The data center market is booming due to the ever increasing use of digital applications in business, education, research and daily life. Immense server capacities are required for video streaming, online gaming, home office or AI-based programs. However, these increased demands are accompanied by high energy requirements at the same time. For an ecological data center, all energy-using systems must make a contribution, starting from the IT strategy to the area of renewable energies and the use of waste heat. The Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability expects the demand for energy resources of data centers to double by 203011. The Data Center Group is rising to this challenge, because planning and implementing data centers in an energy-efficient manner is more important today than ever before.
Over 90 percent. This is the value of the increased IT connection capacity of data centers in Germany between 2010 and 2022. The driving force are cloud services, which are being used more and more frequently in companies and in private environments. Cloud data centers already account for 38% of total data center capacity - and the trend is rising. As a result, the energy demand of data centers is also increasing. In the same period, this increased by 70% to 17.9 billion kWh/a. The computing capacity installed in data centers per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed has increased about sixfold since 2010. A further doubling of energy demand is expected by 20302.
Efficient cooling is crucial here. It must dissipate the heat generated by the servers. Technologies such as controlled airflow, cold and hot aisle containment, and intelligent cooling systems help reduce energy consumption for cooling. Selecting energy-efficient hardware, such as processors and storage, can also significantly reduce overall power consumption.
For a green data center, all energy-using systems must contribute. This starts with an intelligent and secure IT strategy that can, among other things, organize load balancing to increase the energy efficiency of the server systems. Intelligent load distribution across different servers helps to increase utilization and thus boost energy efficiency.
Additional energy savings can be achieved by implementing energy management systems and automated processes, such as powering down or hibernating servers, as well as continuous monitoring.
Purchasing power exclusively from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind or hydroelectric can significantly reduce the environmental footprint of data centers. Photovoltaic systems installed on roofs and facades of data centers further reduce the amount of electricity purchased.
Using waste heat from data centers is also a lever for saving energy. Heat generated by the operation of IT infrastructure and servers can be used to heat buildings, to heat water or to generate electricity. In this way, expended energy is fed back into the grid - CO2-neutral! The use of waste heat is to become the standard for data centers anyway. Such a bill, an energy efficiency law, has been passed and is to be launched before the end of 2023. The Data Center Group implements the appropriate interface for heat recovery in the planning and implementation of the data center and provides supportive advice on the associated technical and contractual specifications.
Server manufacturers are also working on efficient, IT-performant systems. Thus, there is a chance to be able to save energy in the end with an intelligent IT strategy.
The Data Center Group is represented in various research collaborations to actively work on these topics. The Bytes2Heat consortium, a DENEFF project, individually analyzes barriers to waste heat utilization in data centers, develops solutions in a collaborative, creative co-development process, and identifies best practice paths3.
Moreover, a strategy paper on sustainable concepts, developed by the Data Center Group in June 2022, establishes guardrails in which the path to a green transformation is paved. These guardrails are applied to every data center design. They include the requirements of "blue angel"4 certification, optimization of the power consumption of end-user equipment, waste heat recovery as already explained, greening of facades, photovoltaics, energy-efficient equipment systems, and recycled and regional building materials5.
If all these measures are implemented, a high level of energy can be saved and the figures of the Borderstep Institute can be undercut, which would lead to a much better ecological footprint of the data center industry. Let's shape a sustainable future together!
1) www.borderstep.de/2020/11/30/deutlicher-anstieg-des-energiebedarfs-der-rechenzentren-im-jahr-2020/
2) www.bitkom.org/sites/main/files/2023-05/BitkomStudieRechenzentreninDeutschland2023.pdf
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