[LINK] Promote energy efficient data centers in Australia

[Tom Worthington]

According to "Conroy could exempt data centres from carbon tax" (Andrew 
Colley, The Australian, October 24, 2011 12:00AM), the Australian 
government may be considering exempting large data centres from carbon 
pricing: 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/cloud-computing/conroy-could-exempt-data-centres-from-carbon-tax/story-fn8lu7wm-1226174429295a 


This follows the Outsourcing Council Asia Pacific (OCAP) claiming two 
companies had decided not to invest in "Australia, due to carbon 
pricing: Dark carbon cloud over new technologies" (OCAP, 21 October 
2011): 
http://blog.outsourcingcouncil.com.au/post/11682889804/media-release-dark-carbon-cloud-over-new-technologies

The OCAP was formed 16 September 2011 as a not-for-profit organisation 
to promote outsourcing and shared services: "Registration, OUTSOURCING 
COUNCIL ASIA PACIFIC (AUST) LIMITED", (ASIC, 16/09/2011): 
http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=153_268_752&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1

Rather than exempt data centres, I suggest the government could provide 
incentives for new data centres to be set up to use energy efficiently. 
This would provide a competitive advantage for Australian centers 
internationally, as organizations and individuals look for low carbon 
data services.

Some ways the federal government could assist would be to require a high 
level of energy efficiency in the tenders it issues for its own data 
services. The government could also accelerate the current work on 
metrics for data centers so that there would be a way to measure 
progress. Additional training for IT professionals, engineers, 
architects and facility management staff would also be useful so that 
they would know how to specify and design for efficiency.

Methods for data centres to reduce energy use are discussed in "ICT 
Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future": 
http://www.tomw.net.au/ict_sustainability/saving.shtml


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards 
Legislation

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/