Data centers and alternative energy: When can we run solely on renewable energy?
Data in our digital world has become an important part of our being. Now, the data centers housing servers that store data consume huge amounts of electricity. Hence, as the demand for digital services continues to rise, there is a growing need for sustainable energy solutions. In fact, the look out is for data centers that can be solely powered by renewable energy.
Power demands and environmental impacts
Historically, many data centers have been powered by fossil fuels, especially natural gas and coal. These energy sources, although reliable and cost-effective, are not sustainable in the long term due to their environmental impact, especially greenhouse gas emissions. According to secondary research, in 2020, data centers consumed around 1% of global electricity. However, this percentage is expected to rise with each passing year. Hence, efforts are being made to embrace sustainable energy solutions as much as possible to reduce the impact on climate change. In fact, the concept of powering data centers with renewable energy sources ensures usage of alternatives to fossil fuels which are also cost efficient, making this transition even more demanding.
Data centers adopting renewable energy
Companies are adopting renewable energy with long-term power purchase agreements that helps them to secure a consistent and secure energy supply. Google already runs its data centers on renewable energy since 2017, and Microsoft too is going through the transition to do the same by 2025. Again, on-site renewable energy infrastructure enables an organization to directly control their energy sources. Although this option is geographically limited but it provides highly reliable and low-carbon energy supply to the data centers.
To address the inconsistency of renewable energy supply, few data centers are also planning on energy storage systems to store excess energy generated for times of need. Companies like Tesla are developing large-scale battery storage solutions specifically designed for this purpose.
Challenges data centers face to depend upon renewable energy
This transition is not simple or without challenges due to the inconsistency of renewable energy generation. Since data centers require continuous flow of power and in huge quantity, energy storage solutions are gaining popularity to empower organizations for a successful shift. Also, renewable energy production has location constraints and all data centers are not located in sunny areas for solar energy or with consistent wind patterns for wind energy. Again, this transition to renewable energy requires significant investment in new infrastructure hence, companies with limited budget face difficulty with this change.
The future with green data center
Despite the challenges, many experts still believe that running data centers solely on renewable energy is possible in next few decades. With advances in energy storage, grid modernization, and the scaling up of renewable energy production, organizations are willing to invest in the change with commitment to become carbon neutral. Policy changes, such as carbon pricing, renewable energy incentives, and stricter emissions regulations are few initiatives by Government to support this transition.
In the near future, data centers may not just be the backbone of our digital world—they could also become powerful symbols of how the tech industry can help combat climate change and transition to a sustainable future.
