After years of preparation, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has introduced an Energy Star label system for data centers.

 

The launch of the system follows agreement between data center operators and technology vendors on key principles in February.

 

To earn the label, data centers must be in the top 25% of their peers in energy efficiency according to EPA’s energy performance scale.

 

The EPA uses the most commonly-accepted measure for data center energy efficiency, the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric, to determine whether a data center qualifies for the Energy Star label.

 

In order to be awarded the Energy Star, a licensed professional must independently verify the energy performance of the building, EPA said.

 

Data centers account for 1.5% of total US electricity consumption, and are expected to almost double this over the next five years. 

 

The EPA said that improving the energy efficiency of America’s data centers by just 10% “would save more than 6 billion kWh hours each year, enough to power more than 350,000 homes and save more than $450 million annually.”