Energy Star for servers lined up for 2008

Servers could soon find themselves with energy efficient labelling

New labels for energy efficient servers could be in place by 2008 after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed in December that it plans to extend its Energy Star certification scheme to cover enterprise servers.

In a letter to leading manufacturers, Energy Star programme manager Andrew Fanara confirmed that the agency is beginning the process to develop an Energy Star specification for servers, adding that there was "compelling evidence of the need for this specification".

The EPA recently published a final draft of a metric for measuring server performance and is currently inviting industry comment on the energy measurement protocol. It hopes to replicate the success Energy Star has already seen in encouraging firms to buy more energy efficient PCs, printers, air conditioning units and lighting equipment.

Robin Murray, who is a consultant for DEFRA's market transformation programme and has worked on establishing the Energy Star system in the UK, said that it had proved difficult to develop an effective metric for measuring servers' energy efficiency due to the number of different configurations that can be used when measuring performance.

He argued that the proposed EPA protocol was likely to win industry support. "[The metric] is considerably more complicated than that developed for computers," he said. "But it was developed with participation from all the major server manufacturers and as long as the road tests go OK we expect to see it approved. The review period for PC metrics took about 18 months so we could see [Energy Star labeled servers] in 2008."

The EPA letter came a week after the European Union extended its support for the Energy Star labelling system, renewing its agreement to enforce Energy Star labelling on office equipment in European markets.

"Energy Star is one of the most recognisable brands in America," said EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock in a statement. "The renewal of this agreement even more firmly establishes Energy Star as the international symbol for energy efficiency."

The agreement also includes recently revised, and more challenging, technical specifications for imaging equipment and computers, which will come into effect later this year and measure energy efficiency across all modes of operation.