Solving the Big Data Energy Crisis

At CERAWeek, the rising resource demands from data centers fueled by A.I. dominated conversation. Smart policies that safeguard access to F-gases can unleash a new era of energy efficiency and innovation.

By Joe Martinko, President, Thermal & Specialized Solutions (TSS), Chemours

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / April 2, 2024 / Recently, media, industry leaders, and government officials descended on Houston, Texas for CERAWeek 2024, where the imperative for all sectors of the economy to boost energy efficiency took center stage. However, as the conference's host state undergoes a massive data center construction boom, we can't ignore the ever-growing energy demands of the data center industry.

Globally, the tech sector is estimated to account for up to 3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Data centers - the facilities that house essential computing infrastructure and data - are particularly emissions-intensive. The energy consumed by data centers is equivalent to the energy used by entire countries such as Spain or the United Kingdom. A single data center also uses several million gallons of water per year, with hyperscale data centers consuming as many as 200 million gallons in a year alone. In one instance, a hyperscale company wanted as much as 1.46 billion gallons of water a year for a new data center in Red Oak, Texas - a town roughly 20 miles south of Dallas. These staggering resource demands exist because 95% of data centers rely on traditional, resource-intensive air and water cooling technologies that drive about 40% of data center energy use.

Demands for faster computing and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence - which requires significantly more energy than traditional computing - will only exacerbate the resource needs of data centers. The International Energy Agency estimates that data center electricity demand will more than double in the next three years, consuming one-third of all electricity in countries like Ireland by 2026.

Against this backdrop, it goes without saying that we need energy efficient solutions to address the big data energy crisis. But critically, we also need policies that enable the tech industry to enhance energy efficiency while continuing to foster the innovation that our increasingly digital world demands. When crafting legislation, lawmakers must consider how to enable solutions that support energy efficiency across all industries, by protecting access to the critical inputs on which those solutions rely.