HP switches on renewable energy
www.yahoo.com 2007-11-29
HP is investing in renewable energy in the US and Ireland to try to reduce its carbon footprint.
The company has signed a contract with SunPower to install 5,000 solar-power panels in its San Diego facility. The installations will cover 10 percent of the energy used by the facility and save HP US$750,000 in power costs over 15 years.
HP also signed an agreement to buy wind energy from Airtricity, which has wind farms in the US and Europe. Airtricity will provide wind energy to HP's Ireland facilities in 2008, an effort that will save the company $40,000 for fiscal 2008. The investment will reduce HP's carbon-dioxide emissions by 40,000 tons, and make 90 percent of HP's energy use in Ireland renewable, the company said.
AMD already has a facility in Texas powered completely by renewable energy.
In the face of increased power demand by hardware and data centres, many companies are focused on reducing power consumption and going green, Christopher Mines, analyst at Forrester Research, wrote in a May report. System builders like HP, IBM and Dell are pouring significant resources into building recyclable IT devices and energy-efficient manufacturing operations, according to Mines.
Companies are also developing calculators, benchmarks and techniques for customers to measure and reduce power consumption, Mines wrote.
IBM recently announced the Systems Director Active Energy Manager, an energy management package that monitors power consumption, and makes adjustments in systems to improve energy efficiency and reduce power consumption .
(editor : jane)
