From accessing websites to handling financial information, data centres handle almost every digital interaction we make. But the heavy usage of data centres comes at a serious environmental cost.
At CFP Energy, we have extensive experience working with data centre managers to achieve carbon compliance and reduce emissions. Contact one of our carbon specialists today to see how we can help reduce your carbon footprint with long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and liquidity solutions.
What is a Data Centre's Carbon Footprint?
The carbon footprint of data centres covers all greenhouse gases (GHGs) - from the site’s construction through to its day-to-day operation. Most emissions, however, typically come from electricity consumption. Servers need power to process data, while cooling systems need power to prevent overheating. These emissions are called Scope 2 emissions - a measurement of energy emissions that refers to indirect emissions from purchased electricity.
Other sources add to the total footprint. Scope 1 emissions come from direct sources like backup diesel generators and refrigerant leaks from cooling equipment. Scope 3 emissions, meanwhile, include the carbon embedded in the supply chain. In the context of data centres, this would cover IT hardware manufacturing, equipment transport, and building construction.
Managing data centre emissions effectively requires understanding all three categories.
The Scale of the Issue: A Growing Footprint
Data centres consume about 1-1.3% of global electricity demand. That's comparable to the electricity demand of entire countries, such as Australia or Spain. The proportion keeps rising too - at present, cloud computing drives much of the growth, but artificial intelligence is catching up.
Due to its dependence on complex calculations, AI requires significant power to run. As a result, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global data centre electricity will double by 2030, with demand from AI models being the main driver.
Worth approximately £8.34 billion in 2024, the UK hosts a large data centre sector that continues expanding. Projections even suggest it could reach £17.67 billion by 2030 - a forecast that highlights the need for renewables, sustainable power generation.
Beyond Carbon: Other Environmental Impacts
Although data centres produce significant greenhouse gas emissions, data centres also create other environmental problems.
Water consumption, for instance, represents a major hurdle. Cooling systems, especially evaporative cooling units, need extensive quantities of water to remove heat from servers. This type of heat reduction strains local water supplies, particularly in areas already impacted by water depletion.
Electronic waste, such as obsolete servers, hard disks and network cabling, is another growing problem. To safeguard best practice and ensure end-to-end sustainability, these components require recycling or reuse to avoid adding to the waste stream.
Strategies for Reducing the Footprint
The carbon footprint of data centres remains a major pain point for operators. To meet regulations like the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and ensure ETS compliance, operators must do everything they can to reduce carbon emissions through targeted energy purchasing and operational improvements.
This section will outline a number of ways in which energy performance and power consumption can be improved to help decarbonise data centres.
Boosting Energy Efficiency
Data centres need to cut their energy waste, and the main way of quantifying this is through Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) - the ratio of total facility power to IT equipment power.
Installing better hardware also makes a difference. Modern servers process more data per watt than older models. Virtualisation lets you run multiple workloads on fewer physical machines, while software optimisation removes unnecessary processing overhead.
Improving on-premise operations, such as through airflow management, is also important. This prevents hot and cold air from mixing, while optimised power distribution, otherwise known as Power Distribution Efficiency (PDE), reduces losses between the grid connection and server racks.
Transitioning to Renewable Energy
Clean electricity directly cuts Scope 2 emissions and, as such, is the most effective way to tackle a growing carbon footprint.
Enabling the buyer to purchase power at a fixed rate over a designated period. Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) offer a hedge against future volatile power prices by securing a fixed price for renewable energy sources for a set period.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), meanwhile, provide proof that your electricity came from renewable sources without the need for direct generator contracts.
On-site renewable energy generation is also effective at cutting data centre emissions. Solar farms are a good match for data centres since solar farms regularly exceed gigawatt capacity, making them ideal for a high-demand sector, while small wind installations can work in exposed locations with consistent wind patterns.
Implementing Advanced Cooling Solutions
Compared to traditional air cooling, liquid cooling reduces heat much more efficiently while using less energy.
Direct-to-chip cooling pipes, for instance, deliver liquid directly to processors and memory chips, while Immersion cooling submerges entire servers in non-conductive fluid.
These methods remove heat faster than air systems and claim energy savings that can often be substantial, with some installations substantially reducing cooling energy consumption as a result.
Introducing CFP Energy: Targeting Data Centre Carbon Emissions
From accessing websites to handling financial information, data centres handle almost every digital interaction we make. The time is now to ensure these critical infrastructures are powered efficiently, whether by reducing data centre carbon emissions, managing energy costs, or aligning with tightening environmental regulations.
At CFP Energy, we have extensive experience working with data centre managers to achieve carbon compliance and reduce emissions. Contact one of our carbon specialists for a no-obligation consultation.
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