The current AI explosion has served to shine a spotlight on the data centre industry as never before. The International Energy Agency estimates that the industry consumes in the region of 1.5% of the world’s electricity at the present time. This amount is expected to at least double by 2030 as the impact of AI takes effect.
The industry can react in one of two ways.
While AI itself is maybe not being directly demanded by consumers, the growth in digital consumption across the globe – whether that’s apps accessed for business or leisure – is consumer-driven. We all want to do more, faster, via all manner of digital devices. The data centre industry is ‘merely’ responding to this demand – why should it be blamed for its resulting high power and water consumption, for its increasing carbon footprint?
Alternatively, the data centre industry can seek to demonstrate the many ways in which it provides the essential foundation for our digital world – enabling so many technology innovations which benefit our health, our wealth, our education, our workplace, our home – whilst also showing that it understands the importance of sustainability. What better way of evidencing this environmental commitment than embracing the idea of the circular economy – by implementing an effective data centre lifecycle management strategy?
The emphasis is on the word ‘effective’, as most, if not all, data centre owners and operators will already operate some kind of a lifecycle management plan – in its simplest form, deciding over what timescale to write off, hence renew, various assets. The planned build out of a data centre likewise falls under lifecycle management – no point in building out the complete footprint power and cooling infrastructure, for example, if the building is only a quarter full when first opened.
However, it may well be that, for many data centre owners and operators, the idea of the circular economy and the attendant lifecycle management strategy is not a, if not the, central objective when it comes to designing, building, owning, operating and maintaining a facility. Other objectives may coincide with the idea of circularity (for example, cost considerations), but overall, they will not deliver the true potential of the circular economy.
Data centre design is perhaps the most crucial aspect of data centre circularity, hence sustainability. After all, once the design has been signed off, everything else pretty much follows accordingly. Yes, changes can be made along the way, but, if the technologies they incorporate have not been understood at the design stage, then there may well be an element of compromise when it comes to circularity objectives. For example, designing for air cooling and then changing to a liquid cooling solution could well mean that, depending on the timing of such a switch, unnecessary work has been carried out – which means some wastage…of materials, time and money.
Granted, in today’s fast moving technology world, today’s data centre design may well be out of date by the time of construction or at a later date when the clients arrive with some new requirements, but that just means that maximum flexibility has to be allowed for at the design stage.
Design considerations are of course closely linked to the subsequent construction phase. Most notably, the choice as to whether to upgrade a legacy data centre, or to identify a suitable brownfield site (likely a disused warehouse or factory location), or to go for a greenfield, new build. From a circular economy perspective, upgrading an existing building makes the most sense, followed by the brownfield option, with the greenfield site the last choice. That’s because the ‘recycling’ of an existing structure is much more sustainable than the significant environmental impact of constructing a new facility, however sustainably sourced are the building materials.
Clearly, there are many other considerations when it comes to data centre build out – in these AI-driven times, older data centres simply may not be able to cope with the high power densities required by GPUs – but it’s certainly worth considering data centre design and construction when it comes to circularity.
However the building comes into being, the specification, installation and maintenance of the supporting data centre infrastructure is another important consideration when it comes to matching the requirements of the circular economy. Everything from installation of modular data centre sections right down to the choice of the smallest components can be done with a view as to how sustainably they have been manufactured, how sustainably they perform and, importantly, how they might be re-used or recycled once they are no longer required within the data centre.
For example, some data centre infrastructure items may well incorporate significant quantities of already recycled materials. Equally, some manufacturers of modern UPS systems emphasise the recyclability of a large percentage of the materials used within the UPS. And this is a growing trend worth noting right across the data centre infrastructure estate. So, not only can the correct specification of power, cooling, lighting, fire suppression, physical security and the like ensure that the most sustainably manufactured and operational infrastructure is chosen, it is also possible to ensure that the end of life of much equipment is also sustainable.
Renewable energy is perhaps the most obvious way in which data centres can contribute to the circular economy – minimising waste and pollution and maximising resource efficiency. In fairness, a renewable energy supply is pretty much table stakes for data centre owners and operators these days. Nevertheless, it is maybe possible to distinguish between the ‘passive’ renewable energy users – who simply ask it from their supplier, who provides certification as proof – and those who become actively involved in Power Purchase Agreements and maybe even look at building their own microgrids.
When it comes to backup generators, while diesel is still required and used in many data centres, there is a growing trend to use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as a renewable fuel replacement.
Maintenance planning and execution is maybe a more subtle possibility when it comes to circularity. Thanks to the advent of smarter and smarter (AI-driven) monitoring and control solutions, it is possible to ensure a cost and resource optimised maintenance regime – whereby maintenance is not carried out needlessly, expensively and wastefully according to the calendar, but in direct response to equipment condition. Furthermore, a well implemented maintenance plan will almost certainly extend the life of equipment, which is definitely a circularity win.
End of life has already been touched as a significant consideration as part of any capital investment programme. The options available when it comes to retiring data centre infrastructure range from re-use elsewhere within an organisation or further afield, right down to having the equipment broken down into its component parts, many of which can then be recycled.
And we haven’t even begun to discuss the concept of timber data centres or the growing focus on liquid cooling, offering as it does a major opportunity for waste heat reuse.
Which maybe brings us back full circle to where we came in – data centre design. Legacy, brownfield or greenfield? If greenfield means a data centre built sustainably, and providing power and heat to a local community – any mix of businesses and homes – then what’s not to like?!
In finishing, I hope that this journey through the data centre circular economy has highlighted many possibilities to consider. Every data centre owner/operator and every customer will have their own thoughts as to the importance of circularity when it comes to the data centre, but all should at least ensure that they are well informed as to what can be achieved.
Again if we can just hold this slightly then that’s great as it will align with the press release. From speaking to Pete B I know that VIRTUS is ‘exploring’ microgrids, although nothing imminent so I think it’s a fair comment.