Sun Microsystems announced that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities in the United States serving 350,000 California businesses, is offering significant rebates as part of a new energy incentive program for computer servers. The CoolThreads technology Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers – which the company claims are three to five times more energy efficient than competing systems and take up less space – were the only servers to qualify for the rebate program. As part of PG&E's Non Residential Retrofit program, customers replacing existing equipment with these eco-responsible servers can receive a cash savings between $700-$1000 per server or up to 35% when combined with the Sun Upgrade Advantage Program. This is the first-ever incentive rebate offered by a public utility company for servers.
"PG&E is committed to providing a comprehensive array of energy efficiency offerings to data center operators, and we're pleased to add rebates for efficient computing equipment to our portfolio," said Helen Burt, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at PG&E. "We will continue to work with industry leaders such as Sun who realize that energy efficiency and environmental stewardship are good things for their businesses."
PG&E's Non Residential Retrofit Program is targeted to customers who have energy-intensive operations and are utilizing energy saving equipment. Sun servers were selected because they achieved the highest energy efficiency rating among servers in their class. The Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers were evaluated for qualification in this program through an audit of Bay Area companies including Joyent to validate numbers claimed for energy conservation.
"As we enter the Participation Age, with everyone and everything participating on the network, data centers are going to grow both in number and size, resulting in massive power consumption needs," said David Douglas, Vice President of Eco-Responsibility at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "This PG&E rebate program aligns perfectly with Sun's forward thinking engineering team who are committed to ensuring we deliver superior energy efficient servers."
