The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) consider adopting thin client computers, but decided against it due to the extra power requirements for cooling in the data centre.

The department was asked in parliament to describe what attempts it had made to reduce the carbon footprint of its IT infrastructure.

"DEFRA carefully considered the promotion of ‘thin’ clients,” said Defra minister Jane Kennedy MP in a written reply on Monday. "However, evidence to date has shown that the increased electricity consumption of these server rooms (e. g. through the air conditioning needed to cool the room) renders this technology less attractive than previously thought from an energy efficiency perspective."

The news is a blow for thin client vendors, who often market their products as a ‘Green’ alternative to traditional desktop PCs.