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Europe’s Second Largest Web Host Goes Co2 Free

STRATO becomes ‘first buyer’ of climate-friendly power supply as part of its climate protection plan

Berlin, 24 September 2007

STRATO, Europe’s second largest web host, is becoming one of the first companies to power its high performance computer centres entirely with renewable energy. From January 2008 STRATO data centres will be 100% C02 free, enabling STRATO to reduce its CO2 emissions by approximately 15,000 tons per year.

STRATO has already reduced energy consumption by 30% per customer over the past 18 months through energy-efficient hardware, intelligent solutions in building services engineering and platform-optimised software. It is using optimised chips from Sun Microsystems that conserve 90% of the energy on a CPU basis as compared to its previous system and AMD processors that conserve 75% of the energy used on its dedicated servers in Berlin. In addition, it is developing a highly efficient air-cooling system – as used in the Airbus 380 - with the University of Berlin.

Damian Schmidt, CEO of STRATO comments, “Instead of depending on individual eco-packets and eco-servers, we are transferring the entire energy supply for our product portfolio to renewable energy without raising our prices. We’re proving that acting responsibly in environmental matters is a realistic option, even in the highly competitive web hosting market.“

With the acquisition of climate-neutral energy for its computer centres, STRATO is becoming one of the largest customers of the German company NaturEnergie AG. A supply contract, effective from January 2008, guarantees STRATO the simultaneous production of the required amount of power at the moment of its consumption in the computer centres. The electrical current is generated from river water in hydro-electrical power plants on the upper Rhine.

Purchasing renewable energy is more expensive, but affordable for Strato thanks to the 30% cut in electricity usage per customer. The company is committed to adopting measures that will help decelerate the rate of climate change. Concludes Schmidt: “Our view is that being more energy-efficient not only helps the climate, it also saves on your bills.”