Laboratory equipment manufacturers warned of energy efficiency concerns

New concerns about energy efficiency could raise awareness among laboratory equipment manufacturers about the products that they produce.

Scientists in the Bell Labs laboratories at communications firm Alcatel-Lucent have estimated how they believe data growth will slow in the coming years, as the proportion of the population using electronic communications in all disciplines reaches saturation.

Meanwhile, energy efficiency improvements are expected to continue to enhance the power consumption of laboratory equipment manufacturers' products and equivalent equipment from other firms.

But even with these forecasts, the growth of information is expected to exceed the efficiency improvements.

Fibre optics could play one role in safeguarding the power supply, as Dan Kilper of the Bell Labs technical staff says: "Optical transmission gear consumes more than a factor of ten less than other network technologies."

Bell Labs says it employs a "critical mass of research leadership" to overcome challenges relating to real-life problems in the wider market.