Computers and the environment | Buy our stuff, save the planet | Economist.com - The Diigo Meta page

• 11 Jun 08
  

  Jordan Wirfs-Brock

  computing data server energy electricity economist

  • The corollary of more computing in the sky is more and bigger data centres on earth. These are warehouses packed with humming electronic gear, and in particular thousands of servers, the powerful computers that crunch and dish up data. The biggest facilities are the size of half a dozen football pitches and house as many as 80,000 servers (see article). They are huge energy hogs: in America alone, according to the country's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), data centres already account for 1.5% of electricity consumption.
  • Data centres consumed 0.6% of the world's electricity in 2000, and 1% in 2005. Globally, they are already responsible for more carbon-dioxide emissions per year than Argentina or the Netherlands
• 28 May 08
  

  Andrew Smith

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