I have been thinking recently about the effectiveness of data centre operators buying sustainably generated electricity to run their facilities.

On the face of it it’s a really good thing, as massive electricity users it establishes responsible behaviour for the industry and by paying a little extra for the power it funds more initiatives for green generation.

But I think we have to do much more than buy green power if we are to mitigate the power use growth in data centres.

According to the IEA Global Energy Review 2021 28% of the worlds electricity was generated sustainably in 2020 with an increase of 8% expected in 2021. This is good news, the focus on environmental issues is driving development quickly. But we also know that data centre electricity consumption is set to grow massively as well. According to the mid-case predicted by Research Gate data centre electricity usage will grow by approximately 400% by 2030.

So I’m not going to argue about exactly how much of the renewables growth will be hoovered up by the DC industry just that it’s going to be significant!

I am also not saying that we should restrict data centre growth, we are in the midst of a digital revolution and the telecoms and data centre companies enabled us to work through difficult times in the pandemic. I think we need to generate sustainable power as close to the point of use as possible..

“I think we need to generate sustainable power as close to the point of use as possible..”

Nigel Stevens, CEO

…so co-locating (no pun intended) or even “near-locating” data centres with green power sources would seem to be the smartest solution. Additionally, I’m pretty sure distance matters. What are the typical transmission losses of say a 20MW data centre when powered from the grid? My guess is its significant, so there are probably decent efficiencies to be gained there too.

It may be that generating sustainable power in the mere 10’s of mega-watts is not all that efficient either so I’m happy to be corrected by any LinkedIn contacts that can shed any light on that matter.

To date, data centres have focussed on being more efficient. Massive improvements on power usage efficiency have been made but I think we can do more if we broaden our thinking on the use of power to include generation and proximity.

Nigel Stevens, CEO