But perhaps the biggest culprit of all isartificial intelligence.
Consequently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts energy use from data centres willdoubleby 2026.
Either way you slice it, data centre energy use is a looming climate problem.
So what can we do about it?
Other than pressing pause on digitalisation, there are two key solutions.
The first is powering data centres with renewable energy.
Tech giants have made lofty claims about cutting emissions from their data centres, but big question marks remain.
More on that later.
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But, to really tackle data centres energy use you have to look at cooling.
Cooling down servers alone accounts for around 40% of data centre energy use.
Startups like Netherlands-basedAsperitas, SpainsSubmerand UK-basedIceotopebelieve they have an answer throw the servers in water.
The heat is then transferred from the liquid to a cooling system.
This method keeps the servers cool without needing fans or air conditioners.
Repurposing data centre heat
What do AI and swimming pools have in common?
Deep Green instals tiny data centres at energy-intensive sites like leisure centre facilities.
Its system turns waste heat from the computers into hot water for the site.
In return, cold water from the centre is used to cool the cloud servers.
German startup WINDCores is also looking to localise data centres.
But instead of swimming pools, it is putting minidata centres inside wind turbines.
The servers are powered almost exclusively by the wind and transfer data via existing fibre-optic cables.
In January,Deep Green raised a whopping200mnto heat between 100-150 swimming pools across the UK.
But ultimately, we also need to start using computing power more wisely.
Data centres swallowed up21% of Irelands electricitylast year.
Story bySion Geschwindt
Sion is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy.
