Can we build a green cloud? A sustainable approach to the digital revolution

Data Centres are the present and future of society, they are the backbone of digital infrastructure and are critical to our lives. 

We are dependent now more than ever before on a flourishing digital economy and in our current climate, this is only set to grow.

The variation in data storage type is immense, and beyond the immediacy of internet streaming, the value of data becomes increasingly critical. The most advanced computing equipment powers physics experiments to drive scientific discovery, high security design protects top tier government intelligence and remote cloud servers provide a network for shopping transactions, on-demand television streaming and media file back-ups. 

These examples are necessities which have become part of daily life. Yet very few people have ever visited a data centre, are aware of how the ‘machine’ works or where the ‘cloud’ even is.

A Growing Economy

The growth of the data centre industry is driven by our demand for data, which has increased significantly in recent years. The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly, from 64.2 zettabytes in 2020, to more than 180 zettabytes by next year. 

The term zettabyte is used as a measure of digital information storage to represent the size of data. This data is stored in approximately 8,000 deemed to be data centres across the globe. The majority of data centres are considered critical infrastructure, with the Uptime Institute developing the globally recognised Tier I to IV system, setting the standard for reliability, resilience and performance.

Data centres, or ‘the cloud’, are essential for the operation of business. It is understood 28% of UK businesses use data centre services with 62% of businesses in excess of 250 employees more likely to use a data centre. 

A large contributor to the economy, data centres contribute 6.9% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with 76% reliance of UK service exports relying on data. Data centre outages therefore cost industries billions per year. 

Security and resilience is therefore paramount in the design and operation, and the UK announced in December 2023 tougher measure will be brought in, providing another layer of protection against disruption. New laws will set minimum requirements, and considerations are being made for new regulatory functions. 

Data centre security issues can impact entire countries, not just businesses. Government plans will therefore ensure businesses operate in conjunction with greater national interest and this will be housed under critical national infrastructure. 

The amount of data created and replicated is constantly rising. This means more data centres will be built, further increasing the energy demand and compounding the availability of energy on a global scale. However, the growth and increase in data should never be at the detriment of our planet or our energy security.

We are in an international climate change and energy crisis and the reports for data centres state varying figures for energy consumption globally. Significantly high regional power consumptions have been reported in countries such as Ireland where it is estimated 18% of its electricity supply is purely to meet data centre demand, and in Denmark it is predicted 15% of electricity demand will be for data centres by 2030. 

Data centres are built in target regions to optimise readily available power and infrastructure, and these pockets of data centres create greater impacts on a regional basis

Climate Pressures

A report issued in October 2022 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) ‘tells us in cold scientific terms what nature has been telling us all year, through deadly floods, storms and raging fires: we have to stop filling our atmosphere with greenhouse gases and stop doing it fast’, advised Inger Andersen executive director of the UNEP.  

The truth is, we are not on track to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement and as stated in the UNEP report there’s ‘no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place today’. Although the transformation to net zero is in progress, this needs to be expedited. We are still faced with a huge challenge and as well as the way we live, data centre design and operation must also change considerably. 

It’s easy to understand why as internet devices could contribute up to 3.6% of global emissions by 2028 and 14% by 2040, exceeding other sectors such as aviation at 1.9% and shipping at 2.0%. 

Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions

With a wide range in reports, it remains a challenge to establish what the exact carbon emissions are for data centres. Up until this year there has been no requirement within Europe for data centres to publish their energy performance and sustainability information. And the European Commission reported last year a predicted 28% increase in electricity consumption, for the ICT sector, between 2018 and 2030.

Other scientific research papers such as Artificial intelligence and climate change: ethical issues published in 2023 by Linköping University Sweden, allude to growing emissions and state ‘through the most detailed, precise and methodical analysis of the ICT global GHGE footprint’ Belkhir and Elmeligi, 2018; found that the ICT GHGE contribution relative to worldwide footprint will roughly double from 1 to 1.6% in 2007 to 3–3.6% by 2020. Assuming a continued annual relative growth ranging from 5.6 to 6.9%, ICT’s relative contribution would exceed 14% of the 2016-level worldwide GHGE by 2040.

The lion share of the emissions were found to be generated by the ICT infrastructure with data centres being the largest culprit (45%) followed by communication networks (24%). Other reports for example by the IET report energy related greenhouse gas emissions for data centres as low as 0.6% in 2020. 

There is a wide disparity in reports and predictions, but what we can be certain of is rapid growth and the requirement to ensure these important numbers, such as greenhouse gas emissions, do not continually rise as the digital economy grows very rapidly.

Despite the increased demand in energy consumption carbon emissions have been kept lower through the development of energy efficient technology. This in itself has helped prevent a proportional growth in carbon emissions linked to energy consumption. With exponential growth in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a continued social movement towards a ‘metaverse’, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure the growth of the sector does not overshoot the good reductions induced by energy efficient technology. 

So, what needs to be done to meet our demand for data but ensure the longer term stability and sustainability of our planet? Within this thriving, dynamic community of data centre and ICT professionals there is plenty of scope to ensure data centres avoid climbing to a higher carbon emission spot. 

With the development of AI technology could data centres become a courageous hero in the climate crisis battle? Or will AI accelerate environmental issues? Should there be more rules put in place on the development of these high energy users? Should the industry be stepping up and being responsible for more sustainable developments? Can the industry wait for a de-carbonised energy grid? And should it wait?

We look at these questions and more in our report as we explore what the future could look like for data centres.

Click this link to read the full report: Can we build a green cloud? A sustainable approach to the digital revolution