By Pascal Lecoq, Worldwide Director, Sustainable Data Center Modernization, HPE
Data centers, a necessary aspect of the digital age, are identified as being at risk of taking a villainous part in the continuing story as we move forward into the AI age. These warehouses of computing power, humming with server racks, are crucial for aspects of the world, life, commerce, and many things we rely on daily that we really don’t need to contemplate. But their vital role comes at a cost – a growing environmental one through their ever-increasing appetite for energy.
The exponential growth of data creation and processing is fuelling a parallel surge in data center energy consumption. These facilities are inherently energy-intensive, requiring constant power to run servers and complex cooling systems to prevent overheating. Studies estimate that data centers globally consumed roughly 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022, a staggering figure that could double by 2026, according to PCMag.
The industry takes several approaches to addressing the problem. Newer server technologies and improved cooling systems can significantly reduce energy consumption within data centers. Powering data centers with renewable energy sources like solar and wind can dramatically reduce their carbon footprint. Being smarter about data center design by optimizing data center layouts and using artificial intelligence for intelligent power management can lead to significant energy savings.
The challenge of data center energy use requires a collaborative effort. Tech companies, data center operators, and policymakers all need to work together to implement sustainable solutions. As our reliance on data grows, so too must our commitment to powering the digital age responsibly.
The problem being faced is not just the fault of data centers. Office buildings, public facilities, and just about everywhere you can find infrastructure also consume energy.
What if two technology companies got together and combined their capabilities to offer a solution that provides a positive impact onto the problem?
HPE helps organizations with their end-to-end IT journey. Within that are comprehensive sustainable IT solutions from servers, storage, network to data center modernization with modular performance optimized data centers. Danfoss is one of the most advanced technology providers of heating and cooling solutions helping mission-critical applications to reduce the carbon footprint with innovative technology such as Turbocor® compressors.
HPE and Danfoss have just combined their engineering brain-trust to introduce the first industrial off-the-shelf heat recovery module that is a systematic approach to help organizations meet their sustainability objectives at enterprise level.
What if together HPE and Danfoss utilized the heat coming out of data centers? IT equipment needs to be cooled as it rejects almost 100% of its consumed electricity as pure heat. The purpose of recovering this heat is to be able to reuse it through reinjecting it under another form to an alternate system able to use it as an input.
Depending at which temperature the heat is rejected from the data center, it can be either reused directly by the alternate system, or even boosted through a heat pump to increase its temperature again for a suitable usage at that temperature point. Think of the possibilities! Office building heating systems, private or public district heating system, public installations, gymnasiums, swimming pools, or also manufacturing processes are all candidates.
The benefits are immediate since the heat power that has been captured from the data center won’t have to be produced to heat the alternate usage. The energy that is saved is referred to as “negawatt”, because the electricity for this usage has not had to be produced for these purposes.
HPE and Danfoss are not only creating innovation to derive a benefit from data center waste heat in its reuse, but what is a sustainability gain is also able to be a monetizable gain.
Learn more about HPE Consulting Services.
Pascal is worldwide director at HPE Services, in charge of the Hybrid IT Sustainable Data Center Modernization Practice. He focuses on a services portfolio that includes data center transformation and migration programs, from sustainable design to implementation and commissioning; data center assessments and capacity planning; data center advisory and strategy consulting; data center management services; and modular data centers. Pascal has more than 30 years of consulting experience in complex design and implementation projects.
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