Western Digital has today announced a new line of desktop, enterprise, CE, and external hard drives that claims to be environmentally friendly.

The new GreenPower (GP) family will ship in capacities from 320 gigabytes (GB) to one terabyte (TB), and will save up to 40% in hard drive power consumption, or as much as AU$11.75 per drive per year.

Based on extensive customer input toward supporting Energy Star 4.0 compliance and incorporating the latest in engineering technology, WD has delivered the first 3.5-inch hard drive platform designed with power savings as the primary attribute. The GreenPower family will give customers more choices when it comes to purchasing hard drives.

WD President and Chief Executive Officer, John Coyne said, “With the GreenPower family, WD is improving the environment while reducing cost of ownership. Our focus on energy efficiency benefits commercial customers and consumers alike.”

By WD estimates, in certain applications, the new GreenPower platform can save greater than AU$11.75 (US$10) per drive per year in electricity costs. For example, a data center with 10,000 drives can save AU$117,000 in annual energy costs, and reduce CO2 emission by 600 metric tons – the equivalent of taking almost 400 cars off the road for a year.

The GreenPower Platform is designed with power savings as the primary attribute. GreenPower drives from WD deliver exceptional power conservation, ultra-cool, quiet operation and solid performance. The following technologies enable WD’s GP platform.

• IntelliPower: A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and cache size designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. 
• IntelliPark: Delivers lower power consumption by automatically unloading the heads during idle to reduce aerodynamic drag. 
• IntelliSeek: Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.
  Availability and Pricing

The WD Caviar GP 1TB Hard Drive is now available with an RRP of $559.

See: www.westerndigital.com