Study Reveals Energy Efficient Technologies and Practices Could Limit Total Data Center Greenhouse Gas Emissions
As corporate computing requirements grow steadily and consumer-focused IT services continue their rapid expansion, the demand for data center capacity continues to rise. The rapid adoption of IT use in the emerging economies is also providing a powerful engine for the growth of data center capacity. In turn, the growth in demand is further increasing these facilities’ energy footprint. Today’s data center industry consumes around 1.5 percent of the world’s energy. Data center operators are struggling to keep energy demand in check while continuing to grow their capacity. The need to reduce energy consumption is being driven by a diverse set of factors that includes the rising price of electricity, greenhouse gas emissions, information technology improvements, cloud computing, virtualization, large advances in cooling techniques, and significant improvements in monitoring and management tool suites.
According to a new report from Pike Research, the widespread adoption of energy efficient data center technologies and best practices could significantly limit the growth of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from data centers over the next several years. If current trends continue, GHG emissions from data centers are expected to total 1,326 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent; green data center best practices could reduce that total to 1,156 tons, a difference of 13 percent compared to the business-as-usual trend, according to the cleantech market intelligence firm’s analysis.