Governor commits to using less energy for state computers / LJWorld.com

Archive for Thursday, November 8, 2007

November 8, 2007

Topeka — Saving money and the environment may be a mouse click away.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and computer giants Google and Intel on Wednesday launched a nationwide initiative to get state governments to reduce energy consumed by computers.

"The cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy that we don't use," said Pawlenty, who is chairman of the National Governors Association.

Sebelius said more states adopting the effort will increase the demand for energy-efficient computers and eventually drive down prices for that equipment.

"This makes a lot of sense," she said.

Sebelius and Pawlenty said they will commit their states to purchase high-efficiency computer equipment.

The increased costs for those computers will be offset by the energy savings, the governors said.

And in Kansas, Sebelius said the state will put its executive branch computers into a sleep mode in the evening to save energy. An employee who is working at night would be able to override the function, she said.

In a typical desktop PC, nearly half the power from the outlet never reaches the computing components, but is wasted as dispersed heat, the NGA said. Simply allowing a computer to transition to a sleep mode when not in use would save energy, but most systems have this function disabled, the group said.

The NGA said if all states implement the initiatives, they could see a savings of $20 million in electric costs and reduction of nearly 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

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8 November 2007
at 5:25 a.m.

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jmadison (Anonymous) says…

Fortunately Intel doesn't sell any components of computers– oh wait, I guess they do.
8 November 2007
at 6:06 a.m.

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toefungus (Anonymous) says…

Hey, this is already being done. Many state employees never turn their computer on.