DOE awards $47M for energy-efficient IT projects

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $47 million for 14 projects to support the development of new technologies that can improve energy efficiency in the information technology (IT) and communication technology sectors including data processing, data storage and telecommunications.

The reason: Information technology and telecommunications facilities account for approximately 120 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually, or 3 percent of all U.S. electricity use, according to the DOE.

The energy-efficiency projects will reduce energy use and carbon pollution, along with energy costs, in these industries. “The expected growth of these industries means that new technologies adopted today will yield benefits for many years to come,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, in a statement

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is funding the research, development and demonstration projects in three areas:

• Equipment and software: These projects will focus on the core components of a data or telecommunications center, such as servers and networking devices as well as software to optimize equipment energy use.

  Projects include: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center ($1.6 million), SeaMicro Inc. ($9.3 million), Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs ($300,000) and California Institute of Technology ($300,000).

• Power supply chain: These projects will develop technologies to minimize the power loss and heat generation in server-based IT and communications systems.

  Projects include: Lineage Power Corporation ($2.4 million), BAE Systems ($222,000), Power Assure, Inc. ($5 million), Hewlett-Packard Company ($7.4 million) and Columbia University ($2.8 million).

• Cooling: This effort will demonstrate ways to cool the equipment used in IT and telecommunications work more effectively and with less power than current methods.

  Projects include IBM T.J. Watson Research Center ($2.3 million), Federspiel Controls, Inc. ($584,000), Yahoo! Inc. ($9.9 million), Alcatel-Lucent ($1.8 million) and Edison Materials Technology Center ($2.8 million).

The $47 million in federal funds for these projects will be matched by more than $70 million in private industry funding, for a total project value of more than $115 million.

Each project promises significant reductions in energy use, says DOE. As an example, Power Assure, Inc. estimates its new power management software, which more efficiently regulates server energy usage by turning servers off and on when needed, could reduce energy use by 50 percent in data centers and large server farms.

Federspiel Controls is developing a new dynamic cooling system that uses variable fan speeds, adjustable air inlets and wireless temperature sensors to continually monitor and adjust temperatures. The company estimates conventional static cooling systems now typically consume 25 percent of the energy used in a data center.

Click here for the complete list of grant awards.

Tags: Alcatel-Lucent, American Recovery And Reinvestment Act, Communications Sectors, Cooling, Data Centers, Data Processing, Data Storage, DOE, Energy Efficiency Projects, Energy Use, Federspiel Controls, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Information Technology, IT Projects, Power Assure, Power Supply Chain, Server Farms, Steven Chu, Telecommunications Systems

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Green Scene. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.