday, the utility trade association EEI and NRDC released a Joint Statement to State Utility Regulators that has created some attention for being a purported “kumbaya” moment in the debate around rates and net metering in our increasingly solar powered electricity landscape. While we appreciate efforts to move the debate forward, it’s

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February 17, 2014 0 comment
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Green Charge Networks Uses Storage to Smooth Out Peak Demand

written by Walter Wang

Although everyone enjoys the numerous benefits of electricity delivered to their home, no one likes to pay the bills. Perhaps that’s due to an intuition that energy is inherently free, or maybe we just don’t like paying bills. In fact, it’s the availability of energy that we are actually paying for, as much if not more than the energy itself.

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February 12, 2014 0 comment
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What Makes a Thermostat “Smart”?

written by Walter Wang

You may have heard the big news recently about Google acquiring smart thermostat manufacturer, Nest Labs, for $3.2 billion. But why would tech giant Google be willing to pay so much money for thermostats?

First off, if you’re unfamiliar with the term “smart

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February 10, 2014 0 comment
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2015 Ford F-150 Update Promises Major Fuel Savings

written by Walter Wang

Perhaps the most talked about vehicle to come out of this year’s international auto show season is the redesigned Ford F-150. For 2015, Ford will bring dramatic efficiency improvements to its best-selling line of pick-ups—the most important of which will come from substantial weight reductions.

By switching to an aluminum body, and increasing

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February 6, 2014 0 comment
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Model Sustainability and Green Building Initiatives for a More Verdant City and Town

written by Walter Wang

A package of local government bills introduced on January 29th aim to ensure that Montgomery County, Maryland remains at the sustainability forefront. The legislation submitted by Councilmember Roger Berliner is a model for local government environmental and energy initiatives, at a time when there is an anti-LEED v4 bill in the Maryland

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February 4, 2014 0 comment
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Seahawks vs. Broncos: Sustainability Highlights for the Teams and Super Bowl XLVIII

written by Walter Wang

With the Seattle Seahawks getting ready to play the Denver Broncos this weekend in Super Bowl XLVIII, here at ENN, we are not only focused on the game, but we are also interested in the sustainability efforts of the stadiums and the teams.

As for this year’s Super Bowl, MetLife Stadium

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January 29, 2014 1 comment
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European Union to Cut Emissions by 40% by 2030

written by Edouard Stenger

The European Union has long been regarded as a leader on climate change. Now it appears to becoming a laggard as the EU has unveiled unambitious goals for 2030.

If in 2007 the EU led the fight on climate change with an impressive triple goal of 20 percent emissions reductions by 2020, 20 percent renewables and 20 percent increased energy efficiency (compared to 1990), the situation is not the same now.

The European Commission pledged to cut emissions by 40 percent by 2030 as well as to cover 27 percent of its energy needs by renewables.

These goals are unambitious as the EU has almost reached its 20 percent emissions reduction goals, seven years ahead of schedule as we have seen in this previous article.

In 2012, this had led a majority of European Parliament members (MEPs) to call for increased action and 30 percent cuts by 2020. The MEPs who voted for such cuts believe that cutting EU emissions by 20 percent wouldn’t be sufficient to prevent global temperatures to warm by just 2°Celsius.

The European Commission’s decision of yesterday is even more puzzling when faced to the previous decision of cutting emissions by a minimum of 80 percent by 2050.

By agreeing to 40 percent cuts by 2030 it states that between 1990 and 2030 it will cut its emissions by one percentage point per annum and that in the remaining twenty years, it would cut them by two percentage point per annum.

As Kees van der Leun, a Dutch expert on climate and energy issues, noted on his Twitter : ” EU CO2 emission reduction from -18% now to -40% by 2030 is not even 2% per year. For 2050 target (-80..95%) we need sustained 4-7% per year! “

There is ample evidence that 40 percent emissions cuts won’t be enough. An example of this is the many negative reactions the European Commission decision brought from many newspapers such as the Financial Times, consultancies such as Ecofys and NGOs.

Let’s hope the vote by the European Parliament will bring more ambition. Our climate, our economies and our jobs are at stake.



January 25, 2014 1 comment
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ICC 700 Residential Green Certifications Will More Than Double in 2014

written by Walter Wang

Today there are 29,724 ICC 700 National Green Building Standard certified homes and lots. As the residential green code is on the cusp of eclipsing 30,000 certifications, more than a dozen governments across the country are evaluating adopting mandates or incentives tied to ICC 700.

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January 21, 2014 0 comment
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Energy Efficiency Market Face Financing, Big Data Challenges in 2014

written by Walter Wang

The efficiency industry, driven largely in 2013 by intelligent innovations such as energy management software and virtual audits, will face financing, big data, education and accountability hurdles this year, according to a survey of executives by GTM Research.

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January 8, 2014 0 comment
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Former New Jersey Governor Talks About Meeting State’s Energy Goals

written by Walter Wang

New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan (EMP), last revised in 2011, sets out the Garden State’s strategic vision for the use, management, and development of energy in our state over the next decade.

The EMP puts an emphasis on keeping energy costs down and continues to promote clean, alternative energy production and preparing for a challenging

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January 2, 2014 0 comment
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Out With The Old And In With The New – Light Bulbs That Is!

written by Walter Wang

As of January 1, 2014, 60 and 40 watt incandescent bulbs will no longer be manufactured or sold in the United States. Retailers will sell out what is on their shelves and not restock incandescents. George W. Bush signed the phase-out, which was called for by The Energy Independence and National Security Act, in 2007. The bill also

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December 24, 2013 0 comment
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