Green data centers have become more and more prevalent in the past years. The main reason is that many companies have realized that investing in green data centers will save them money in the long run and that using green data centers is an excellent way to improve their public image.
In terms of capital investment, greening a data center may be too expensive because many green IT solutions cost just as much as traditional IT solutions despite their higher efficiency levels.
Investing in Green Data Centers is More Prospective Today
There are many reasons why investors are investing in green data centers. First of all, the smart grid is going to require it. According to research conducted by Pike Research, there will be a need for more than 70,000 megawatts of new capacity in America to accommodate this growth.
This growth will be focused on data centers due to their high electricity demand. This is also because every additional dollar invested in a green data center will be repaid as much as four times within five years.
Moreover, since there are many ways to address the energy needs of a data center, each investment can help with the other. For example, if you choose to invest in improving the efficiency of cooling systems and reducing power consumption, it would be possible to save even more money if you invest in renewables or energy-efficient solutions such as LED lighting or water chillers.
The increasing number of data centers worldwide has led to higher energy costs, yet many more companies need more space. That is why some of them have adopted green data center solutions as part of their expansion plans.
The Need for Cleaner Energy
Data centers are the engines that drive business. They are essential to the smooth operation of the online world, yet they consume a lot of energy. For example, data centers use up to 70% of organizations’ total electricity and produce as much CO2 as 1.5 million cars on the road.
Data centers are ranked as one of the world’s top 4 consumers of energy, behind commercial and industrial sectors, transportation, and residential use. Companies need to be aware of this because data center energy trends have considerable implications for their operations and costs.
Green data centers are all about saving energy and reducing carbon footprint, which means they’re built using high power efficiency. That’s why green data centers always try to use renewable energy as a power source. In addition, green data centers are usually equipped with remarkable cooling technologies that allow them to work at total capacity without increasing the temperature inside the server rooms.
Green data centers are not created overnight and require a lot of investment, planning, and time. Natural gas can reduce 50 percent of carbon emissions; it has three times fewer greenhouse gases than coal. Natural gas powers half of all electricity generation in the US, and it will grow to 60 percent by 2040.
It’s a great alternative to coal because it reduces 40 percent of pollution and is 35 percent cheaper (in Indonesia). The fact that natural gas is cheap, abundant, and cleaner burning fuel is why many companies are investing in green data centers.
Sustainable Development
When discussing sustainable development, many think about the three pillars of the economy, ecology, and social progress. The data center is the backbone of today’s digital activities and economy.
Digital infrastructure is not only about business, as the past 18 months have shown. But also about social connectivity, education, and health care. Nowadays, it is considered a fundamental human right to access the Internet, which promotes social mobility and lowers poverty.
This is why the ninth of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which relates to digital infrastructure, is so important. The top objective should be increasing connectivity on a global scale and closing the digital divide in an environmentally responsible way.
To have sustainable development or growth of your business, you must first have an infrastructure for that when it comes to sustainable development goals, which are essential.
Despite this, many data center providers are making their data centers greener by reducing their carbon footprint through efficient power usage, investing in renewable energy options, and increasing recycling efforts.
However, many challenges currently stand in the way of making these green data centers the norm. For one thing, most data center operators need to clearly know how much impact their individual data centers have on the environment. Access to this information is necessary for them to understand how much money they can save by implementing sustainable practices.
Investing in Green data centers as the market rise
Through 2032, the market for green data centers is anticipated to expand; thus, investing in green data centers is profitable. According to a new report by Persistence Market Research, businesses are starting to use green IT practices to reduce costs, with green data centers being one of the most well-known examples. Green data center solutions often include energy from renewable sources, cooling facilities, power equipment, and management tools.
Due to benefits, including long-term savings and increased ROI, the green data center market is expected to rise. Demand is also being fueled by an increase in data center CO2 emissions, bills, and electricity use.
Green data center infrastructure will continue to grow as more companies look for sustainable ways to power their computers and other devices. There are several reasons why the data center industry is currently shifting toward greener energy resources.
Organizations are starting to realize that data centers are one of their most extensive and expensive energy consumers after office buildings. As a result, organizations are beginning to look for new ways to reduce energy costs while remaining profitable. Green data centers also help companies meet environmental regulations and reduce their carbon footprint.
Lastly, although the cost was a significant factor in deciding whether or not to invest in green technologies, the main driver behind this shift is that most companies see greener data centers as being much more reliable and efficient than traditional ones.
The total cost of ownership (TCO)
Building an eco-friendly, energy-efficient data center is more expensive than a standard one. Even though green data centers have a reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and will ultimately save money, a more considerable capital expenditure is considered a significant barrier to the market for investing in green data centers. However, if the cost of electricity keeps increasing at the same rate, the initial investment return may be reached earlier than anticipated.
Data centers are now far more necessary than they were ten years ago. Business relocation to data centers has several advantages, including cost reductions, modern security measures, power and utility consumption monitoring, and many more.
For instance, consumers can access cloud resources through public cloud services for a low monthly price. The customer doesn’t need to pay any upfront initial IT infrastructure fees; they only need to move their applications to the public cloud.
Customers can also achieve high availability thanks to data centers’ support for hardware infrastructure clustering and failover techniques. Server clusters guarantee ongoing business continuity even in the event of a server failure by shifting the workload to a backup server.
Investing in Data Center in Indonesia
The demand for advanced data center services has increased dramatically with the rapid increase of data traffic and cloud computing. The energy cost for powering the data center has become a high operating cost; even small businesses need to consider their energy efficiency when building new data centers or expanding existing ones.
Let us learn from Google. Google’s move to invest $600 million in a data center in Indonesia is considered one of the most significant steps in its plan to make renewable energy the primary power source for its global network.
Internet users in Indonesia will reach 205 million users in 2022. Using natural gas for main generators in data centers is also available so that data centers in Indonesia can reduce carbon emissions by up to 50%.
The cost of electricity in Indonesia is among the cheapest in the world, while in Europe, electricity costs are experiencing quite an extreme increase. Operators and data center users need a stable fee, which they can get when using a data center in Indonesia.
Investing in a green data center requires choosing the right location to guarantee a return on investment. Indonesia can be the first choice of data center real-estate investors.
Conclusion
The amount of data generation and consumption globally will anticipate doubling by 2025, which could result in severe capacity shortages (a 40% shortfall in undersea cable capacity by 2026).
A green data center is an investment that a company can make to be on the leading edge of being environmentally friendly. There are many aspects to a green data center, ranging from updated equipment to renewable energy.
More than $400 billion was invested last year in new digital infrastructure. Thus investing in a green data center is much more than an investment. Get ready for the future; we’ll need to spend that much – and more – on our digital infrastructure each year.