Toward zero emission and energy autonomous data centers

Data centers are likely to account for 8% of global electricity consumption by 2030, and their consumption will grow exponentially if nothing is done to reduce it. In 2014, the European Council adopted an energy-climate action framework for the period 2021-2030. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% (compared with 1990 levels), increase the share of renewable energies to at least 32%, and improve energy efficiency by at least 32.5%. In September 2020, as part of the Green Deal , the European Commission proposed raising the target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 from 40% to 55%, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 . Other countries around the world are following the same approach, including China, which has announced its intention to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 .

This can only be achieved by reducing energy consumption and the use of fossil fuels.

In this context, carbon neutrality by 2050 or 2060 cannot be achieved without taking data centers into account.

The first step in making data centers more energy-efficient is to reduce the power consumption of servers and cooling systems. However, all the electricity consumed by the servers and IT equipment in the data center is converted into heat. The second step in making a data center more energy-efficient will therefore be to reuse the waste heat from this equipment. If these solutions are implemented, a data center's energy consumption can be reduced by almost 50%, regardless of its geographical location.

At this stage, a data center, though more energy-efficient, is still neither zero-emission nor energy self-sufficient. The third step is to replace the fossil fuels used to power it with renewable energies. This electricity can be purchased from suppliers (as some GAFAs already do) or generated locally by photovoltaic panels or wind turbines. However, the production of electricity using renewable energies is variable, and so is a data center's consumption. To manage this situation, the data center can sell this green electricity in situations of surplus, and buy it...