High-Tech Not So Clean After All

MANY ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS have told me that their locations are enamored of high-tech industries and electronics manufacturing, because those industries are "clean." On the face of it, that's true: you don't see thick columns of smoke rising from a chip fab, and a data center just sits there and processes without any waste product. No special environmental permits are needed, and no NIMBY issues bound to arise.

Just because it can't be seen or smelled doesn't mean that environmental damage isn't being done, though. This article, courtesy of WIRED magazine and the Associated Press, explains that facilities with a lot of computing horsepower under the (often inconspicuous) hood are flat-out energy hogs. This is especially true of data centers, which cram as many teraflops of processing power as possible into the space available, limited only by power and cooling capacity and the need for humans to occasionally be able to walk between the computer racks to swap out and upgrade hardware.

“Depending on the configuration and the equipment involved, as little as 30 to 40 percent of the juice flowing into a data center is used to run computers. Most of the rest goes to keeping the hardware cool, since heat saps performance.

"Unlike in other office space, that A/C cranks year-round, to overcome the 100-degree-plus air that the computers themselves throw off. That challenge has increased in recent years with the rise of compact 'blade' servers that are crammed into server racks."

"But," you may ask, "Doesn't the inevitable march of progress produce more energy-efficient computers all the time?" Yes it does (thank you for asking) -- but the economic interest in energy efficiency is to cram more computers in, not to reduce overall energy consumption. There's essentially no such thing as too much computing power. It's kind of like how automobile engines have become vastly more efficient since the 1970s, yet miles-per-gallon figures have risen only modestly overall. It's because we chose to use the efficiency gains for horsepower. There are many commuter cars today whose base engine generates more horsepower than a Corvette purchased during the first years of the 1970s oil embargo.

The EPA has joined in chastising the computing industry:

“A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the easiest, least inexpensive changes to data center operations - involving tweaks to software, layout and air conditioning - could boost efficiency by 20 percent.

"But even that level of improvement would still lead to higher overall electric use in the coming years. Going further, and actually reducing information-technology's strain on the electric grid, will require a more aggressive commitment. The EPA says 45 percent improvement - enough to lower electricity usage by 2011 - can be achieved with existing technologies.)"

I'm personally skeptical that there will be enough incentive for data centers to comply with any energy use limits. If I remember the future correctly, the machines will be so hungry for power that the only choice will be to breed us in captivity and tap our metabolisms to create the ultimate renewable energy resource...