Data centers are becoming a problem for power supplies in Ireland
The coronavirus pandemic in particular has shown us once again how dependent we are on our digital infrastructure. The past two years have forced many people back into their own four walls, and working from home has become standard in some industries. Video conferencing and the relocation of free time to the digital world meant that significantly more data flowed from A to B.
This is not a bad thing in itself, several studies have already shown that the new lifestyle can even protect the environment [1]. Nevertheless, running server farms can dissuade some countries from their sustainability goals. This is currently happening in Ireland, for example, the fastest growing data center market in Europe. A total of 70 such centers are already in operation in the country.
But this has extreme effects on the island’s power grid. In total, the servers require a total of around 900 megawatts of power, which corresponds to around 11 percent of the country’s total demand. This value is likely to increase by 2029, when around 30 percent of the energy generated could be directed exclusively to server farms.
For comparison: In Germany, the largest data center market in the European Union, just 5 percent of the energy generated is passed on to server farms. No wonder then that the Irish strategy is also torpedoing the country’s sustainability goals. Because servers cannot always be operated green.
Since, as a rule, no battery storage is built into a data center, they can usually only be operated sustainably during the day or when it is windy. If there is no wind or if there is no solar power available at night, dirty energy sources have to ensure that Facebook, Google, YouTube and Co. continue to operate.
It can also not be the rule that new capacities flow directly to server farms; in most cases, there is little left for the decarbonization of the nationwide power grid. So it takes a strategy and a lot more effort for Ireland to achieve its own sustainability goals over the next few decades.
Via Gizmodo
