Sun Server Customers Qualify For Power Company Rebates

Certain Sun Microsystems servers now qualify for rebates of up to $1,000 from power utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).

Buyers of Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers with the low-power CoolThreads UltraSPARC processors are eligible for rebates of $700 to $1,000 per server from PG&E, which serves northern and central California, said Dave Douglas, vice president of eco responsibility at Sun, Santa Clara, Calif.

PG&E offers rebates to its consumer customers who buy new energy-efficient appliances such as refrigerators and clothes dryers, but this is the first time that the power company--or any utility in the United States--has offered such a rebate for servers, according to Douglas.

At least for customers in much of California, the rebate could have a major impact on data center costs, Douglas said. A T1000 has an entry-level list price of $3,995, and with the CoolThreads processors, the server can save an estimated $800 per year on energy costs and $200 per year on related air conditioning costs, on top of the $700 to $1,000 rebate, he said.

"That's pretty cool," said Mark Teter, CTO of Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based Sun solution provider. "It's nice to see Sun take the lead on data center energy costs."

Sun will look to expand the program to other Sun servers and storage products, as well as talk to other power utilities to see if they can provide similar rebates, Douglas said.

Sun evaluates its rebate programs every six months or so to see if they should be continued, he added. "If we stay in the leadership position, I hope the rebates can last a long time," he said.