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Environmental sustainability is important to us at Western Digital. One of the best ways we can make a positive impact on the environment is to help our customers PC, server, consumer electronics and external hard drive manufacturers - offer products that consume less electricity. To that end, WD has designed eco-friendly hard drives with GreenPower™ Technology for WD® desktop, enterprise, CE and external hard drive products.
Based on extensive customer input toward supporting ENERGY STAR 4.0 compliance and incorporating the latest in engineering technology we developed this platform to bring more energy efficient hard drive options to our customers. |
As hard drive capacities increase, the power required to run those drives increases as well. Currently available 1 TB hard drives have a typical power consumption rating greater than 13.5 watts. WD has designed the first 3.5-inch hard drives that deliver power savings as the primary attribute.
Green drives from WD yield average drive power savings of 4-5 watts over competitors' drives while maintaining solid performance.
That power savings equates to reducing CO2 emission by up to 60 kilograms per drive per year - the equivalent of taking your car off the road for 14 days each year. This new platform makes it possible for our energy-conscious customers to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, ensured reliability and energy conservation.
...the equivalent of taking your car off
the road for 14 days each year. |
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Consuming less power lowers the electricity bill. By how much? It depends on several factors: The system type (desktop, server, DVR, external drive); how many hours per year the drives run; other factors such as air conditioning costs and power supply efficiency; and the cost of a kilowatt hour.
Here's a chart that takes into account these factors and estimates the savings:
Segment |
Hours/Year |
Power Multiplier |
$/KWatt |
TCO$/year |
Kg of CO2 |
Days of Driving
(Based on Avg. Daily CO2 Emissions) |
Enterprise |
8760 |
2.40(1) |
$0.12(4) |
$10.09 |
60.5(5) |
14(6) |
CE |
8760 |
1.25(2)
1.54(3) |
$0.12(4) |
$5.26
$6.48 |
31.5(5)
38.9(5) |
7(6)
9(6) |
Desktop |
3120 |
1.25(2)
1.54(3) |
$0.12(4) |
$1.87
$2.31 |
11.2(5)
13.8(5) |
3(6)
3(6) |
USB/FireWire Drives |
3120 |
1.25(2)
3.33(3) |
$0.12(4) |
$1.87
$4.99 |
11.2(5)
29.9(5) |
3(6)
7(6) |
Ethernet Drives |
8760 |
1.25(2)
3.33(7) |
$0.12(4) |
$5.26
$14.00 |
31.5(5)
84.5(5) |
7(6)
19(6) |
By WD estimates our GreenPower technology can save large data-hungry organizations like financial institutions and search engine services, up to $10 per drive per year in electricity costs (U.S.). Ten dollars per year doesn't sound like much until you consider, for example, a large data center with say 10,000 drives. Do the math, that's up to $100,000 in saving per year.
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Large organizations with many desktop
computers can minimize their carbon
footprint and save real money on
electricity costs... |
What about our desktop drives with GreenPower technology, how can they make a difference? By using environmentally-conscious PCs with our WD Caviar Green drives on board, large organizations with many desktop computers can minimize their carbon footprint and save real money on electricity costs.
Still more savings can be achieved with high capacity external storage devices using GreenPower technology. External USB, FireWire and Ethernet drives can save up to $14 per year in electricity costs depending on the power-on-hours and power supply efficiency.
There are a lot of computer systems, network servers, and external storage devices out there consuming a lot of electricity, if we can make a difference by helping to reduce the power consumption of just a small percentage of them, we believe we will have made a positive impact on the environment.
Source#1: Total facility power vs. IT equipment power IT_Equipment_Data_Centers041807.pdf and http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency
Source#2: Assumes Energy Star 4.0 power supply (80%) http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=revisions.computer_spec
Source#3: Assumes typical power supply (65%) http://www.efficientpowersupplies.org
Source#4: Common industry number 20655_Green_Whitepaper_0601307_ry.pdf and http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/program/whitepaper.html
Source #5: Assumes 1.60 CO2 pounds per Kwatt/Hours/Year.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=sb_success.sb_2006winners
Source #6: Assumes 1.60 Metric tons/year http://www.efficientpowersupplies.org/pages/Hiller_Hershberg_Calwell_presentation_at_ITS.pdf
Reference ENERGY STAR: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=revisions.computer_spec
(calculation of automobile emissions depends on the car's g/km emission levels and km/year of driving)
Source #7: External Power Adaptors use less efficient linear conversion that can be only 30% power efficient
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/prod_development/downloads/power_supplies/EPS_Decision_Memo0905.pdf
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