{"id":20477,"date":"2024-03-18T07:38:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T07:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interface.media\/?p=20477"},"modified":"2024-03-18T07:38:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T07:38:56","slug":"green-data-centres-and-the-fight-for-net-zero-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interface.media\/blog\/2024\/03\/18\/green-data-centres-and-the-fight-for-net-zero-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Green data centres and the fight for net zero (part one)\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The data centre\u2019s role in the fight against climate change is an uncertain one. Globally, data centres consume between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/the-ai-boom-could-use-a-shocking-amount-of-electricity\/\">1-1.5% of all electricity<\/a>, according to data collected by the International Energy Agency (IEA). In 2022, data centres used approximately 460TWh of electricity. They also accounted for 3.5% of the global greenhouse gas emissions\u2014more than the global aviation industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This may sound bad, but the industry\u2019s emissions figures and electricity consumption are actually something of a miracle. As the IEA notes, emissions from data have \u201cgrown only modestly despite rapidly growing demand for digital services,\u201d since 2010. They credit energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy purchases, and the broader decarbonisation of electricity grids around the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, curtailing emissions growth through increased efficiency and renewable power purchase agreements is insufficient. Not only is demand for data centre capacity set to more than double by 2026 (exceeding 1000TWh) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.datacenterdynamics.com\/en\/news\/global-data-center-electricity-use-to-double-by-2026-report\/#:~:text=The%20annual%20electricity%20report%20from,in%20a%20worst%2Dcase%20scenario.\">thanks to AI<\/a>, but the IEA suggests that \u201cto get on track with the Net Zero Scenario, [data centre] emissions must drop by half by 2030.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-data-centre-freezes-are-insufficient\">Data centre freezes are insufficient<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With trillion of dollars in economic impact at stake, it\u2019s highly unlikely data centre growth will be curtailed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some countries, including Singapore, Ireland, and the Netherlands, have stepped in to regulate growth and even freeze their data centre industries, as the burden of massive hyperscale facilities on their nations\u2019 power and water supplies begins to outweigh their economic benefits. One fifth of Irelan\u2019s electricity was consumed by data centres in 2022. By 2026, it will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/news\/366567892\/Datacentres-set-to-consume-third-of-Irelands-energy-by-2026#:~:text=One%2Dthird%20of%20Ireland's%20energy,65%25%20over%20the%20coming%20years.\">rise to one third<\/a> of the country\u2019s energy consumption. In response, Ireland\u2019s national electricity utility stepped in and, in May of 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.datacenterdynamics.com\/en\/analysis\/dublin-and-data-centers-the-end-of-the-road\/\">effectively banned data centre construction in Dublin<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, regulating on a national or regional level like this only pushes demand elsewhere. The Dublin moratorium is a demonstration of this problem in miniature. Just six months after the moratorium took effect, there were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.datacenterdynamics.com\/en\/news\/21-irish-data-centers-planned-outside-greater-dublin-after-city-ban\/\">21 new facilities<\/a> in the works outside the Dublin area. Many of them \u201cas close to the capital as possible, roughly 80 km away at sites in Louth, Meath, Kildare, Kilkenny, and Wicklow.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same process is being replicated at different scales around the world. Data centre capacity in aggregate isn\u2019t going anywhere but up. <a href=\"https:\/\/interface.media\/blog\/2023\/12\/20\/why-are-organisations-struggling-to-implement-their-sustainability-goals\/\">The problem is holistic<\/a>, and therefore the solution should be too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-fight-for-green-digital-infrastructure\">The fight for green digital infrastructure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The need for data centre infrastructure that consumes less power, less water, and has a reduced impact on both the local area and global emissions is gaining real traction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/topic\/digitaldevelopment\/publication\/green-data-centers-towards-a-sustainable-digital-transformation\">report by the World Bank<\/a> notes that while \u201cReliable, secure data hosting solutions are becoming increasingly important to support everyday functions across societies,\u201d in order to \u201censure sustainable digital transformation, efforts are needed to green digital infrastructure.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, building data centres that are more energy efficient is only half the battle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no truly green data centre until we achieve deep decarbonisation,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/in\/helenmunro\">Helen Munro, Head of Environment &amp; Sustainability at Pulsant<\/a>. Only when the industry \u201cembeds respect for nature and resources,\u201d at the site level, throughout the hardware supply chain, the infrastructure, construction process, and throughout <a href=\"https:\/\/interface.media\/blog\/2024\/03\/06\/nuclear-power-could-be-an-answer-to-data-centres-ai-power-crunch\/\">supporting power utilities<\/a> will there ever be such a thing as a \u201cgreen data centre\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CONTINUES IN PART TWO.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There will be no \u201ctruly green\u201d data centres until industry achieves \u201cdeep decarbonisation,\u201d according to Pulsant\u2019s Head of Environment &#038; Sustainability. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":480,"featured_media":20478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2024-03-18T07:38:54Z","apple_news_api_id":"cb967de0-605d-4f0f-bc09-1fd6d40ef008","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2024-03-18T07:38:54Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ay5Z94GBdTw-8CR_W1A7wCA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"topic":[654,652],"class_list":["post-20477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-interface","topic-infrastructure-cloud","topic-sustainability-technology"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - 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