Laptop and desktop computers will need to get greener to qualify for a coveted Energy Star rating from the federal government. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has unveiled new power consumption standards that take effect July 20, 2007. The EPA claims by raising the energy efficiency bar, computers that carry its green seal of approval will be an average 65 percent more efficient than their conventional counterparts. According to the feds, if U.S. businesses bought only Energy Star computers, they’d save $1.2 billion in electricity costs over the next five years. If the government follows its own advice, it would eliminate 2 billion pounds of greenhouse gases a year.
Computer makers whose products qualify can emblazon the Energy Star logo on their cases – and are required to display the logo on the startup screen. Of course, they also can cash in on the cachet of being ecologically correct – no small advantage these days. (Curiously, though, most companies whose computers currently carry an Energy Star rating don’t seem to promote that fact.)
Now, this is all good and green but there’s an ozone-hole-over-the-Antarctic-sized gap here: the Energy Star program does not apply to computer servers, those supercharged electricity hogs that power Google and much of our economy. Sun Microsystems has been trying to capitalize on the efficiency of its servers with a green-themed advertising campaign – a postcard the company sent me this week highights the fact that a large server farm uses as much energy as a city of 40,000 people. But by including servers in the Energy Star program, the feds could give corporate buyers a quick and verifiable measure of energy efficiency and perhaps spark more competition among server makers.
Green Wombat 
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