[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6122\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EMeeting the hidden cost of IT\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd it\u2019s rising fast, as more and more people use their smartphones to do their shopping, hail taxis, meet friends and read their daily newspapers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Data centres are very open to analysing options and solutions because they know that energy costs will increase in the future and are increasing now,\u2019 said Dr Jaume Salom, whose EU-funded RenewIT project is helping tech firms to envisage how much energy saving techniques can help them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe more efficient that data centres become, the greater proportion of their energy can be sourced from renewable sources such as solar power and wind.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Our vision is that before applying any kind of renewable you have to make an effort to reduce your energy consumption as much as possible,\u2019 Dr Salom said. \u2018Once you have decreased your energy consumption you are in a good position to apply renewables.\u2019\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018Energy costs will increase in the future and are increasing now.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Jaume Salom, coordinator, RenewIT\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project is developing a tool that allows data centres to estimate the impact of using different\u0026nbsp;energy efficient measures and renewable energy sources in advance of putting these measures into place. It is being tested at eight data centres across Europe. \u0027The tools will focus redesign of data centres,\u0027 said Dr Salom.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne idea, known as free cooling, replaces the data centre\u2019s cooling system with outside air in the winter. It\u2019s already used in large data centres, but is uncommon in smaller ones. Such systems can work particularly well in areas of Europe that experience extremely cold winters, providing significant annual energy reductions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Salom hopes that by combining energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources data centres can reduce their primary energy consumption by 30-40 %.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunities could save money if the hot water from the data centre\u2019s cooling system was pumped into the local heating system, providing hot water for nearby residents.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s a solution developed by the EU\u2019s GreenDataNet project, which is investigating ways that data centres in urban environments can integrate with the surrounding infrastructure to make the whole system more efficient.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMicroservers\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut changing the way the data centres themselves function could have a major impact on the amount of energy they use. The idea is that instead of having one or two large servers per rack unit, you have tens of smaller much less powerful servers, known as microservers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese banks of microservers are more flexible, which improves their energy efficiency. The microservers in a rack unit can be switched on and off as required by the workload, reducing and increasing power consumption as necessary; while one large server has to run all the time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe blueprints for rack units that can include microservers have already been drawn up by the EU-funded CoolEmAll project in partnership with Christmann, a German IT company.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe blueprints are now available for other people to download and use, and Christmann is now working on their own versions for the mass market.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough implementing some of these solutions can be expensive, with electricity costs accounting for over 10 % of the running cost of a data centre according to data expert\u0026nbsp;Professor Jonathan Koomey \u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size: 13.0080003738403px; line-height: 1.538em;\u0022\u003Eat Stanford University in the US,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size: 13.0080003738403px; line-height: 1.538em;\u0022\u003Ethey can reduce costs in the long term helping European businesses to become more competitive.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-cn5rg7chhhmx1v4eafs6hnygdqiqeeuz2kvmhrjbg6o\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-CN5rg7CHhhMX1v4eafs6hNygDQIqeeuZ2KVmHRjbg6o\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]