Ashwinder Sethi, Partner, and Shreyas Hejib, Associate Consultant, Analysys Mason
Data centres are playing an increasingly critical role in the world of connectivity, as we rapidly move towards a digital future. The tremendous development of the internet and technology over the past 20 years has fuelled the increased use of data centres to support the digital demand from both consumers and enterprises.
However, the rampant growth of data centres also raises environmental concerns. Data centres require large amounts of electricity and water to function. In fact, data centres consume about 1.5 per cent of the global energy, with data centres in some countries such as Singapore and Ireland accounting for 7 per cent and 11 per cent of the local energy consumption, respectively. The enormous consumption of electricity leads to significantly high carbon emissions. Moreover, futuristic technologies and use cases such as cloud gaming, metaverse and augmented reality are bound to increase the IT workload on data centres. Thus, there is an urgent need to balance the unabated demand for digital infrastructure with sustainability concerns. Over the past few years, customers, enterprises and governments have become more aware of the direct and indirect negative externalities perpetrated by data centres. Thus, the data centre industry is faced with the crucial challenge of enabling sustainable growth. Technology, innovation and collaboration hold the key to crossing this hurdle. While governments and regulators must get more involved in addressing these issues, this situation also presents an opportunity for various players in the data centre value chain to create innovative solutions to reduce the negative environmental footprint of data centres.
Technology, innovation and collaboration hold the key to overcoming the challenge of enabling sustainable growth.
The carbon emissions of data centres can be segmented into two parts. First, embodied carbon emissions are produced during the construction and installation of data centres. This includes emissions due to raw material extraction, transportation of materials, construction of buildings and wastage of materials. To limit embodied carbon emissions, certain countries such as Singapore and the Netherlands have previously taken an aggressive stance of implementing a moratorium on new data centre deployments. However, the moratoriums in both the countries were temporary in nature, since it was not a long-term solution, given that data centres form the backbone of the digital economy. Second, operational carbon emissions are produced due to the day-to-day operations of data centres, which involve the use of electricity and water. This is where the largest opportunity lies for reducing carbon emissions through technological innovation. Some of the initiatives being considered and/or undertaken to reduce operational carbon emissions are listed and explained below.
Improved power usage effectiveness (PUE): The Carbon Neutral Data Centre Pact suggests data centres to have a PUE of 1.4 in warm climates and 1.3 in cold climates. Similarly, China’s Action Plan for the Development of New Data Centres (2021-23) states that newly built data centres must have a PUE of 1.3 or below. A low PUE can be achieved through the implementation of some innovative techniques. Some operators have optimised the layout of their data centres and the layout of racks to improve air flow and, therefore, cooling. Others are leveraging automation and internet of things (IoT) enablement in power and cooling distribution processes.
Use of renewable energy: At present, Indian data centre operators source 20-40 per cent of their energy from renewable sources. Most operators aim to increase this to 50-60 per cent by 2026 and aim to source 100 per cent of their energy requirements from renewable sources by 2030. Several operators have partnered with third parties to establish solar, wind, hydropower or biomass plants, which supply renewable energy to their data centres. Lithium-ion batteries are also being used for energy storage to provide power backup. Some operators have initiated pilot projects to test the application of solid oxide fuel cells and hydrogen fuel cells as sources of power, which could serve as zero-carbon emissions alternatives to traditional diesel-powered backup generators.
Better cooling techniques: Cooling systems make up the a bulk of energy and water requirements in a data centre. Thus, certain technologies are being introduced and trialled by major hyperscalers and other operators to improve cooling efficiency.
Liquid immersion cooling (LIC): This technique involves directly plunging servers in a non-conductive liquid, potentially enabling PUEs of less than 1.15.
Indirect evaporative cooling (IDEC): IDEC uses a fluid-cooler that takes advantage of water evaporation to cool air 
flowing through an external radiator to remove heat from the data centre and return chilled cooling fluid to it. Meta has claimed that this technique can reduce the peak water usage by over 20 per cent and can enable a PUE of 1.19. It also states that its facilities are over 80 per cent more water efficient than the average data centre.
Direct-to-chip cooling: This involves pumping chilled liquid to a cold plate that cools the server chip directly. Google has tested this technique at some of its data centres.
Management of e-waste: Data centres are responsible for generating a lot of e-waste as operators discard outdated racks, computing equipment and other electrical components. Simplification of data centres by consolidation of the number of storage arrays in operation, which reduces the amount of equipment required, can help reduce the creation of e-waste. Some operators are exploring the incorporation of circularity and regenerative principles in data centre operations to reduce waste and emissions.
Effective water usage: Data centres have significant water requirements, particularly for the purpose of cooling. Operators need to monitor and minimise water usage, especially in regions with water scarcity. Several operators report water usage effectiveness statistics, which measure a data centre’s sustainability in terms of water usage and its relation to energy consumption. In addition, there needs to be an increasing focus on the use of recycled water, instead of potable water in data centre operations.
Data centre sustainability needs to be at the forefront of industry actions, regulatory decisions and government policies. Innovation in green technologies and multilateral collaboration are exceedingly important in achieving the aspirational netzero goals that most data centre operators have set. In addition, such sustainability measures will enable data centre operators to be compliant with new regulations, secure environmentally conscious customers and obtain access to green financing. Ultimately, the collective aim is to move towards a digital, sustainable and connected future.
Data centre sustainability needs to be at the forefront of industry actions, regulatory decisions and government policies. Ultimately, the collective aim is to movetowards a digital, sustainable and connected future.
