The EU, Climate Change, and Data Centers: A Tale of Green Energy

I think we can all agree that climate change is real and it’s a bad thing, right? Right? …Right? RIGHT?! Don’t be that person—it hasn’t rained in California in what seems like 40 years and it might snow in October, so something is going on.

That being said, governments around the world are making climate change policies that would help reduce emissions and reliance on fossil fuels while making a move to sustainable energy sources such as wind, water, and solar (Captain Planet would be proud).

A United Nations meeting is set for the end of 2015 in Paris, and that’s when things will heat up. It’ll be a global conference on climate change and that’s when it’s expected that the world will develop a policy on how to make the move to more sustainable, renewable energy sources. Not just a few countries, but THE WORLD.

Before that, though, the EU got together last week and agreed to develop policies that would reduce emissions by 40 percent in the whole European Union. That’s a big task, but at least someone is attempting it in the run-up to the 2015 conference.

How does this affect data centers?

Well, as notorious energy hogs, data centers might become big targets of the climate change policies. Think about this: estimates show that there are over 500,000 data centers in the world (with that number growing constantly) and it has been shown that data centers running at maximum capacity 24/7 waste about 90 percent of the energy they pull off the grid. And I’m sure that number is growing too as there are more demands for bandwidth and power as everything goes digital.

The EU just doesn’t want to reduce emissions by 40 percent, they also want 27 percent of their energy to come from renewable sources. So reduce emissions by 40 percent and have at least 27 percent coming from green energies. Check.

Data centers have a tough time transitioning to sustainable energy, only because of the upfront cost and expensive maintenance.

What’s the fix?

Incentives, son. If you provide tax incentives or energy incentives for going green, data center operators find that it’s easier to make the transition because it’s less of a monetary burden on them in the long run. Plus, everyone loves incentives!

Hopefully the EU can set an example for the rest of the world with their climate change policies, and we can make a serious shift to sustainable energies in the near future. THINK OF THE KIDS.