Asia Pacific Closing in on the US
Asia Pacific Closing in on the US
December 14, 2007: The Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan, is quickly closing in on the United States with its share of global server electricity use.
It what looks to be an indication of the progress of developing countries in the region, Asia/Pacific looks likely to increase its electricity catering for servers and data centres from 10 percent of worldwide utilisation in 2000, to 16 percent by 2010.
Meanwhile in a break from the usual energy hungry tradition of datacenters in the US, the North American region is actually expected to decrease its share from around 40 percent to about 33 percent of global server electricity US.
Putting the Asia Pacific growth in perspective, the report indicates the region’s additional energy use would be the equivalent in capacity terms to two 1000 megawatt power plants.
However in light of how quickly some aspects of the Asia Pacific region are developing, the predicted increased pull on energy to power datacentres could actually be less than expected. Countries like China, India and Indonesia have changed their IT capacity drastically over the last seven years; it was only a matter of time before this region caught up the US.
The news comes from a report released by AMD analysing worldwide shifting patters of datacentre energy use, conducted by Jonathan Koomey an analyst with IDC. Entitled, ‘Estimating Region Power Consumption By Servers, A Technical Note,’ the report finds worldwide energy use from servers and related equipment hit the 123 billion kWh mark in 2005, the equivalent of 14 typical nuclear or coal-burning plants.
According to Koomey, if current trends continue, we can expect to see energy consumption worldwide for servers and related equipment to grow by about 76 percent by 2010. It’s growth that Koomey maintains can be reduced by 20 percent if energy-efficency, technologies, processes and practices are adopted to reduce server sprawl and reduce cooling requirements.
“A lot of changes aren’t technology, but are institutional and people changes,” he says.
Larry Vertal, senior strategist for AMD Green says the findings can indicate the best steps forward for powering datacenters around the world in a way that minimises the impact on climate change. With coal providing 25 percent of global primary energy needs and generating 40 percent of the worlds electricity, Vertal suggest energy sources also need to be addressed.
“Clearly, we must work harder than ever to not only deliver more efficient server and cooling technology, but also just as importantly, to work with our industry and government partners to develop environmentally sustainable solutions in areas where swe see the most dramatic increases in energy use,” he says.