"The digital telecommunications infrastructure, between data centers and radio stations, absorbs 15% of the total Italian energy demand in a year. It is equivalent to the entire textile sector and is more than double that of the pharmaceutical sector. It is a fundamental sector that could have problems from the point of view of price increases and in the event that austerity policies have to be adopted ".
This is the opinion of Davide Chiaroni, Deputy Director of Energy & Strategy of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, regarding the impact of the energy crisis on the technology sector.
"It is becoming a problem to bear the costs that enable data centers and transmission networks, two important sectors of digital telecommunications infrastructure that allow for the 4G and 5G network that facilitates the transmission of communications and consumes between 4 and 5 Terawatt per hour ", adds Chiaroni.
"I don't think we will get to situations of communications blackouts - underlines the expert - large industrial production, the world of commerce and transport are more exposed to the energy crisis. Being a vital infrastructure for the country, it is one of the last things that would shut down. , indeed there would be actions in support ".
For Chiaroni, the actions to be taken in the short term "are not very many".
"It would be useful - he explains - solutions to increase a component of self-production but to date only 5% of the needs of Tlc companies is satisfied through green self-production. The only thing that can be acted upon at the moment is the identification of services. that can be released in some periods. We need to think about less 'on demand' or 'real time' management situations ".
