There are number of frameworks available to reduce the energy consumption by CPU and on the same issue number of algorithms have been proposed. I just want to know the new areas of energy saving from Cache memory or Main Memory.
I think it depends on hardware-based solution and OS implementation which has full control of main memory. Especially if assembler of CPU is optimized, it will effect directly to the power efficiency.
Memories supporting frequecy scaling will allow to save more energy in modern architectures. You can have a look on this paper "Memory Power Management via Dynamic Voltage/Frequency Scaling".
I've read about the potential of tapping energy from bit-flux activity. For one, it would probably entail redesigning bit structures much closer to natural systems. In other words, some of us are becoming excited at the prospects of emerging, bleeding-edge meta architectures.