Data Center Energy

The methodology is invalid, which the authors acknowledge but ignore. This means the results of this article aren’t particularly useful.

Using a marginal emissions-based sustainability score incentivizes migrating workloads to a region with a lower marginal emissions factor. The emissions factor for that workload would reduce, but does it incentivize the deployment of new clean energy?

Data centers are not 100% efficient, so they generate waste heat, which causes anthroprogenic heat flux, and can therefore be linked to global warming. But how much? And should we be concerned?

An example of poor quality research with flawed assumptions designed as click-bait to get news coverage timed to land during COP26. Deleting a few photos will have zero impact on your carbon footprint.

There are currently only two credible estimates for global data center energy consumption: 196 TWh to 400 TWh for 2020. Why do we see vastly higher reports?

Sustainable computing concerns the consumption of computing resources in a way that means such usage has a net zero impact on the environment.

To avoid accusations of greenwashing, data center operators must consider investing in a portfolio of renewable energy products. RECs cannot credibly be used to back claims of 100% renewable energy use.

My notes on the paper: Montevecchi, F., Hinterholzer, S., Stickler, T. & Hintemann, R. (2020) Energy-efficient cloud computing technologies and policies for an eco-friendly cloud market: final study report.

Most data center sustainability strategies still focus on renewable energy certificates (RECs). RECs are now considered low quality products because they cannot credibly be used to back claims of 100% renewable energy use