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Data Centre Blog 5.0: The next step for the Data Centre: is carbon neutral service delivery to be a realistic prospect?
23 September 2020
Although Data Centres have become more energy efficient over time the Data Centre Provider is now aiming to become carbon neutral as a further step in reducing its overall environmental impact including carbon impact. Over the years Data Centres have implemented the easy part of reducing energy consumption and improving the PUE (Performance Usage Efficiency) metric. Many Data Centres now use renewable energy. But now they face the more difficult task of reducing the Data Centre’s carbon footprint even further to net zero.
Cloud Services Providers steal a march with sustainability measurement
Meanwhile it is the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) that has pioneered the measurement of sustainability in their operations highlighting one of the benefits of using the cloud to be the lowered carbon footprint when compared with a dedicated Data Centre facility. Microsoft Azure Cloud publishes a comparison of the energy impact of a customer enterprise colocation facility against the savings to be had from using the Azure cloud, with sample metrics shown in the screenshot below:
Figure 1 – A screenshot showing the Microsoft Azure Sustainability Calculator
Microsoft Azure cloud computing users can access a web-based Carbon Calculator can be used to show the carbon emissions made by the Microsoft Azure cloud comparing the amount with the emissions from an on-premises Data Centre. Similar calculator services have also been introduced by the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Data Centre Providers are starting to use software monitoring
The large Data Centre Providers are deploying their own software fabric with a web-based interface, allowing users to monitor their IT and power usage allowing remote access for their users. Growth of the web based monitoring tools is increasing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
US-based QTS Data Centers has reported a 30 per cent increase in log-ins for its SDP (Service Delivery Platform) for the 3 week period to 26th March 2020, with their largest users spending twice as long on the platform compared with a year ago. Since the beginning of March 2020 IP bandwidth upgrades increased by 700 per cent year-on-year.
Microsoft already allows users to quantify insights into carbon emissions data associated with their Azure subscriptions both over time and by Data Centre region used, as shown in the screenshot below:
Figure 2 – A screenshot showing an example of the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator
Source: Microsoft
In order to provide similar levels of information about a customer’s carbon footprint new Data Centre software technology the Data Centre Provider will need to invest in more software - with web-based interfaces and software fabric to provide metrics on power usage, carbon reduction and utilisation – in order to allow the end user to evaluate the environmental impact as well as energy use.
Renewable power is now being adopted by the largest Data Centre Providers. In October 2019 Digital Realty claimed that 100 per cent of its US and EMEA retail colocation facilities used renewable energy. Microsoft in January 2020, alongside other sustainability initiatives, announced that its cloud Data Centres are to be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy by 2025.
Microsoft is implementing a strategy of becoming energy neutral by extending renewable power to its supply chain with Microsoft claiming to become a “carbon negative” user by 2030. And by 2050 Microsoft’s goal is to remove from the environment all the carbon that the company has emitted directly or via electricity purchases since 1975 (the foundation of Microsoft).
Data Centre Providers need to adapt their own SDP fabric with machine learning and AI techniques to predict future usage of power, cooling and server utilisation within the Data Centre facility and provide a better understanding of power usage. They also need to provide information on the environmental impact as a monetised service to their customers.
The re-cycling of excess Data Centre heat is essential if carbon neutrality is to be achieved
The key way for a Data Centre to become carbon neutral is for the facility to be capable of recycling heat into the local housing community. By doing this the Data Centre can become a contributor to the wider community. But the heating infrastructure, taxation and energy pricing policies will need to be changed to allow the Data Centre to benefit from supplying surplus heat into the community.
As an example, in May 2020 the Danish Government announced a series of climate action plans to ensure the country achieves a 70 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030. One proposal is to promote the use of green surplus heat from Data Centres with the abolition of tax on the surplus heat generated from Data Centres.
The recycling of excess heat is already a feature of the Scandinavian Data Centre market, with Stockholm Data Parks (founded in 2017) recycling excess Data Centre heat to Stockholm residential apartments. In November 2019, Stockholm Data Parks announced that three additional Data Centres in the Kista region of Stockholm (supplied by Interxion, IP Only & Advania) would participate in the recycling of excess Data Centre heat to some 35,000 residential apartments.
Currently Stockholm Data Park has two sites under development (at Kista and Brista) and a third to be developed at Skarpnack south of the city to be launched during 2021. The company claims that it has more than 30 Data Centres connected to Stockholm Energi’s district energy & heat recovery network.
But if Data Centres are to become carbon neutral than their ability to re-cycle their excess heat into the surrounding community will be crucial to their future development.
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