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Goals

The Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) plays a key role in moderating data center energy demand by working with data centers to deploy energy management best practices and conduct supporting targeted research and development. Here you will learn about goals and activities that will help save energy in data centers. Some of the documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.

Resources
Photo showing a server room at a data center, including server racks, power supply, and air conditioning systems.

Fact Sheet

PowerPoint Presentations

  • April 2009 - DOE Data Center Energy Efficiency Program (PDF 1.7 MB)

  • November 2008 - Data Center Assessments to Identify Efficiency Opportunities (PDF 493 KB)

  • October 2008 - Save Energy Now - Data Center Briefing (PDF 3.9 MB)

Building on the successful Save Energy Now energy assessment model, ITP is working with data center owners and operators to benchmark data center energy use, identify opportunities to reduce energy, and adopt energy-efficient practices to:

  • Save 10 billion kWh per year by 2011
  • Reduce data center energy intensity 25% in 1,500 data centers from 2008 to 2011
  • Lead to common implementation of distributed generation systems at data centers
  • Achieve a data center infrastructure efficiency (DCiE) performance rating factor (information technology to total data center energy use) of 0.70 or more by more than 50% of large enterprise-class data centers.

DOE will also explore joint industry R&D opportunities by partnering with data center equipment suppliers, end users, and DOE's National Laboratories.

Activities

ITP will conduct the following activities to meet data center energy reduction goals:

  • Develop a suite of data center software tools to identify and evaluate energy efficiency opportunities in data centers
  • Issue a cost-shared solicitation for R&D projects that increase the energy efficiency of server-based information and communication technology systems found in the nation's data centers and in telecommunications central offices
  • Certify 200 people by 2011 in the latest energy management best practices and tools through the Data Center Certified Energy Practitioner Program
  • Publish case studies of energy efficiency success stories based on pilot energy assessments
  • Partner with The Green Grid and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers on data center awareness trainings and training materials.