The European Commission is considering how to green digital policy.
On Monday 9 November, it published a nearly 300-page study, commissioned from the Austrian Environment Agency and the Borderstep Institute, which outlines the technical and policy options for limiting the rise in energy consumption for cloud computing and data centres.
As the EU has set itself the goal of becoming a carbon-neutral continent by 2050, this report models the evolution of energy consumption in European data centres. It estimates that by 2025, it should increase by 21% compared to 2018. The share of edge data centres is also expected to increase significantly, accounting for 12% of the energy consumption of all data centres by 2025.
The document identifies more efficient cooling systems, reuse of heat, use of renewable energy to power data centres and the construction of these data centres in regions with colder climate among the technical solutions.
Policy options include the use of green public procurement, rules allowing European public authorities to use their purchasing power to choose environmentally friendly services, but also the introduction of transparency requirements and the promotion of uniform energy efficiency indicators.
The Commission states that this study will be followed by a complementary study, which will explore more specific and feasible policy measures.
To read the report, go to: https://bit.ly/3li2iJh (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)