Moore’s Law – the famous observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that computer processing power doubles every eighteen months – has an exciting new corollary: Researchers have recently discovered that the energy efficiency of computers doubles in the exact same time period.

Their conclusion, backed up by six decades of data, mirrors Moore’s Law, both in timing and significance.

According to recently published research by Dr. Jon Koomey and his team, computing energy efficiency has been doubling each year-and-a-half.

The team arrived at this figure by determining the number of individual calculations performed per kilowatt-hour (kWh) at a fixed computing load. Koomey’s law sets a new standard for electronics innovators, developers, and manufacturers to meet.

While Moore’s law has time on its side – it’s been around since 1965 – Koomey’s law may be more relevant. For such increasingly popular mobile devices as smartphones, tablet PCs, and laptop computers, battery life is more important than raw computing power.

With energy costs climbing and data centers around the globe drawing huge amounts of power, the need for energy efficiency is at an all time high. And reducing consumption is more important than ever.