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15 - Scaling Clean Energy for Data Centres: Trends, Problems, Solutions

from Part II - Cases and Multidisciplinary Responses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2019

By
Atif Ansar ,
Dan Madrigal  and
Seth Collins
Edited by
Marc Ozawa ,
Jonathan Chaplin ,
Michael Pollitt ,
David Reiner  and
Paul Warde
Marc Ozawa
Affiliation:
Energy Policy Research Group, University of Cambridge
Jonathan Chaplin
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Michael Pollitt
Affiliation:
Judge Business School, Cambridge
David Reiner
Affiliation:
Judge Business School, Cambridge
Paul Warde
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

As the modular backbone of the technological revolution, data centers are essential. As the infrastructure of the twenty-first century, data centers must align with the challenges of twenty-first-century infrastructure. While data centers are far less power hungry than distributed computing, the technology revolution in the making will choke without a satisfactory solution of clean energy for scaling data centers. Key innovations in predictive intelligence make a world of PUE ratios near one likely. But absolute power draw will continue to grow the footprint of data centers on local power networks and their carbon intensity. Two key factors to overcome the clean energy barrier of scaling data centers are energy optimization via on-site production and intelligent location siting. For humanity to thrive in the digital age, data center infrastructure much be efficient, decarbonized, and resource neutral at scale.

Keywords

data centre infrastructureartificial intelligencerenewable energydecarbonisationscalingclean energyvirtualizationenergy efficiencybig dataPower Utilization Effectivenesscloud services
Type
Chapter
Information
In Search of Good Energy Policy , pp. 202 - 223
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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