Although data centers in the EU are becoming more and more energy efficient, their electricity consumption is steadily increasing. Politics and business should change that. This is the result of the study “Energy-efficient Cloud Computing Technologies and Policies for an Eco-friendly Cloud Market”.

16 months the Austrian Federal Environment Agency and the Borderstep Institute have worked on the study and have now presented their final report. The work was financed and published by the Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technologies of the European Commission.

Growing cloud, growing energy demand In the center The study looked at the progress of digitization and the expansion of cloud computing as well as the associated and exponentially growing energy requirements for storing, processing and transferring data. Because the growth of the infrastructure more than offsets the efficiency gains from the modernization of hardware, software and data center infrastructure. In addition, the study also examines the development of voluntary and regulatory policy instruments and provides policy options to promote environmentally friendly cloud services and an energy-efficient data center and network landscape.

The final report, which is an overview, technical assessment and policy analysis, explains that the energy consumption of data centers in the EU now amounts to 2.7 percent of the total electricity demand in the EU. Was it 2010 still 53, 9 TWh per year, the demand 2018 already rose to 76, 8 TWh per year. Until 2025 the requirement will probably be increased by further 21 Percent to 92, increase 6 TWh / year.

The share of cloud data centers is growing particularly rapidly: 2010 they needed 10 Percentage of the energy consumption of the data centers, 2018 already 35 percent. 2015 it will probably be 60 be percent. Northern and Western Europe are home to the largest and most data centers and thus stood out 2018 for 82 Percentage of the energy consumption of data centers responsible, tendency rising.

Programmers are required Since the efficiency of the infrastructure has improved significantly in recent years, the remaining energy efficiency potential is becoming smaller. Energy-conscious software development now plays a major role, especially for computationally intensive applications such as crypto mining and AI. The data networks have also become more energy-efficient, but here too the total energy consumption is increasing due to additional networks – especially for mobile communications.

To prevent rapid growth in energy consumption, the increasing demand for central computing capacity must be increased by Efficiency gains are compensated. Politics is required here. To this end, the study formulated seven summary recommendations for a suitable RTD policy (research and technological development):

Definition the transparency requirements and promotion of uniform indicators for energy efficiency Promotion of the use of cloud-native optimization tools for cloud computing Support of technological innovations for certain topics Improve software efficiency Use the potential of SMEs and promote cloud capabilities for SMEs Focus on researching new trends Integration of energy efficiency from cloud services to other RTD programs In addition, public procurement must become more environmentally friendly and be based on uniform rules for the European authorities n Contribute to lowering the energy demand. Examination of best practice examples for energy efficient data centers has uncovered a variety of approaches. The study names the most common approaches:

More efficient cooling systems Reuse of heat, e.g. for district heating Virtualization of software, optimal use the server capacity Energy-efficient genomics Ecodesign for infrastructure efficiency Use of renewable energies to supply data centers Construction of data centers in regions with cold climates In contrast, the authors were only able to find isolated examples in research for energy-efficient network services, data transmission and coding, but these were never commercialized. The study identified the following measures as political instruments for increasing energy efficiency:

Information and awareness-raising measures Measures to improve transparency Guidelines for energy-efficient cloud computing Certification systems Labels Incentives Standards Adjustments to the legal framework Options to stimulate energy-efficient cloud computing in GPP Raising awareness of the Policy Measures to promote development and innovation The full final report is available for download from the European Commission. On Tuesday, the eco alliance presented its study on energy-efficient data centers.

(sun)