Was data center efficiency as big an issue four years ago when RMI wrote the report?
Amory Lovins: The far-sighted ones knew that the industry would have to evolve toward efficiency and reliability because they saw earlier than most where those curves were heading and you don’t want to go there. I think Ken [Brill] is right to say, when we did the exercise in ’03, the economic consequences of inefficiency of devices, software, servers, power supplies — therefore data centers, hadn’t become as unbearably obvious as it is now. Now that there are big dollar signs attached, everyone realizes we need a solution fast. Fortunately it exists. Can’t you just stop the demand for CPUs? Nobody seems to think that’s an option. Lovins: Some of [the demand] is coming from what you can do with more bandwidth. As we go to advanced mobile services, fiber and fast networks being ubiquitous, a lot more people are streaming video for example. It isn’t just about computations anymore. There is more eCommerce. There are more demanding calculations of all kinds. If we go to a model where sof
