IT consumes as much energy and has the same carbon “footprint” as the airline industry, according to boffins at the University of California.

The boffins are apparently building an instrument to test the energy efficiency of computing systems under real-world conditions. The big idea is that they can get computer designers and users in the scientific community to re-think the way they do their jobs.

In a press release, the boffins say that Project GreenLight will train a new generation of energy-aware scientists, and it will produce energy consumption data to help investigators throughout the research community make informed choices about energy-efficient IT infrastructure.

Ironically, they plan to solve all these problems by buying lots of computers. Apparently, they will buy two Sun Modular Datacenter S20s, which can accommodate up to 280 servers. That will help the carbon footprint.

More here.