29 May 2018

Reducing energy use of data centres through innovation procurement

Reducing energy use of data centres through innovation procurement

Image (pixabay.com) by "dlohner", licensed under CCO Creative Commons

Data centres might be easy to forget about, but they have become central to our everyday lives, acting as the hubs of our increasingly digitally powered societies - and consuming an enormous amount of energy in the process.

Global demand for energy from internet-connected devices already consumes 3-5% of the worlds electricty, and the need for data centers is only expected to increase as our use of digital devices and collection of data continues to rise. Mitigating strategies such as powering centres through renewable energy and increasing their energy efficiency are therefore extremely important, and as demonstrated by the EURECA project, can achieve significant results.

Funded by the European Commission, the EURECA project used a public procurement of innovation approach to support new build and retrofit data centre projects. The resulting pilot projects saved over 131 GWh/year of primary energy. As well as creating training modules on innovation procurement for data centres, the project has also compiled a market directory, and a tool which helps procurers self-assess the efficiency of their data centre and find solutions.

For more information, visit the EURECA project website.