Sustainability in Data Centers Becoming Increasingly Important

19.01.2021

4 min read

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in data centres-even more so than in other sectors. This is the finding of a study examining the impact of efficiency and sustainability for cloud and service providers. Sustainability-Nachhaltigkeit-is one of today’s defining buzzwords in the face of climate change. While it isn’t always directly associated with environmental protection and reduced resource consumption, data centres are under particular scrutiny because, despite massive performance gains, they continue to consume ever more energy. In the EU, according to a European Commission study, data centres accounted for 53.9 TWh of electricity in 2010, rising to 76.8 TWh-or 2.7 percent of total EU electricity consumption-in 2018. The sharpest increase is seen in cloud data centres, many of which are colocation facilities or multi-tenant data centres (MTDCs). 451 Research and Schneider Electric have now published a study titled “Multitenant Data Centers and Sustainability: Ambitions and Reality.” Based on more than 800 interviews with data-centre service providers worldwide, it examines the state of sustainability strategies across the sector.

Sustainability promises competitive advantages

The results show that more than half (57 percent) see sustainability as a competitive advantage, with customer expectations cited by 50 percent as the strongest motivator. Operational resilience, regulatory requirements, cost savings through efficiency, and public perception follow in second to fifth place, each cited by 40 to 35 percent of respondents.What stands out, however, is that only 43 percent of those surveyed say they have strategic initiatives in place for sustainability and efficiency improvements in their infrastructures. Operators in EMEA lag far behind at just 30 percent, compared with 57 percent in the US and 68 percent in China who report having such programmes. According to the study, global MTDC capacity measured by available power grew by 10.2 percent annually-or 62.4 percent in total-between 2014 and 2019. 451 Research expects a further 35.2 percent increase by 2024, with IT customer-available power exceeding 32 GW-roughly equivalent to the annual electricity demand of Spain or California.

Ambition and reality often diverge

77 percent of respondents said all (30 percent) or most of their customers are pushing for legally binding commitments on energy efficiency and sustainability. Another 17 percent said this applies to some customers. Yet, as Datacenter Insider notes, only 56 percent of companies collect the necessary data to track KPIs such as utilisation, energy consumption, and energy efficiency (PUE) to verify and document sustainability. A quarter are considering it, 12 percent have tried and abandoned it. Meanwhile, 37 percent measure carbon intensity at all sites and a further 42 percent at some sites. A similar pattern emerges with water-use tracking, at 40 and 40 percent respectively. Overall, customer expectations and reality still diverge widely. Looking ahead two years, 47 percent of respondents plan to improve existing power distribution and related infrastructure. 40 percent aim to advance cooling infrastructure, while 36 percent seek to optimise cooling efficiency.

Best Practices and Potential

A series of best practices show that many data-centre operators are already investing more in sustainability and energy efficiency out of their own interest-and under pressure from their customers. Companies like WindCloud from Schleswig-Holstein and windCores from Paderborn have made it their mission to harness wind farms to power their data centres.According to a graphic on the windCores website, around 244 TWh of electricity was generated from renewable sources in 2019, yet 5.4 TWh went unused. Ninety-six percent of that surplus could power one-third of all data centres-or 1.7 million households.Achieving this, however, would require a far more efficient electricity grid in Germany. Local protest groups and regional politicians are blocking new high-voltage power lines that would bring “windy” green electricity from the north to Frankfurt or Munich-where most data centres are located. Until this bottleneck is resolved, more major customers will continue relocating their data centres to Scandinavia. Sweden, Norway and Finland are already rolling out the welcome mat, touting their northern permafrost soils and short summers as ideal conditions for truly sustainable data centres. Yet software developers also have a key role to play by creating applications that minimise energy consumption and maximise efficiency. Today, one server often still runs one application-an approach that urgently needs to change.

Source header image: Adobe Stock / weerapat1003