Whether it’s a “squid game” posted on Netflix or a GIF file posted on Twitter, both cause a chain reaction and consume energy. And not only on personal devices, but also in data centers scattered around the world where this information is stored.
Today, almost all IP traffic around the world goes through data centers. It is not recorded only once. “For each bit of data that the network sends from the data center to the end user, an additional 5 bits of data are sent within and between the data centers,” according to the International Energy Agency’s “Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks” report released November 2021.
But the simple Google searchers of the past have nothing compared to the high utility bills behind cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), the rise of 5G cellular networks, self-driving cars, or cryptocurrency mining. .. Streaming services alone could account for 87% of consumer Internet traffic this year, according to the report.
Not surprisingly, only a handful of companies are responsible for most of this power consumption. At the top of the list are American big tech giants Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba in China. This is followed by Facebook and Apple.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is gaining its advantage and utilization only through remote work, video conferencing, and file sharing via cloud services.
But what is a data center? It’s not an overheated closet behind an office with one or two noisy servers. They are purpose-built, obscure box-shaped buildings, usually with columns of dedicated machines that store, process, and send data to users.
data center “can extend from the small ones in a single organization to the processing of data traffic from global conglomerates like Amazon with hundreds of millions of consumer and product data,” said Loughborough University, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Richard Blanchard, a renewable energy instructor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, said. Engineering and manufacturing technology in an interview with DW.
With digitalization and tighter regulation, data centers are emerging in more and more places. At the same time, many companies are moving away from their on-premises servers and renting cloud server space to focus on their core business without worrying about IT issues.
In many cases, it is cheaper and more efficient to outsource the cost of purchasing and maintaining such equipment to an external company. Not surprisingly, many data centers are “colocation” centers that are shared by users and managed by professional companies. These occupy most of the data center, but the most notable are the large “hyperscale” data centers owned by bit tech companies.
The largest of these data centers are the size of some soccer fields, with thousands of servers running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. According to renewable energy expert Blanchard, these are very useful because “due to economies of scale, large data centers are more energy efficient than smaller data centers.”
Why do data centers use so much energy?
According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics, there are currently 7.2 million data centers around the world. The United States is overwhelmingly high at 2.670, followed by the United Kingdom is 452, Germany is 443, China, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France and Japan.
Data centers need power to operate their equipment. It also needs a lot of it to keep the machine cool. It is arguable how much power all these data centers consume.
As of now, many experts estimate that storing and transmitting data to and from data centers consumes 1% of the world’s electricity consumption. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of Internet users has since doubled, and global Internet traffic has increased 15-fold, but that percentage has remained almost unchanged since 2010.
This is not always the case in Europe. According to a 2020 survey by the European Commission, data centers in 28 countries at the time consumed 53.9 terawatt hours in 2010. This rose to 76.8 terawatt hours in 2018. This is 2.7% of the EU’s total electricity demand.
The survey predicts that consumption will reach 3.2% of total demand in 2030. The underlying calculations exclude cryptocurrency mining and the data transmission network itself.
So far, more efficient hardware and innovations in structural buildings and cooling systems have been able to meet the growing demand for electricity. However, the study is concerned that demand will be so strong that increased efficiency in hardware, software, or infrastructure will not be able to offset growth.
Companies take the lead
Migrating many of these small, inefficient systems to large data centers has improved efficiency. Moving to a larger hyperscale facility can save more energy due to the concentration of technology and know-how. However, if the majority of companies take this step, it will be more difficult to control energy consumption because it will reduce the chances of optimization.
Companies are taking note, especially Big Tech. Whether for sustainability reasons or fear of public opposition to environmental impacts, one way to tackle this problem is to advocate for more renewable energy. They not only buy renewable energy directly, but also invest in wind and solar projects to produce it.
Companies are looking for low-carbon technologies to reduce their impact on the environment. Google has developed a way to cut electricity bills by 40% by aligning electricity demand with weather and consumer demand,” said Blanchard. The company said plans to make data centers carbon-free by 2030.
Facebook said it used a total of 7.17 million megawatt-hours this year, of which 6.966 million megawatt-hours were used in data centers and the rest in offices.
This was an increase of 39% from 2019 and 390% from 1.83 million MWh in 2016. Despite the massive increase in energy consumption, Facebook says 100% of its current electricity comes from renewable energy.
EU regulation coming down the road
The European Union is not ignoring the problem. To align with our digital strategy, we have set a goal of building climate-sensitive data centers by 2030. The use of best practices such as efficient cooling systems, heat reuse, improved infrastructure and renewable energy can go a long way toward achieving these goals. But can efficiency keep up with the growing demand for data centers and prevent explosions in energy consumption?
As demand for social networking, online shopping, consumer devices and data centers continues to grow, regulators and businesses face significant challenges. “The reason is the connectivity of all kinds of systems that need to handle and process data because more people are accessing online services and the range of organizations and services that use these systems is expanding. “Blanchard concluded.
