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An Energy Rebate Program, or Energy Credit Incentive Program, provides a cash rebate program for customers planning to install new, energy efficient information technology (IT) equipment or cooling systems. These programs push companies to construct more energy efficient data centers, or to consolidate compute, storage and networking resources via virtualization technologies. An Energy Rebate Program is a simple way for customers to apply and qualify for various energy rebates offered by energy service companies, or utilities, in their respective coverage areas. To lower IT equipment's carbon footprint, data center customers are looking at processes for protecting and respecting the environment through eco-friendly operations and data center design. This idea is being pushed by organizations such as The Green Grid, Climate Savers Computing Initiative and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Customer demand for energy rebates encourages the development of programs for IT vendors' computers, storage, networking or data center facilities. IT vendors are taking steps to provide more energy efficient IT systems and working with utilities to secure rebate savings for customers and their new installations. == History == In the past, data center designers and operators focused more on data center reliability than on energy efficiency. Equipment cooling concerns and the costs of water cooled infrastructure in large scale IBM centers, for instance, was a significant, though secondary issue, in buying decisions. Increasingly data center power density is leading to power and cooling limitations, companies have significant interest in energy efficiency as a potential solution to data center issues. Customers are searching to justify their costs on annual electricity costs, cooling costs, and power costs. Utilizing energy efficient equipment and testing results of your data center enable companies to pin point where potential cost-cutting procedures can take place. On August 2, 2007 in a report to the United States Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that the energy used to power and cool servers and data centers is significant in the United States. It is estimated that the IT sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of the total U.S. electricity consumption) for a total electricity cost of about $4.5 billion. This total is expected to double over the next five years.〔(【引用サイトリンク】format=PDF )〕 "According to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity generation around the world will nearly double from about 17.3 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2005 to 33.3 trillion kWh in 2030." In the case of the U.S., its power grid simply will not be able to keep up with the growth and demand for additional power using conventional means. In the U.S., it's estimated that reduction in peak demand by a mere 5% would yield savings of about $66 billion over 20 years --- to say nothing of the resulting reduction in green house gas emissions that would accompany a 5% peak demand reduction.〔 Many U.S. utility companies have developed energy rebate programs to provide IT companies incentives to use energy efficient equipment and help lower the power demand for data centers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title = VFS Energy Credit Incentive Program - Participating Utilities Link ) 〕 The energy situation has driven some IT vendors to offer "green" leases for IT equipment that complement utilities' Energy Rebate Programs. Energy rebates can be applied toward leases for new IT equipment. Customers can benefit from lower monthly lease payments, or accept the rebate as a cash infusion for their business or IT project. Origins for Energy Rebate Programs offered by utilities began with the Non-Residential New Construction (NRNC) program. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) targeted energy savings toward the IT industry (and other commercial businesses).〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title = Non Residential New Construction: Resources for Energy-Efficient Non Residential New Construction )〕 Dozens of utilities are emulating the PG&E programs nationally, and many more utility companies plan to implement an energy rebate program. A basis for the program is the Standard Performance Contract (SPC). SPC offers non-residential customer for installing new, high efficiency equipment or systems. For the period from 2009–2011, PG&E has reserved, for example, $50 million in energy credit incentives for data centers alone. Although consumer awareness of utility company rebates is still emerging, retailers are increasingly gaining the ability to make their customers aware of those rebates through innovative nationwide rebate database services such as GreenOhm.〔(GreenOhm official website )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「energy rebate program」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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