SUNW: Sun Teams with PG&E On First Ever Rebate For Servers, Up To $1000 In Savings

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced that Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities in the United States serving 350,000 California businesses, is offering significant rebates as part of a new energy incentive program for computer servers. The CoolThreads technology Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers -- which are three to five times more energy efficient than competing systems and take up less space(1)-- were the only servers to qualify for the rebate program. As part of PG&E's Non Residential Retrofit Program, customers replacing existing equipment with these eco-responsible servers can receive an anticipated cash savings of between $700-$1000 per server or up to 35 percent off with the Sun Upgrade Advantage Program(2). This is the first-ever incentive rebate offered by a public utility company for servers.


In 2005, a Gartner poll revealed that more than 69 percent of Data Centers are power, cooling and space constrained(3). Since that time, servers have continued to consume more power and generate more heat, and energy prices have soared by Sun's estimation at 30 percent per year, making this an ideal time for a rebate like this from a major energy utility.

"PG&E is committed to providing a comprehensive array of energy efficiency offerings to data center operators, and we're pleased to add rebates for efficient computing equipment to our portfolio," said Helen Burt, senior vice president and chief customer officer at PG&E. "We will continue to work with industry leaders such as Sun who realize that energy efficiency and environmental stewardship are good things for their businesses."

Upgrade for Conservation

PG&E's Non Residential Retrofit Program is targeted to customers who have energy-intensive operations and are utilizing energy saving equipment. Sun servers were selected because they achieved the highest energy efficiency rating among servers in their class. The Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers were evaluated for qualification in this program through an audit of Bay Area companies including Joyent to validate numbers claimed for energy conservation.

Two competing systems use 6000 kWh more than one Sun Fire T1000(4) server and consume 4-times more space while delivering equivalent levels of performance. This translates to about $833 in electricity bills per year for direct electricity and even more for cooling and related energy use. Customer tests revealed that the new CoolThreads technology Sun Fire servers not only save energy, but also reduce the load on the cooling system anywhere from 30 percent to 300 percent saving customers hundreds of dollars annually and making them the smart upgrade choice.

"As we enter the Participation Age, with everyone and everything participating on the network, data centers are going to grow both in number and size, resulting in massive power consumption needs," said David Douglas, vice president of eco-responsibility at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "This PG&E rebate program aligns perfectly with Sun's forward thinking engineering team who are committed to ensuring we deliver superior energy efficient servers."

Customers Greening Their Datacenter

An independent organization tested the efficiency of Sun's CoolThreads technology servers and developed an energy savings model that accurately calculated a customer's potential savings from using a Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. The tests included an audit of several Bay Area customers including Joyent. Following were the real-world energy and dollar savings realized:

Joyent (www.joyent.com) selected Sun CoolThreads technology servers to provide increased processing capability at decreased cooling costs, resulting in a savings of 8,929 kWh/year or $1,072 year per server. Joyent is set to receive a $989 per server rebate from PG&E's Non Residential Retrofit Program.

Another Bay Area based customer purchased Sun Fire T2000 servers to install in their 800 square foot data center. Their investment resulted in a savings of 6,413 kWh/year or $770/year per server in savings. This calculation resulted in a PG&E Non Residential Retrofit Program incentive of $980 per server.

The Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers are based on the UltraSPARC(R) T1 processor with CoolThreads technology, which boast the highest throughput processor in its class. Drawing about as much power as a light bulb, its 32 simultaneous processing threads deliver the best performance per watt of any processor available. While conserving energy, these systems do not compromise on performance, setting 13 world records since launch and outperforming competitors systems by up to 5X(5) while using only 20 percent of the power and occupying only 25 percent of the space.

Sun's eco-responsibility values are based on the following principles: Innovate, Act and Share. Sun innovates by making products and services that are both good for the environment and good for business. Sun acts by operating in an eco-friendly way on a day-to-day basis. And finally, Sun shares by making knowledge, technology and activism available to others so that we can all move forward to a more sustainable model.

PG&E customers considering replacing existing servers with Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers can learn how to take advantage of this rebate offer by logging onto http://www.sun.com/rebates.

For more information on Sun's CoolThreads technology and the upgrade program, please visit: http://www.sun.com/ibb/coolthreads/.

Rules, regulations and qualification details for the rebate program can be found at: http://www.pge.com/biz/rebates/2006_incentive_application/index.html.

For information on how to buy a T1000 or T2000 server, visit http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/overview/index.jsp