CE Delft has conducted a study on the potential for reducing the CO2 emissions of Dutch data centres. It was carried out for the development organisation Hivos, which is appealing to these centres to make an active effort to reduce their energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
The study estimates the total power consumption of Dutch data centres at 1.6 TWh, equivalent to the consumption of 450,000 households. In a business-as-usual scenario consumption is predicted to rise substantially, to 2.1 TWh in 2015, equivalent to the consumption of 600,000 households and 2% of aggregate Dutch consumption.
There is plenty of scope for the data centre industry to operate more sustainably and reduce its CO2 emissions.
In all these cases there is plenty of scope for action, with only modest additional costs for datacentre customers.