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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Data Center Energy Efficiency

Private and public sector efforts are underway to reduce energy use in data centers and the Office of Management and Budget’s Data Center Optimization Initiative outlines the energy efficiency requirements and strategies for federal data centers. The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) helps federal agencies meet these requirements. FEMP sponsors the Center of Expertise for Energy Efficiency in Data Centers (CoE), which helps federal agencies and other organizations implement data center energy efficiency projects by supplying technical support, tools, best practices, analyses, and the introduction of technologies. The CoE, located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, partners with key public and private stakeholders to further efficiency efforts

Center of Expertise for Energy Efficiency in Data ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Data Center Energy Efficiency

Fact sheet describes how the Federal Energy Management Program helps federal agencies implement data center energy efficiency projects.

Kam, Kendall [US Department of Energy (USDOE) Fede↗
DOE OSTI2011

Recovery Act: Federspiel Controls (now Vigilent) and State of California Department of General Services Data Center Energy Efficient Cooling Control Demonstration. Final technical project report

Eight State of California data centers were equipped with an intelligent energy management system to evaluate the effectiveness, energy savings, dollar savings and benefits that arise when powerful artificial intelligence-based technology measures, monitors and actively controls cooling operations. Control software, wireless sensors and mesh networks were used at all sites. Most sites used variable frequency drives as well. The system dynamically adjusts temperature and airflow on the fly by analyzing real-time demands, thermal behavior and historical data collected on site. Taking into account the chaotic interrelationships of hundreds to thousands of variables in a data center, the system optimizes the temperature distribution across a facility while also intelligently balancing loads, outputs, and airflow. The overall project will provide a reduction in energy consumption of more than 2.3 million kWh each year, which translates to $240,000 saved and a reduction of 1.58 million pounds of carbon emissions. Across all sites, the cooling energy consumption was reduced by 41%. The average reduction in energy savings across all the sites that use VFDs is higher at 58%. Before this case study, all eight data centers ran the cooling fans at 100% capacity all of the time. Because of the new technology, cooling fans run at the optimum fan speed maintaining stable air equilibrium while also expending the least amount of electricity. With lower fan speeds, the life of the capital investment made on cooling equipment improves, and the cooling capacity of the data center increases. This case study depicts a rare technological feat: The same process and technology worked cost effectively in eight very different environments. The results show that savings were achieved in centers with diverse specifications for the sizes, ages and types of cooling equipment. The percentage of cooling energy reduction ranged from 19% to 78% while keeping temperatures substantially within the limits recommended by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) for data center facilities.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Improving Data Center Energy Efficiency Through End-to-End Cooling Modeling and Optimization. Final Report

This report summarizes the development and demonstration of the three features developed for the DOE project “Improving Data Center Energy Efficiency through End-to-End Cooling Modeling and Optimization” (Award No. DE-EE0007688). The development of the three software features, Feature 1: Optimization of Cooling System Operation, Feature 2: Optimization of Airflow Management System, and Feature 3: Simultaneous Optimization of Airflow Management and Cooling Systems, are described first. Feature 1 is implemented in Phase 1 of the project and demonstrates 15% energy savings from cooling system optimization by applying the proposed retrofit solutions. Feature 2 is implemented in Phase 2 and the assessments show cooling energy-saving potential between 19.3% and 54.0%, depending on the energy-saving measures employed. In addition, investigating the energy saving potential for a hypothetical simple data center shows about 6.8% energy savings by optimizing the server load placement. Feature 3 is implemented in Phase 3 and the results show energy savings of 53.4% and 74.6% for the two partner data centers, respectively, compared to the baselines defined in Phase 1. Lastly, the project outcomes including software releases and publications are discussed.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2011

Reducing Data Center Loads for a Large-Scale, Net Zero Office Building

In constructing a new research facility for its campus, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) project team identified the opportunity to design a world-class, energy-efficient data center to support its operations. NREL’s efforts resulted in a highly efficient data center that demonstrated considerable energy savings in its first 11 months of operations. Using legacy data center performance as a baseline, the new facility cut energy use by nearly 1,450,000 kWh, delivering cost savings of approximately $82,000. The data center’s average total load was 165 kW less than the legacy center’s average total load, resulting in a 60% reduction in overall power. Finally, the limited use of cooling and fan energy enabled the new data center to achieve a 1.16 average power utilization effectiveness (PUE) rating, compared to the legacy data center’s PUE of 2.28.

Reducing, Data, Large-Scale, Net-Zero, Office, Bui↗
DOE OSTI2018

Data center growth in the United States: Decoupling the demand for services from electricity use

Data centers are energy intensive buildings that have grown in size and number to meet the increasing demands of a digital economy. This paper presents a bottom-up model to estimate data center electricity demand in the United States over a 20 year period and examines observed and projected electricity use trends in the context of changing data center operations. Results indicate a rapidly increasing electricity demand at the turn of the century that has significantly subsided to a nearly steady annual electricity use of about 70 billion kWh in recent years. While data center workloads continue to grow exponentially, comparable increases in electricity demand have been avoided through the adoption of key energy efficiency measures and a shift towards large cloud-based service providers. Alternative projections from the model illustrate the wide range in potential electricity that could be consumed to support data centers, with the US data center workload demand estimated for 2020 requiring a total electricity use that varies by about 135 billion kWh, depending on the adoption rate of efficiency measures during this decade. While recent improvements in data center energy efficiency have been a success, the growth of data center electricity use beyond 2020 is uncertain, as modeled trends indicate that the efficiency measures of the past may not be enough for the data center workloads of the future. The results show that successful stabilization of data center electricity will require new innovations in data center efficiency to further decouple electricity demand from the ever-growing demand for data center services.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Using Thermosyphon Hybrid Cooling System to Optimize Data Center Water Efficiency

Fact sheet describes a Federal Energy Management Program Federal Energy and Water Management Award-winning project that deployed an innovative thermosyphon cooler (TSC) as a test bed on the roof of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). In combination with existing evaporative towers, the TSC forms an extremely water-and cost-efficient hybrid cooling system.

Data Center↗
DOE OSTI2020

HPC at NREL: FY 2019

Brochure featuring Fiscal Year 2019 accomplishments at the NREL High-Performance Computing User Facility and Data Center at the Energy Systems Integration Facility, including information on the facility's HPC systems as well as highlights from several modeling and simulation projects across the spectrum of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Energy Efficiency Finance Programs: Use Case Analysis to Define Data Needs and Guidelines

There are over 200 energy efficiency loan programs—across 49 U.S. states—administered by utilities, state/local government agencies, or private lenders.1 This distributed model has led to significant variation in program design and implementation practices including how data is collected and used. The challenge of consolidating and aggregating data across independently administered programs has been illustrated by a recent pilot of an open source database for energy efficiency financing program data. This project was led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Investor Confidence Project, the Clean Energy Finance Center (CEFC), and the University of Chicago. This partnership discussed data collection practices with a number of existing energy efficiency loan programs and identified four programs that were suitable and willing to participate in the pilot database (Diamond 2014).2 The partnership collected information related to ~12,000 loans with an aggregate value of ~$100M across the four programs. Of the 95 data fields collected across the four programs, 30 fields were common between two or more programs and only seven data fields were common across all programs. The results of that pilot study illustrate the inconsistencies in current data definition and collection practices among energy efficiency finance programs and may contribute to certain barriers.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advanced Computing Annual Report 2022

National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) high-performance computing (HPC), efficient data center operation, and state-of-the-art data visualization powered over 300 clean energy projects in Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22). 555 scientists and engineers utilized HPC resources to assess and integrate data into their research. The report highlights the arrival of new HPC Kestrel in 2023, the contributions of the Insight Center, and researchers looking into bias in artificial intelligence, alongside key research collaborations using advanced computing.

advanced computing↗
DOE OSTI2018

Development of Intelligent Monitoring System (IMS) Modules for the Aquistore CO 2 Storage Project

The monitoring data generated at a CO 2 storage site can quickly result in large amounts of data, often requiring significant labor- and time-intensive efforts to process and analyze before being able to make operational decisions. Implementing an intelligent monitoring system (IMS) can reduce the associated data-processing and analysis costs, which can thereby improve the efficiency of the monitoring process and enable real-time operational decision-making. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) has completed a 3-year project focused on developing an IMS comprising new workflows, algorithms, and a user interface for the automation and integration of geologic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) storage site-monitoring and simulation data. The design for the IMS was based on using injection and monitoring data acquired from Aquistore, an operating CO 2 storage project. Managed by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre, the Aquistore Project is injecting CO 2 captured from SaskPower’s coal-fired Boundary Dam Power Station into a deep saline formation for geologic storage. Using data from the Aquistore Project provided a real-world basis to develop an IMS.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2012

Recovery Act: SeaMicro Volume Server Power Reduction Research Development

Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to IDC. Increasingly people and businesses rely on the Cloud to deliver digital content quickly and efficiently. Recovery Act funding from the Department of Energy has helped SeaMicro's technologies enhance the total cost of operation, performance and energy efficiency in large data center and Cloud environments. SeaMicro's innovative supercomputer fabric connects thousands of processor cores, memory, storage and input/output traffic. The company's fabric supports multiple processor instruction sets. Current systems featuring SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core. Mozilla and eHarmony are two customers successfully using SeaMicro's technology. Numerous non-public customers have been successfully using the SeaMicro product in test and production facilities. As a result of the Recovery Act funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 50 direct jobs were created at SeaMicro. To date, they primarily have been high-value, engineering jobs. Hardware, software and manufacturing engineering positions have been created, as well as sales and sales engineering. The positions have allowed SeaMicro to significantly accelerate engineering development and accelerate commercialization. As a result, commercialization and delivery to market are months ahead of initial schedule. Additional jobs were indirectly created through the development of the SeaMicro product. Through many years of research and hard work prior to receipt of public funding, SeaMicro was awarded 2 patents for its work. SeaMicro's product led the way for industry leaders to reconsider the market for low power servers and create new product lines. With valuable support of the U.S. Department of Energy and through SeaMicro's product, the market has been reshaped by the company's unique approach and ground breaking technology.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2012

MIT - Mighty Steps toward Energy Sustainability

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and implement solutions to retrofit existing buildings to reduce energy consumption by at least 30% as part of DOE’s Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP) Program.1 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) provided technical expertise in support of this DOE program. MIT is one of the U.S.’s foremost higher education institutions, occupying a campus that is nearly 100 years old, with a building floor area totaling more than 12 million square feet. The CBP project focused on improving the energy performance of two campus buildings, the Ray and Maria Stata Center (RMSC) and the Building W91 (BW91) data center. A key goal of the project was to identify energy saving measures that could be applied to other buildings both within MIT’s portfolio and at other higher education institutions. The CBP retrofits at MIT are projected to reduce energy consumption by approximately 48%, including a reduction of around 72% in RMSC lighting energy and a reduction of approximately 55% in RMSC server room HVAC energy. The energy efficiency measure (EEM) package proposed for the BW91 data center is expected to reduce heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) energy use by 30% to 50%, depending on the final air intake temperature that is established for the server racks. The RMSC, an iconic building designed by Frank Gehry, houses the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2013

Comparison of building energy use data between the United States and China

Buildings in the United States and China consumed 41percent and 28percent of the total primary energy in 2011, respectively. Good energy data are the cornerstone to understanding building energy performance and supporting research, design, operation, and policy making for low energy buildings. This paper presents initial outcomes from a joint research project under the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency. The goal is to decode the driving forces behind the discrepancy of building energy use between the two countries; identify gaps and deficiencies of current building energy monitoring, data collection, and analysis; and create knowledge and tools to collect and analyze good building energy data to provide valuable and actionable information for key stakeholders. This paper first reviews and compares several popular existing building energy monitoring systems in both countries. Next a standard energy data model is presented. A detailed, measured building energy data comparison was conducted for a few office buildings in both countries. Finally issues of data collection, quality, sharing, and analysis methods are discussed. It was found that buildings in both countries performed very differently, had potential for deep energy retrofit, but that different efficiency measures should apply.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2014

A Multi-State Model for Catalyzing the National Home Energy Retrofit Market (Final Technical Report)

In the fall of 2010, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) launched the Multi-State Model for Catalyzing the National Home Energy Retrofit Market Project (Multi-State Project). This residential energy efficiency pilot program was a collaborative effort among the states of Alabama, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington, and was funded by competitive State Energy Program (SEP) awards through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The objective of this project was to catalyze the home energy efficiency retrofit market in select areas within the state of Alabama. To achieve this goal, the project addressed a variety of marketplace elements that did not exist, or were underdeveloped, at the outset of the effort. These included establishing minimum standards and credentials for marketplace suppliers, educating and engaging homeowners on the benefits of energy efficiency and addressing real or perceived financial barriers to investments in whole-home energy efficiency, among others. The anticipated effect of the activities would be increased market demand for retrofits, improved audit to retrofit conversion rates and growth in overall community understanding of energy efficiency. The four-state collaborative was created with the intent of accelerating market transformation by allowing each state to learn from their peers, each of whom possessed different starting points, resources, and strategies for achieving the overall objective. The four partner states engaged the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) to oversee a project steering committee and to manage the project evaluation for all four states. The steering committee, comprised of key program partners, met on a regular basis to provide overall project coordination, guidance, and progress assessment. While there were variances in program design among the states, there were several common elements: use of the Energy Performance Score (EPS) platform; an audit and home energy rating tool; emphasis on community based coordination and partnerships; marketing and outreach to increase homeowner participation; training for market actors; access to financing options including rebates, incentives, and loan products; and an in depth process evaluation to support continual program improvement and analysis. In Alabama, Nexus Energy Center operated energy efficiency retrofit programs in Huntsville and Birmingham. In the Huntsville community the AlabamaWISE program was available in five Alabama counties: Cullman, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, and Morgan. In Birmingham, the program was available to residents in Jefferson and Shelby Counties. In both communities, the program was similar in terms of program design but tailored marketing and partnerships to address the unique local conditions and population of each community. ADECA and the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) provided overall project management services and common resources to the local program administrator Nexus Energy Center, including contracted services for contractor training, quality assurance testing, data collection and reporting, and compliance. The fundamental components of the AlabamaWISE program included a vertical contractor-based business model; comprehensive energy assessments; third-party quality assurance; rebates for installation of energy saving measures; accessible, low-interest financing; targeted and inbound marketing; Energy Performance Score (EPS) tool to engage and educate homeowners; training for auditors, contractors, and real estate professionals; and online resources for education and program enrollment. Program participants were eligible to receive rebates or financing toward the assessments and upgrades to their home provided they reached at least 20 percent deemed or modeled energy savings. The design of each program focused on addressing several known barriers including: limited homeowner knowledge on the benefits of energy efficiency, lack of financing options, lack of community support for energy efficiency programs, and lack of trained market actors including contractors and real estate professionals. The programs were able to make progress on addressing all of these barriers and were most successful in offering financing options and training market actors. The most challenging barriers proved to be the act of building a market for energy efficiency where none previously existed, convincing homeowners of the value in investing in energy efficiency (and therefore completing retrofits), engaging electric and natural gas utilities to partner on delivery, and achieving the overall project target of 1,365 completed retrofits. The components that proved to be the most valuable to program success were engaged contractor networks that could promote and endorse the program, partnerships with local business and organizations, and the access to rebates, incentives and financing mechanisms. The programs were successful in building relationships with a variety of community participants including: local contractors, Associations of REALTORS, home builders associations, universities, utilities, local and state governments, and other non-profit organizations. Throughout this program, 933 building audits and 795 building retrofits were completed making homes in Alabama more comfortable, less expensive to operate, more valuable to the marketplace, and safer and healthier for families. Continuing on this momentum, Nexus Energy Center plans to continue operating and expanding operations in Alabama as a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR sponsor and will continue to provide energy services and education to communities in Alabama.

Grimes, Elizabeth M.↗
DOE OSTI2011

Yahoo! Compute Coop (YCC). A Next-Generation Passive Cooling Design for Data Centers

The purpose of the Yahoo! Compute Coop (YCC) project is to research, design, build and implement a greenfield "efficient data factory" and to specifically demonstrate that the YCC concept is feasible for large facilities housing tens of thousands of heat-producing computing servers. The project scope for the Yahoo! Compute Coop technology includes: - Analyzing and implementing ways in which to drastically decrease energy consumption and waste output. - Analyzing the laws of thermodynamics and implementing naturally occurring environmental effects in order to maximize the "free-cooling" for large data center facilities. "Free cooling" is the direct usage of outside air to cool the servers vs. traditional "mechanical cooling" which is supplied by chillers or other Dx units. - Redesigning and simplifying building materials and methods. - Shortening and simplifying build-to-operate schedules while at the same time reducing initial build and operating costs. Selected for its favorable climate, the greenfield project site is located in Lockport, NY. Construction on the 9.0 MW critical load data center facility began in May 2009, with the fully operational facility deployed in September 2010. The relatively low initial build cost, compatibility with current server and network models, and the efficient use of power and water are all key features that make it a highly compatible and globally implementable design innovation for the data center industry. Yahoo! Compute Coop technology is designed to achieve 99.98% uptime availability. This integrated building design allows for free cooling 99% of the year via the building's unique shape and orientation, as well as server physical configuration.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗