Are data centers large energy consumers?

When it comes to high energy consumption, data centers are often used as an example. There is a misconception that these are facilities consuming enormous amounts of electricity, which significantly burden local power grids. In this article, we explain why this information is often misleading and what context you should consider when comparing large energy consumers and labeling a data center as such. 

Not All Data Centers Are the Same

When discussing the energy footprint of data centers, the media and analysts almost always refer to hyperscale facilities like those of Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta - huge complexes occupying dozens of hectares and consuming hundreds of megawatts. Such facilities contribute to about ¾ of the sector’s global energy consumption. 

Often left out of the discussion are multi-tenant data centers, where numerous clients rely on colocation for their server equipment in a specialized environment. This is where digital life (business, communication, applications, systems, online banking, etc.) evolves most dynamically. Such data centers actually have a positive effect on companies’ green policies and optimize overall energy use.

The Actual Share of Global Consumption

As a sector, data centers represent about 1-2% of global electricity consumption, comparable to air transport and much less than residential heating, industry, or agriculture. The demand for digital services is growing, but the efficiency of modern data centers is improving much faster than consumption is increasing.

Between 2010 and 2020, global computing workloads increased about 6 times, while the sector’s energy consumption grew by only about 6%. Equipment efficiency, cooling systems, and infrastructure management have improved significantly.

Artificial intelligence further complicates the picture: GPU servers required for AI workloads consume significantly more than standard CPU servers. But even taking into account the AI boom, data centers remain far from being the dominant global energy consumer.

Why It’s About Critical IT Infrastructure

It is also important to recognize what this energy consumption actually supports. Data centers underpin the infrastructure of the entire digital world and the modern economy: emergency telephone lines and hospital systems, online banking and financial transactions, electronic healthcare and medical records, remote learning and scientific research, business communications, and company operations, etc. Without data centers, these services would not be able to offer sufficient availability and reliability to their users.

Energy Efficiency Starts at the Data Center Design Stage

Modern, high-class data centers have an incentive to be as energy efficient as possible because electricity costs are among their main operational expenses. Investing in more efficient cooling, better airflow management, and smarter load management is both environmentally and financially justified.

The main indicator of energy efficiency (PUE - Power Usage Effectiveness) takes into account the ratio between total consumed energy and the energy used by IT equipment. 

For comparison: an office server room cooled by a regular air conditioner can easily reach a PUE over 2 times higher than that of a data center, and that’s without accounting for the energy consumed for server cooling. Consolidating equipment in an energy-efficient data center actually reduces the overall consumption distributed to each individual user.

Additional key benefits of moving server equipment from the office to a data center are related to the security and uninterrupted operation of server equipment, even under critical conditions, accidents, disasters, etc. 

See also: Advantages of Moving Your Server to a Data Center

Green Policies in Data Centers

Leading data centers globally are increasingly implementing measures to reduce their carbon footprint. Green energy certificates, long-term renewable energy contracts, investments in solar installations, and waste heat recovery systems are no longer exceptions but rather standards for a modern data center.

AC☁DC is designed as a green data center with a focus on the energy efficiency of cooling systems and is working on a project to recover the heat emitted by servers.

Contact our team to learn how you can support your business’s ESG policies by working with us, and how our clients from Varna and the region benefit from greater security and online availability by placing their servers in a TIER III certified data center.

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