GREENING THE DATA CENTRE
While Government authorities recognise the
challenge, they also understand the benefits of
nurturing a thriving data ecosystem. Data is power
and the analysis and management of data an
opportunity for growth. Foreign direct investment
already forms a significant part of Ireland’s business
landscape and it’s strongly supported by the
enterprise agencies.
Ireland’s power grid
Ireland has a stable and reliable power grid and
their grid engineers are highly respected in Europe.
Supported by a strong research infrastructure, they
operate at the leading edge of Smart Grid innovation.
Smart power grids are strategically important to
Ireland because of the high concentration of wind
energy. Ireland recently overtook Spain to become
the country with the third largest proportion of windgenerated electricity in the world: 24 per cent of all
electricity in 2015 was generated from wind.
For the data centre owner, power is contracted
from the electrical grid based on maximum
import capacity; you pay for capacity and then for
consumption. The grid operator is obliged to deliver
the reserved capacity to connected customers. With
a reliable power grid, the risk is minimised. For data
centre consumers, their dependable access to missioncritical data relies on the availability reliable power.
Emerald Green Data
In recent years, almost 300 MW of data centre
energy demand has been connected in Ireland,
representing approximately 3 per cent of Ireland’s
overall electricity consumption. With the predicted
growth of cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT)
not abating, data centre energy demands continue
to increase. Ireland is attracting more hyperscale
and collocated data centres and it is predicted
that electricity demand from the data sector will
quadruple by 2020.
Energy and the Environment
The environmental impact of energy use is wellproven. The United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change held their 21st Conference of the
Parties (COP) late in 2015. More commonly referred
to as COP21 they plan to keep global warming below
2°C by using legally binding, universal agreement to
create a mechanism that world leaders can use to
tackle the challenges of mitigation and adaptation.
Large corporations and investors recognise the triple
bottom line of people, planet, and profit which is
working its way through the supply chain. It will no
doubt impact data services. Successful organisations
of the future will have transparent green credentials;
the future must be sustainable.
As a member of the EU Ireland is already
committed to decarbonising its energy supply and
policies exist to deliver on these commitments.
The cost of carbon is currently built into the price
of electricity which might seem to be an academic
exercise, but it does move things in the right direction.
Meanwhile, inside the data centre, power densities
are increasing and demand is growing. Consumers
are aware of the potential environmental impact of
energy and understand that data is power-hungry.
The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric probably
doesn’t offer an accurate enough measure of
efficiency but data companies are moving towards
a 100 per cent renewable energy supply. Adopting
standards such as ISO 50001 will help to demonstrate
data centre efficiency more objectively. Ireland’s
industrial base is no stranger to the challenges of
energy and it has a world-leading track record in
energy management and energy efficiency with
widely available expertise.
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