02 July 2025
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Mel Summers, Marketing Manager at Climalife, explores the importance of incorporating the latest innovations in every project.
In 2012, there were approximately 500,000 data centres globally.
This number peaked at around 8 million in 2015* but has since declined to approximately 7 million, reflecting a shift toward more efficient co-location and hyperscale data centres. Major technology companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are driving this transition, each planning to invest billions over the next five years to expand their data centres in the support of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
Digital consumption has been on the rise for several decades, with AI, social networks, and increasing access to digital technology in emerging countries driving demand exponentially.
Data centres, which can be company-owned facilities including server rooms, co-located facilities, hosts for cloud computing services, or intensive computing centres, are at the heart of this digital expansion. However, they require significant space, water, and energy to operate and cool the machines, while also ensuring security and reliability due to the extreme temperatures these machines can reach.
Regulations and standards, such as EN 50600 and ISO 50001, referenced by the European Directive on energy efficiency, already govern the construction of data centres.
The European Commission's document "Shaping Europe's Digital Future" mandates that data centres must achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. To make data centres more environmentally friendly, optimising energy efficiency from the design stage is crucial.
Currently, data centres account for 3 to 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions**, a figure that could rise to 14% by 2040. They also consume 3% of the world's electricity, projected to increase to 10% by 2030. Energy costs can constitute up to 75% of a data centre’s operating expenses***.
Air conditioning and cooling account for 40-50% of a data centre’s energy consumption, making it a key area for improvement.
Integrating data centres into local energy schemes, such as using renewable energy sources like wind turbines or recovering heat for district heating systems, can significantly reduce their environmental impact.
Innovations
Eco-design, energy efficiency, and optimised cooling systems should be incorporated from the project's outset.
There are various cooling technologies available, including conventional cooling, immersion cooling, and on-chip cooling. Conventional cooling systems include CRAC (computer room air conditioning), which uses fans to inject cold air from outside, and CRAH (computer room air handling), which uses a chilled water chiller.
Innovations in conventional cooling, such as using residual heat and bio-sourced heat transfer fluids like Greenway® Neo N from Climalife, can further improve energy efficiency.
Immersion cooling involves submerging servers in a bath with Novec fluids, marketed by the Dehon group. Users can also contribute to reducing environmental impact by using digital technology more responsibly, as highlighted by AGIT (Alliance Green IT). For example, 4G and 5G consume more energy than Wi-Fi.
The energy challenges facing data centres will undoubtedly drive innovation and lead to a re-organisation of market players.
*International Data Corporation
**Shift Project report
***AGIT- Data Centre KPIs
