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Data center in Karlsruhe: around three percent of the total electricity consumption
Photo: Uli Deck / DPA
In Europe, the increase in power consumption for cloud services and data centers is to be limited as far as possible according to the will of the EU Commission.
In 2018, the share of data centers in the member states in total electricity consumption was already 2.7 percent, according to a study carried out by the Austrian Federal Environment Agency, among others.
Accordingly, the proportion could grow to 3.2 percent by 2030.
The study contains a number of possible solutions.
The global amount of data will continue to grow, said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
"That's why we have to develop suitable infrastructures to promote environmentally friendly, efficient cloud services and energy-efficient data centers."
Among other things, the study names more efficient cooling systems, the reuse of heat, the use of renewable energies to supply data centers and relocation to colder regions.
According to the study, green public procurement and uniform rules for European authorities could also help reduce electricity consumption.
The Commission plans to create climate-neutral and sustainable data centers by 2030 and to develop a European cloud set of rules with common technical rules and standards.
In the past few months, US tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft announced that they would become climate neutral by 2030 at the latest.
Microsoft even wants to remove all of its own CO2 emissions from the atmosphere by the year 2050, including through methods of binding CO2 in the ground, CO2 capture and storage and direct recovery from the air.
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