• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Energy / Data Centers Accelerate Their Focus on Sustainability, Green Power

Data Centers Accelerate Their Focus on Sustainability, Green Power

By Rich Miller - April 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

Data Centers Accelerate Their Focus on Sustainability, Green Power

The Bearkat Wind Energy facility will provide energy for Digital Realty’s 13 data centers in the Dallas region. (Photo: Digital Realty)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

On Earth Day 2020, the data center industry is focusing on sustainability as never before, with the executive suite and customers aligned on the importance of using renewable energy to power digital infrastructure.

The rapid growth of cloud computing has sharpened the focus on the data center sector’s role in retooling the economy for a sustainable future. As the largest cloud builders deepen their commitments to green energy, the supply chain will need to embrace sustainability in new ways.

“The data center industry underpins the growth of the digital economy, and we believe it is critical for industry participants to recognize the importance of managing the environmental impact of their digital infrastructure,” said William Stein, the CEO of Digital Realty, which today announced a major purchase of wind energy to support its data centers.

The most significant trend is that the demands for a greener cloud are coming from customers, not just operators and Greenpeace. Over the last six months, Data Center Frontier has tracked the conversation about sustainability across multiple industry events, which has reflected a much more prominent role for the customer perspective.

“The green story of our data centers is becoming much more important for our customers,” said Jaime Leverton, Chief Commercial Officer at eStruxture Data Centers.

“We’re seeing consumers and builders deciding to put sustainability in first,” said Craig Scroogie, CEO and Managing Director of NextDC, one of Australia’s leading data center providers.

“Renewable energy is becoming a prerequisite,” said Gil Santaliz, the President and CEO of the NJFX data center in Wall, N.J. “If you can’t get hold of renewable energy, you’ll be at a disadvantage.”

Hyperscale Players Make Huge Green Power Deals

That kind of alignment signals the growing recognition of climate risk as a business concern. Enterprise support for renewably-powered data centers has historically lagged the commitments seen by major hyperscale operators, who have led the push to slash dependence on fossil fuels. In 2019, the four largest hyperscale operators procured 3.76 gigawatts of renewable energy using power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Source: Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance

  • In January Microsoft unveiled an aggressive plan to cut its carbon emissions in half by 2030, both for direct emissions and its entire supply and value chain. “By July of 2021, we will begin to implement new procurement processes and tools to enable and incentivize our suppliers to reduce their emissions,” the company said.
  • Facebook was the single largest purchaser of renewable energy in 2019, lining up 1.54 gigawatts of wind and solar energy to support its data centers through PPAs. Procuring local sources of renewable energy is now a key factor in how Facebook selects its new data center campuses.
  • Google continues to be one of the largest corporate purchasers of green energy, as well as a pioneer in saving energy through data center efficiency. Google said today unveiled a carbon-intelligent computing platform that can reduce the carbon impact of its massive data center network, shifting large computing jobs to times where they can be powered with renewable energy.
  • Amazon Web Services, which has come under fire for lagging other cloud leaders on renewables, has committed to meet the terms of the Paris Agreement 10 years early, reaching net carbon zero operations by 2040. While Amazon did not provide details, those goals cannot be met without a major acceleration of renewable energy purchases to support Amazon Web Services.

Over the past several years, the hyperscalers have been joined in earnest by the largest multi-tenant data center providers. Today Digital Realty announced a new 7.5-year power and renewable energy credit agreement with Citi to supply wind energy for Digital Realty’s 13 data centers in the Dallas area, equivalent to about 30 percent of the power needs in the Dallas market. The deal provides Digital Realty with over 260,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy annually from the Bearkat Wind Energy II project on Glasscock County, Texas.

The wind power agreement builds on Digital Realty’s green strategy. In 2019, the company announced an additional 50 megawatts of renewables to support its data centers in Ashburn, Virginia and signed a green tariff agreement with Portland General Electric to supply approximately 120,000 megawatt-hours annually to a new project in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Free Resource from Data Center Frontier White Paper Library

Power Efficiency Gains by Deploying 415 VAC Power Distribution in North American Data Centers
High physical density and high power density go “hand in hand” when it comes to the data center. To maximize both without having to pay for specialty infrastructure, many data centers have found it attractive to deploy 415V 3-phase AC power to the rack. Get the new white paper from Server Technology that gives the reasons why this is a cost-effective alternative for many applications.
We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

Multi-tenant data center developers like Switch, Digital Realty, Aligned and Iron Mountain have also lined up green energy for their data center clients.

Embracing a Leadership Role in Sustainability

While hyperscale data center operators have been leaders in renewable energy purchasing, they’ve also been under scrutiny from the environmental group Greenpeace, which has noted the industry’s progress but continues to single out providers and utilities that it believes are not keeping pace.

This attention will not go away, and some data center executives say the sector needs to acknowledge its crucial role in the transition to a cleaner economy.

“Our whole industry ethos will be judged over the next five years,” said Bruno Lopez, Group CEO and Director of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, based in Singapore. “We are becoming a lightning rod, and building data centers the same way is not an option anymore. We have to build more sustainable solutions. Using renewables is going to be the way forward.”

Some data center thought leaders say the industry needs to do a better job telling the story of its role in the green power economy.

“On the sustainability side, the data center industry gets a lot of knocks,” said Lee Kestler, the Chief Commercial Office for Vantage Data Centers, which has made sustainability a key theme in its recent data center designs. “We are driving a lot of opportunities for investment in the renewable energy side.”

Now that scrutiny will also apply to the supply chain.

“Everyone’s seen the announcement Microsoft has made,” said Dana Adams, the Chief Operating Officer of AirTrunk. “hey will be pressing their supply chain to deliver on this.”

Microsoft’s commitment includes a commitment to invest $1 billion in carbon remediation technologies over the next four years.

“We see an acute need to begin removing carbon from the atmosphere, which we believe we can help catalyze through our investments,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith. “We will achieve this through a portfolio of negative emission technologies (NET) potentially including afforestation and reforestation, soil carbon sequestration, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCs), and direct air capture. Given the current state of technology and pricing, we will initially focus on nature-based solutions, with the goal of shifting to technology-based solutions between now and 2050, when they become more viable.”

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: Renewable Energy, Solar, sustainability, Wind

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

How to Simplify Distributed IT Management? Focus on the Tools to Improve Flexibility and Efficiency

How to Simplify Distributed IT Management? Focus on the Tools to Improve Flexibility and Efficiency Russell Senesac, Director of Data Center Strategy at Schneider Electric, explores how to address distributed IT management and the tools available today.

DCF Spotlight

The COVID-19 Crisis and the Data Center Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic presents strategic challenges for the data center and cloud computing sectors. Data Center Frontier provides a one-stop resource for the latest news and analysis for decision-makers navigating this complex new landscape.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

White Papers

cloud service providers

Pro Tips and Best Practices: Physical Layer Strategies for Cloud/Managed Service Providers

Successful Cloud Service Providers and Managed Service Providers need to be out in front of everything in their managed data center spaces – ensuring uptime, bandwidth, and operational/cost efficiency today, with the flexibility and scalability to adapt and expand on the fly. Physical layer and  infrastructure is the foundation on which those services are built. Get the new data center ebook from Siemon that explores pro tips and best practices for physical layer strategies for cloud and managed service providers, from zone cabling in the colocation data center to high speed interconnects in the data center.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Peter Kazella and Associates, Inc

  • Data Center Facility Manager - San Jose, CA
  • Senior Electrical Commissioning Engineer - Nashville, TN
  • UPS Field Service Technician - Boston, MA
  • Data Center Facility Engineer - TS/SCI - Columbia, MD
  • Construction Project Manager - Data Center - Papillion, NE

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 15 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • White Paper

Copyright Data Center Frontier LLC © 2021