Studies Say Feds Can Save $1 Billion with Energy Efficient Computers

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You probably never thought about it, but the largest single energy user in the U.S. is actually the federal government. Now, two new studies point out that the feds could save more than $1 billion in power costs over the next five years by switching to greener technologies.

The two reports -- funded by Hewlett-Packard and Intel –- say this substantial energy savings would result from deploying power-efficient computers, chips, software and other equipment and services to government data centers. The cuts could become the equivalent of removing 1.5 million cars from the road per year.

A number of easy solutions are readily available, from Energy Star-certified computers to the new (and not to mention upcoming) energy-sipping chips by HP, Intel and a number of other manufacturers, including VMware, IBM, Sun Microsystems, AMD and EMC.

Power use is becoming increasingly important in a soft economy, at a time when fossil fuel costs have risen dramatically, and when the world is becoming increasingly concerned about both air quality and global warming. Now the federal government needs to follow up on these recent studies and make more investments in energy efficiency and conservation.

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