Within the IT sector, data centers consume a massive amount of power. In the U.S., data centers use more than 70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, which is equivalent to approximately 2% of all electricity use in the country. This fact and more has created the impetus for the rise of more sustainable data centers.
The energy footprint taken up by data centers will certainly increase as our reliance increases on artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things and 5G. Another factor driving even more data use is that the world’s population will continue to increase, necessitating more devices, connectivity, etc.
But there is only so much that our planet can take. If our growing digital infrastructure increases the demand for electricity from coal and other dirty sources of energy that are changing our planet’s climate, we may soon wind up effectively destroying millions of species — including ourselves.
Fortunately, data centers have the space, technology, and expert staff to evolve in ways that meet the power demands of today and tomorrow without contributing to destructive climate change.
This paper discusses what power providers are currently offering in key data center markets, what data centers are doing to be as efficient as possible, and how data center customers can support sustainability. Explore the evolution of sustainable data centers.