Modius Data Center Blog

The IT industry has focused a tremendous amount of attention to the concept of 'GREEN' over the past 5 years. Many of the players, both IT vendors and consumers of IT gear alike have created GREEN Officers or Sustainability Czars, and even whole organizations that focus on 'greening' a company or a product strategy. Green is timely and exciting and viewed as a good corporate citizen thing to do. However, the realities of COSTS are now beginning to materialize.

While it is very exciting to standup in front of your shareholders and articulate all of the GREEN initiatives in progress, there have been a number of recent 'green' projects conceived a few years ago that have been put 'on hold' pending funding. The reality of GREEN is that it COSTS money! It may cost money short term, or it may be long term. Green is not cheap. In some cases an ROI can be calculated to show savings over longer periods of time, in somes cases new technologies must be invented to make any difference in costs.

Consider the grocery store analogy. An organic pear may be 40% higher in cost than a 'generic' pear. Yes, everybody knows that organic is healthier, but how many people are willing to spend 20%-40% MORE for the Organic versions of their groceries? Oh sure, at first you tried a few, but the likelihood is that many of us switched back to regular foods and continue to buy non-Organic groceries due to cost.

Another gem... I priced a 5kW solar system for my house a year or two ago, and with a total cost of over $50K, I calculated the break-even point (after rebates!) to be 9 years! Hummm, so I would have to write a check for $50K, and then over the next 9 years would get my $50K back, and THEN I might start saving money...

In the world of IT, we have the same thing happening today. Many of the biggest companies that jumped into 'GREEN' early because they thought it was a good corporate citizen move while at the same time believing it would somehow save them money, are now finding that 'going green' COSTS money. REAL money! It may be an upfront cost with a 3-5 year payback, or it could be permanent ongoing costs. The fact is TODAY that a kW of power generated by Wind or Solar has a cost of 5-10 TIMES that of fossil fuel generate power. (See the URL: http://greenecon.net/understanding-the-cost-of-solar-energy/energy_economics.html).

Our best bet today is to use advanced monitoring to determine WHERE energy is being used, and how exactly how much by each application. This will set the stage for future investments in green technologies to be deployed. And remember, "Going Green" does NOT mean your energy efficiency is going to be better. You could running your entire data center on renewable power, but do so with a horrible PUE due to process and architecture problems. Wasting a watt is wasting a watt, regardless of where the watt came from.

We have the opportunity to push each other towards data center innovation, the creation of new power and cooling technologies, various regulatory reforms to spur investment even furthar and above all, demand accountability across the board.

With all of the efforts to get energy under control, it is not surprising that there are a number of new energy bills making their way through congress. One of the most 'spectacular' in-process bills with wide-ranging energy inferences is the Waxman-Markey Bill, or "HR2454". Officially it is called the "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009" and it has three basic parts. This summary is provided by the Congressional research Service as follows:

"American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 - Sets forth provisions concerning clean energy, energy efficiency, reducing global warming pollution, transitioning to a clean energy economy, and providing for agriculture and forestry related offsets. Includes provisions: (1) creating a combined energy efficiency and renewable electricity standard and requiring retail electricity suppliers to meet 20% of their demand through renewable electricity and electricity savings by 2020; (2) setting a goal of, and requiring a strategic plan for, improving overall U.S. energy productivity by at least 2.5% per year by 2012 and maintaining that improvement rate through 2030; and (3) establishing a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and setting goals for reducing such emissions from covered sources by 83% of 2005 levels by 2050."

So what does this mean for us? Well, the first point is a good one: Energy Suppliers will have to create at least 20% of their power from renewable sources over the next 10 years. Like Solar and Wind power. Sounds good huh? Green as it gets. The only drawback to you and me is cost. Green is expensive. Using today's technologies, Green power will increase the price per kW for residential, commercial and industrial users. Greening is good for the environment, but will increase the rate at which power bills go UP. Nothing in life is FREE.

The second point is where we can all get more actively involved. Personally. For the next 20 years, we are all expected to help the nation become 2.5% (year over year) more efficient in our use of power at home and at work. Every year, 2.5% more effective, compounded. To do so, we'll all be buying CFLs and LED lights, using more microwave ovens, and during the summer at work we'll all enjoy the same 76-degree office temperatures that our datacenters will be driven to. Energy Efficiency is the name of the game! The car makers will also step up and happily sell us hybrid and BEV vehicles to help do their part. (Have you seen the new CODA Automotive BEV cars? Cool.)

Lastly, the bill states that we (the country) need to reduce total Carbon emissions by more than 80% of the level that we saw in 2005... but we have 40 years to do so. Hummm... Imagine the amount of change required in these 40 years to reduce carbon emssions by 80%, but then again, consider what life was like 40 years ago in 1970; The commercial cell phone didn't yet exist, nor did iPods and x86 computers, we hadn't seen Disco or StarWars yet, color TVs were just coming out and all the cars had V-8 engines! 

Actually, I am a huge proponent of this and similiar bills. It significantly raises the awareness that we ALL need to do something, NOW! Every light left on, every old server left spinning, every little piece counts. If we can all just get in the normal mode of saving energy because it's the right thing to do, then we all relish in the long-term rewards from doing so...