News

KC Mares offers insight on Data Centers With No UPS or Generators

First came data centers with no chillers. But is the industry ready for a data center with no UPS and no generators?
Read Article

KC Mares was a featured expert on Data Center Knowledge

Moving Beyond ‘Babysitting Servers’
Read Article

KC Mares was a featured expert on Data Center Efficiency via IT Optimizations, Standards and Collaboration

You can view the webcast at this link: http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/7020

Sustainability: An Environmentally Balanced Harvest of the Sun

Solfocus.com

Read More

In his own words: KC Mares of MegaWatt Consulting Inc.

KC interviewed in Northern Nevada Business Weekly.

Read More

SVLG Data Center Energy Efficiency Summit

KC co-chairs this program and event.

Watch Video

Designing for ‘Ultra-Low’ Efficiency and PUE

The ongoing industry debate about energy efficiency reporting based on the Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) metric is about to get another jolt. Veteran data center specialist KC Mares reports that he has worked on three projects this year that used unconventional design decisions to achieve “ultra-low PUEs” of between 1.046 and 1.08. Those PUE numbers are even lower than those publicly reported by Google, which has announced an average PUE of 1.20 across its facilities, with one facility performing at a 1.11 PUE in the first quarter of 2009.

Read More

2009 SVLG Data Center Demonstration Program and Energy Efficiency Summit Coming October 15, 2009

KC Mares has been co-chairing the 2009 SVLG Data Center Demonstration Program and Energy Efficiency Summit, which through industry collaboration, showcases data center end-users using creative ways and new technology to reduce the data center energy use and costs. KC's runs the 20-person volunteer committee and 60+ program partners with 35 active demonstrations. Join us at the Summit where we'll showcase all of these and check out dcee.svlg.org for more information on program and event.

'Free cooling' with fresh air makes McClellan Park data center greener

A data center under construction at McClellan Park has pre-certified for the nation's highest green-building rating for its groundbreaking, energy-saving, low-carbon-emitting "air-side economizers."

Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Data Center Summit

Video produced by Deborah Grove about the data center demonstrations supported by SVLG, LBNL, DoE, CEC and others. KC believes in the effectiveness of this collaborative program and is providing leadership of that program today. While with Yahoo!, KC participated in sharing results of highly efficient cooling systems through this program and since authored a case study.

PC World - Green Tech

An article about "greening" up the IT business.

Yahoo! Quincy Data Center

I ran the construction and design of this large, first self-developed dedicated data center for Yahoo! This article gives a brief overview of the site or this one if you scroll down about half-way.

ADC Data Center in Sacramento

This highly efficient data center, with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) between 1.10-1.20 (depending upon final calculations), attracted some news. This is the highest known PUE of any data center worldwide. Nice to see energy efficiency and data centers in the news. I helped with some aspects of this site. Client Rumsey Engineers did the super-efficient mechanical design for this Platium LEED data center.

CIO Magazine, 2001 - Electrical Grid

It was 2001 and the California "energy crisis" hadn't quite hit, but myself and others were doing what we could to protect against a foreseen uncertainty. CIO Magazine was on the beat realizing that this was a salient topic of the day. I've always been a fan of on-site generation, so long as they are clean.

Jill Derby Energy Plan

"MegaWatt Consulting founder and energy expert, KC Mares introduced Derby and endorses her plan. “I am proud to be associated with a plan that grows America ’s economy right here in Nevada , and provides sustainable solutions that protect our pocketbooks and security while reducing our environmental impacts,” said Mares."

Here is more about the plan or visit Jill Derby's website.

Green Associates Blog

Some of the blogs that I have made contributions to.

Green Computing, NetworkWorld

Yahoo has made its own operations more efficient in a number of ways. The company builds its own data centers and has third parties build Yahoo computers to its own specifications. “We essentially control the entire footprint, so we can make it very efficient,” Mares says.

Bay Area Economic Forum Energy Policy

The California Energy Crisis was passing it's climax when the Bay Area Economic Forum partnered with the Bay Area Council and Association of Bay Area Governments to create an energy policy that developed California's economy while reducing its environmental impact and stabilized prices and supply of electricity. I along with SVLG peers, McKinsey & Co, and several others developed this policy plan.

Advance Distributed-Generation Technologies

"As part of our commitment to staying at the forefront of data center evolution, we continually look for additional ways to improve the dependability and efficiency of our energy sources," states KC Mares, Director of Electrical Energy, Utilities, and Special Projects, Exodus, a Cable & Wireless Service. "Distributed generation is one means to ensure that we are able to quickly and effectively deliver the power our customers require."