Data Center EvoSwitch Named Energy-Efficient Example by German Environment Ministry

Posted on: 03-02-2009

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Report shows 11 ‘best practices’ for green data centers worldwide 

The German Federal Environment Ministry has just recently published a report with ‘best-practices’ in the area of green data-center initiatives in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Among the eleven energy-efficient data centers worldwide described in the report is EvoSwitch, the Dutch carrier-neutral data center with its CO2-neutral operations.

The German Federal Environment Ministry prepared the report with ‘the world’s best practices’ based on research by the Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (Borderstep.de). The report is intended as an eye-opener and incentive for other information technology and data center managers, as well as suppliers of data center equipment, to take social responsibility for energy use in data centers. Available in German and English, the report not only targets Germany, but is also intended for distribution in ‘Brussels’.

Data Center Germany
“Energy use by servers and data centers in Germany was 10.1 TWh in 2008,” says Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel in the preface of the report. “That’s twice as much as in 2000. Unless we take extra measures in data centers, Germany can expect to see a substantial increase in CO2 emissions. However, if data centers would follow the example of these innovative data centers, Germany alone would be able to reduce its power consumption by a total of 25.8 TWh until 2013, and thus reduce its CO2 emissions by 15.3 million tons and achieve a total cost savings of 3.5 billion euros.”

‘EvoSwitch remarkably energy-efficient’
The report describes the technologies that in 2008 enabled EvoSwitch to achieve a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) rate of 1.6, or an energy savings of 40 percent compared to traditional data centers. In fact, the near-term goal is to achieve a PUE of 1.3 to 1.2, or an energy savings of 70 to 80 percent compared to traditional data centers. “A remarkably efficient result for such a large data center,” say the researchers of Borderstep.

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