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US federal government is investing tens of millions of dollars in federal economic stimulus funds into 14 projects run by private and public organizations, researching ways to increase data center energy efficiency. The grants, distributed by the US Department of Energy, will go to companies doing energy use research in three areas: IT equipment and software, power infrastructure and cooling infrastructure.
Among winners of the DOE grants are big players from the likes of IBM, HP and Yahoo! Of the total $47 million, Yahoo! will receive the largest grant for its work on increasing energy efficiency of data center cooling systems: $9.9 million. Other grant recipients in the cooling category will include IBM ($2.3 million) and Alcatel-Lucent ($1.8 million).
The $47 million in federal money will be matched by private companies, bringing the total investment to about $115 million.
“These (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) projects will improve the efficiency of a strong and growing sector of the American economy,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “By reducing energy use and energy costs for the IT and telecommunications industries, this funding will help create jobs and ensure the sector remains competitive.”
Both IBM and Alcatel-Lucent were also awarded grants for research projects in the “equipment and software” category. IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center will receive $1.6 million and Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs will receive $300,000 to conduct research on decreasing data center energy consumption through IT equipment and software.
SeaMicro was awarded the largest grant in the equipment and software category: $9.4 million. The largest grant under the power infrastructure category went to HP, which was slated to receive $7.4 million from the DOE.
Full list of recepients:
Equipment & Software Projects
- IBM T.J. Watson Research Center ($1.6 million)
- SeaMicro Inc. ($9.3 million)
- Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs ($300,000)
- California Institute of Technology ($300,000)
Power Supply Chain Projects
- Lineage Power Corporation ($2.4 million)
- BAE Systems ($222,000)
- Power Assure, Inc. ($5 million)
- Hewlett-Packard Company ($7.4 million)
- Columbia University ($2.8 million)
Cooling
- IBM T.J. Watson Research Center ($2.3 million)
- Federspiel Controls, Inc. ($584,000)
- Yahoo! Inc. ($9.9 million)
- Alcatel-Lucent ($1.8 million)
- Edison Materials Technology Center ($2.8 million)
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Keywords: US DOE, Department of Energy, ARRA, data center energy efficiency, data center cooling, data center power, IT energy efficiency, stimulus package | |
