Kan., Minn. govs. commit to less energy use by state computers
BYLINE: By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: TOPEKA Kan.
Governors in Kansas and Minnesota have committed to making government computer systems more energy efficient, making their states the first to join an industry effort to conserve power and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty and Kansas Democrat Kathleen Sebelius said they will encourage other states to follow their example as part of a National Governors Association program for promoting energy efficiency. Pawlenty is the group's chairman.
The governors pledged to have their states purchase more energy-efficient computers and servers. They also promised to install systemwide controls that will cause computers to sleep each evening, to save power.
They discussed their plans Wednesday during a teleconference for reporters. Their announcement came five months after a coalition of environmental groups and technology companies, including Internet search leader Google Inc., launched an initiative to make computers and servers more efficient.
"The cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy we don't use," Pawlenty said. "If all states adopt these approaches, the combined impact would be very substantial."
Bill Weihl, co-director of the industry's initiative, said the states' participation is important because they are large buyers of desktop computers and servers. Minnesota's state government buys about 4,000 computers a year; the figure for Kansas is between 4,500 and 5,000.
The industry estimates that energy efficiency technology increases a computer's cost by $20 and a server's cost by $30.
"It will really transform the industry," said Weihl, who also is Google's clean-energy director. "When these efficient systems are sold in high volume, that price premium will become very small or nonexistent."
The governors acknowledged that state agencies will face slightly higher costs when buying new equipment, but those agencies should recoup the costs over time by using less power. Pawlenty noted that a typical computer wastes half of the power it receives.
Sebelius said the additional equipment costs can be absorbed within existing state budgets. For Kansas, the additional costs would be in the tens of thousands of dollars in an annual budget of about $12.4 billion.
Both governors said their states allow local governments and school districts to participate in purchasing with the state, so they'll start buying energy-efficient computers, as well. And both said the state's example can influence private businesses.
"It's going to cost a little more up front, but we'll get the money back, and we'll make a positive contribution to the environment as we move along," Sebelius said.
On the Net:
Climate Savers Computing Initiative: http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org
Sebelius' office: http://www.governor.ks.gov/
Pawlenty's office: http://www.governor.state.mn.us/
National Governors Association: http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga