How can data centres be made more environmentally friendly and energy efficient?

Data centres and the impact of digital technologies on the environment.

When we consider how digital technologies affect our world, we need to think in more than just a virtual sense. In France, for example, they are responsible for 2.5% of CO₂ emissions (source: Study carried out by the French Ministry for the Environment and Energy (ADEME) and the French Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Post and Press Distribution (ARCEP), 2022)—a number that is sure to go up in the coming years.
 

However, at 78%, the development of digital terminals remains the main cause of CO₂ emissions. A terminal’s lifecycle is an important part of the equation as those that have reached the end of their usable life account for 20 million tons of waste every year.

Globally, data centres account for 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to aviation’s entire carbon footprint.

These figures should ring alarm bells and focus companies’ minds on introducing measures to address excessive energy consumption in these infrastructures.

Solutions for reducing data centres’ carbon footprint.

Here are a few ways to tackle data centres’ impact on the environment.
 

Reduce energy consumption.

Powering data centres and cooling the servers can be done through renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro and solar.

Data centre operators and trade associations are leveraging the European Green Deal in order to achieve climate neutrality in data centres. The European Green Deal has set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with technology and digitalisation as a foundation to ensure Europe is carbon neutral by 2050. Data centre operators and professional associations are eager to help make this goal a reality and have therefore agreed to make their infrastructures carbon neutral by 2030. 

The French government is also encouraging data centre owners to factor environmental impact into the construction and operation of these structures by introducing a reduced domestic electricity consumption tax in the Finance Act 2021. In 2022, data centres located in France and reducing their environmental impact benefited from this lower tax, which is also laid down in the Mitigation of the Environmental Impact in the Digital Sector Act.

Furthermore, financial incentives such as the AMD HPC Fund have been set up to drive innovation and put more computational power in the hands of those conducting research into climate change, big data, and much more.

The European Commission is eager to launch more best practices and has been working on the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres, which defines incentives for more environmentally friendly infrastructures and optimised energy efficiency.

 

Enhanced data centre cooling systems.

The cooling of electronic systems is essential, but also has an environmental impact. Fortunately, there are several ways to minimise water and power consumption.

• Cold aisles – This method requires the servers to be reorganised and grouped so that heating and cooling sides alternate and thus prevent warm and cool air from mixing.
• Free cooling – In this example, natural resources are used by locating servers in colder countries in order to make use of the water and air there.
• In other words, the data centres are cooled by the ambient air.
• Immersion cooling with dielectrics – This method foresees servers being immersed in tanks of used cooking oil or waste oil collected from vehicles, which absorb the heat generated.
• Water cooling – Here, the servers are kept cool by means of water. A pump located outside of the data centre draws water from a lake, groundwater, the city or even from waste water and feeds it into cooling circuit—a method that can shrink electricity consumption by 40%!

Energy recovery.

Data centres generate a lot of heat, which is emitted into the atmosphere.

These days, this heat can be recovered and used to heat buildings and swimming pools and also to generate warm water.

Mastering digital technologies and changing behaviours.

Every data centre is home to files, picture and other media available online. It’s clear that the way we act can impact the environment and there are a few things we can integrate into our daily lives to alleviate that.

Whilst we can’t directly influence data centre design, we can change our behaviours so as to keep our digital carbon footprint to a minimum. Examples include:

• Emptying e-mail inboxes and only sending as many e-mails as strictly necessary
• Cleaning out files saved in the cloud and on physical drives
• Limiting video viewing

Another option is to work with environmentally-friendly hosting providers such as Infomlaniak, Planet Hoster, Ikoula, etc., who use the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) KPI to determine the energy efficiency of a data centre.

The advantages this are clear:

• Using data centres running on renewable energies or those that are renewable energy-certified.
• Carbon neutrality
• Energy consumption optimisation
• Limited use of cooling systems
• Less electrical waste thanks to recycling.

An innovative system that can be leveraged to tackle CO₂ emissions.
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